The meeting between representatives of the Italian Union and the new administration of Pula, which was recently installed, took place on Monday, June 28 at the Town Hall in Pula. The meeting was attended by the deputy mayor of Pula, Bruno Cergnul, the president of the Executive Board of the UI, Marin Corva, and Tamara Brussich, president of the Community of Italians of Pula. Here is what the protagonists had to say in the statements they gave us at the end of the closed-door meeting.
Marin Corva said: “A few days ago I asked for an audience with the new deputy mayor of Pula elected by the CNI, Bruno Cergnul, in the presence of the president of the Italian Community of Pula Tamara Brussich, and this meeting took place this morning in a very cordial and constructive atmosphere: I personally tried to summarize the initiatives of the Italian Union in general, but in particular the activities that concern the Italian Community of Pula, the schools, the kindergartens, the University of Pula. Two topics inspired the meeting: first of all our support, the support of the UI, to the Italian Community of Pula, so that the City of Pula improves or at least maintains the commitments made towards it, also in reference to funding, of course. And, secondly, the implementation of the rights of Italians in the city administration, or rather the level of respect in practice of the rights set down on paper. In this context we also mentioned the imminent census of the population. For my part, I tried to illustrate a little the aims of the Italian Union and the tools for achieving these aims to a deputy mayor who perhaps has not had the opportunity to know them in detail so far, but I am confident in this regard about future collaboration and I expect positive effects from this meeting".
The newly installed deputy mayor Cergnul is on the same wavelength: “I consider the meeting to be absolutely positive: we spoke openly and constructively, we reached common positions and a basic agreement on our future path to follow together. We also committed to observe regular contacts and communications, even in the presence of the mayor who, this time, due to previous commitments, was unable to attend the meeting. But there is no need to fear for the implementation of the rights of the national community, on the contrary, we will try to improve them where required: we made this clear to the mayor previously and there is no reason to believe otherwise. No disagreement, in this sense”.
The same opinion on the usefulness of the meeting came from President Brussich: "I would say that the meeting was useful, and that in any case the collaboration between our Community and the Italian Union is excellent and very productive. Corva informed the deputy mayor about the initiatives that the UI is cultivating together with the CI of Pula, which are numerous and must be maintained, not without the support of the City. We hope that the deputy mayor, in the field of his competences, follows and supports the programmatic activities outlined by the UI and the Italian Community of Pula and naturally we hope that public funding for the CI and for Italian language education will remain at the levels implemented until now".

Source: The Voice of the People – 28/06/2021