In 1991, the beginning of the implosion of Yugoslavia led to the independence of Slovenia first and, more bloodily, of Croatia. These geopolitical upheavals also had repercussions on the native Italian community present in Istria, Carnaro and Dalmatia, which until that moment had been included by the communist regime in the Union of Italians of Fiume and Istria: the lack of reference to the Italian presence in Dalmatia had been a kind concession to Croatian nationalism which had embraced the expansionist project that was part of the political program of Marshal Josip Broz “Tito”.

At the end of the Yugoslav wars of the 1991s, the Italian presence in the eastern Adriatic would have been definitively broken up into different state affiliations: Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. The strength of our compatriots was to remain united and cohesive in a new organization, the Italian Union, founded in XNUMX with a democratic statute and with a spirit of sincere representation of a national community, its language, its culture and its tradition.

This is why the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of the UI becomes an event of international importance that has also received the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, as explained in a press conference Maurizio Tremul, president of the Italian Union, and Marin Corva, president of the Executive Board of the UI.

This ceremony will take place at 18:00 today, Friday 16 July, at the “Ivan de Zajc” Theatre in Rijeka in the presence of approximately 200 guests, including government representatives from Rome, Ljubljana and Zagreb, and there will also be a delegation of Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian exiles, including Cav. Renzo Codarin, National President of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia. Franco Papetti, Vice President of the Federation of Associations of Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian Exiles and President of the Association of Italian Rijeka People in the World – Free Municipality of Rijeka in Exile, will make the official speech as part of the busy programme planned for the evening, which can be followed live on YouTube channel Italian Union.

Finally, let us remember that in recent months an organic and increasingly intense collaboration has begun between UI and FederEsuli: the two halves of Adriatic Italianity collaborate not only to commemorate their own tragedies, but also to remember the history of a centuries-old presence and to outline a dynamic and proactive presence in the future as well.

Lorenzo Salimbeni