New alliance in South Tyrol: Kompatscher again head of government
Published: Thursday, Jan 18th 2024, 16:30
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In South Tyrol, the new center-right coalition of five parties has re-elected the previous provincial governor Arno Kompatscher as head of government.
The 51-year-old from the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) received all 19 votes of the new coalition in the provincial parliament in Bolzano on Thursday. He had previously led a two-party alliance. In future, an alliance of five parties will govern the largely German-speaking province in the north of Italy.
In addition to the Christian Democratic SVP, which has been in government in South Tyrol for three quarters of a century without interruption, there is also the German-speaking right-wing South Tyrolean Freedom Party and the three right-wing parties Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), Lega and La Civica, all of which have an Italian background. The opposition accused Kompatscher of moving far to the right. Their 16 MPs voted unanimously against him.
The SVP had dominated politics in South Tyrol for many decades. In the election at the end of October, however, it plummeted to a historic low of 34.5%. This means that it is now dependent on several coalition partners for the first time. For the first time, another German-speaking party is also part of the government. The South Tyrolean Freedom Party is closely linked to the right-wing FPÖ in neighboring Austria. Previously, a two-party alliance of the SVP and Lega governed in Bolzano.
The province, which relies heavily on tourism, has a population of around 530,000. Around two thirds of them have German as their mother tongue. In addition to German and Italian, Ladin, which is related to Rhaeto-Romanic, is also an official language.
©Keystone/SDA
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