Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States

Josip Vilfan: The speech in the Italian Parliament

JOSIP VILFAN: THE SPEECH IN THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT Title: Govor poslanca Drja Wilfana v italjanski zbornici (The speech of the parliamentarian Vilfan in the Italian Parliament) Originally published: Edinost, 26 June, 1921 Language: Slovene The text used is from Egon Pelikan, Josip Vilfan v parlamentu; Discorsi parlamentari dell’on. Josip Vilfan (Trst/Trieste: Krožek za družbena vpra- šanja Virgil Šček/Circolo per gli studi sociali Virgil Šček, 1997), pp. 105–124. About the author Josip Vilfan (Wilfan) [1878, Trieste (Cro., Slov. Trst) − 1955, Belgrade]: lawyer and politician. His political life began in 1906, when he became the secretary of the political society Edinost (Unity) in Trieste, becoming its president four years later. In 1908, he started a law firm in Trieste, and a year later became a member of the Trieste municipal council. In 1918, he was engaged in the public debate on the fate of Trieste, advocating its annexation to the new Yugoslav state. After the war, he advocated the annexation of the entire Primorska (It. Litorale) region to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later also defended the political and cultural cohabitation of the Slovenes and the Italians in the Julijska krajina region (It. Venezia Giulia). In 1921 and 1924, he was elected to the Italian Parliament. He made several unsuccessful appeals to Benito Mussolini. In 1926 he was arrested twice, and on the second occasion released on Mussolini’s order. Vilfan also joined the activity of the Inter-parliamentary Union which addressed the issues of the minorities at the European level. At the congresses of this organization, he reported to a European audience on the situation of the Slovenian minority in Julijska krajina. In 1925 he was among the founding members of the Congress of European Nationalities. In 1928 he moved to Vienna, and in 1939 to Belgrade. Between 1945 and 1947 he was a member of the Institute for International Affairs attached to the Foreign Ministry in Belgrade . After the end of the Second World War he no longer made public appearances . Contemporary experts in Slovenia consider Vilfan one of the most important figures from the Primorska region in modern Slovenia, and a pioneer of European minority policy. Vilfan’s political activity coincided with the post-war period of extreme political tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia, when the Slovenes in Italy were deprived of national organizations and institutions. Consequently, it is not surprising that many historical studies treat Vilfan as a guardian of the Slovenian national survival and proof of the “Slovenian tenacity” in the Primorska region. 162 MAKING OF THE MODERN STATE IN A MULTI-NATIONAL CONTEXT Main works: Die Organisierung der Volksgemeinschaft [The organization of the people’s unity] (1932); The Congress of European Nationalities and the Peace Problem (1936). Context After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the region of Primorska (It. Litorale) was occupied by the Italian army. Italy, a member of the Entente Powers, obtained the right to occupy this territory by signing the secret Treaty of London in 1915. According to the 1910 census, the Slovenes and the Croats made up 50 percent of the Primorska population. In 1920, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (established in 1918) and the Italian Kingdom signed the Treaty of Rapallo, which was regarded as a success of Italian diplomacy. By this treaty, more than one fourth of the Slovenian ethnic territory was annexed to Italy, so approximately 500,000 Slovenes and Croats became a minority in Italy. For the Slovenes, and Vilfan personally, the Treaty of Rapallo was a great disappointment. From the period immediately preceding the First World War, the political life in the Primorska region was characterized by a marked contrast between the Italian community on the one hand, and the Slovenian and Croatian communities on the other. The Italians were the majority in Trieste and in the towns along the western coast of Istria, while the Slovenes mainly made up the agrarian population. Accordingly, the issue of the relationship between the Slovenians and Croatians on the one hand, and the Italian population on the other was also the issue of the relationship between rural and urban areas. The Treaty of Rapallo did not take into account the proposals by the US President Woodrow Wilson, who advocated separation along distinct ethnic lines. The Yugoslav side was in favor of the so-called ‘Wilsonian principles,’ but the Italians insisted on keeping the strategic border running across Mount Snežnik (It. Monte Nevoso or Monte Albio), a...