South Tyrol (Südtirol) regional election - 21 Oct. 2018

[ingemann]

I like how the video in the link with street interviews of German-speaking South Tyrolians is virtually the opposite of what the poll shows: Most of those interviewed in the video say they see themselves as either South Tyrolians or Italians (or both) and by far the most want to stick with Italy. Only a handful think that they should secede or (like one woman said) join Switzerland for economic reasons ...

Not really surprising, that kind of interview favour urban people, who are more likely to take an more cosmopolitarian approach to such things.

[ingemann]

So the Ladins don't like nationalist German parties at all, but support the mainstream German party about as strongly as the Germans (and much less than the Italians).

Most Italians in South Tyrol are descendent of people who was settled there under fascism, it's no surprise that colonial settlers have another perspective than people like the Ladins who have lived there always.

[ingemann]

If Italy as a whole would be more economically successful then maybe a bigger share of German speaking voters would likely vote for the Italian parties.

Lolno. (There wouldn't be an SVP today if that had been true in the 50s and 60s, just for starters.)

There are some quite different reasons to the South Tyroleans being very hostile to the Italian state in the 50ties and 60ties, which had nothing to do with economic reasons, and everything to do with South Tyrol being run from Trentino by the Italian majority, 2 decades of persecution under the kingdom and fascism, the Italian still being dominated by the first generation settlers and South Tyrol lacking any autonomy in general.