(ANSA) - Bolzano, January 2 - The new Austrian government has
dropped from its agenda a plan to give a double Italian and
Austrian passport to the citizens of Alto Adige, which is known
as South Tyrol by German speakers.
The controversial plan does not appear in the programme of
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's People's Party and the Greens.
The programme only refers generically to "assistance for the
victims of Nazism and their descendants in procedures to receive
double citizenship".
Kurz's preceding government with the far right FPOE party had
envisaged double citizenship for the South Tyrolese, the victims
of Nazism and Austrians living in the UK in the event of Brexit.
In September the Austrian parliament revived the plan to give
a double passport to Alto Adige's German and Ladin speakers with
the approval of an amendment on this issue.
The amendment was backed by the Austrian People's Party and
the far-right FPOE, while the Social Democrats and the other
parties in parliament voted against.
The plan had been put on ice following objections from Rome.
Austria drops South Tyrol passport plan
Previous govt had revived Alto Adige double passport idea