Istrians chose to be Italians twice 70 years ago: PM Meloni

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, NOV 30 - "Seventy years ago, Istrians," the Italians of "Fiume, and Dalmatians chose to be Italian twice: by birth and by choice," said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a message for the celebrations of the Istrian Union's 70th anniversary. Meloni emphasises in her message that "if on October 26, 1954, Trieste was able to re-embrace the Homeland, completing a battle that had inflamed the hearts of an entire generation of Italians, the same fate was not reserved for the Istrians of 'zone B', who gave life to the last wave of that exodus that had already begun in 1945. " At that point, "the Union of Istrians was born, an association that in these long seventy years has never lost the indomitable spirit of its origins and has never extinguished its overwhelming love for Istria." (ANSA).