Tajani accuses AfD of supporting South Tyrol’s secession: “The party is Italy’s worst enemy

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said that Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), is supporting the idea of South Tyrol seceding from Italian territory.

“This is a very serious development, and we will seek explanations as to how this could have happened inside the German parliament,” Tajani said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

He added that the development once again confirms the AfD’s anti-Italian character. “I say to local nationalists that the AfD is an anti-Italian party and the worst enemy of our country,” the Italian foreign minister declared.

Tajani’s reaction concerns a conference that the AfD is expected to hold tomorrow in the offices of the Bundestag, the German parliament. The event is being organized to mark the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Italian-Austrian agreement on South Tyrol.

The region, known in Italian as Alto Adige, is part of Italy and enjoys autonomous region status. According to the Italian press, the conference poster presents it as a separate and independent state.

“The conference poster made this clear: South Tyrol was presented as a separate and independent state,” Tajani said.

AfD MEP Mark Jongen rejected this interpretation. “There is no such issue; it is nonsense. After all, we are talking about a region that belonged to Austria, not Germany,” he commented.

Meanwhile, MEPs from Forza Italia, the party led by Tajani, have announced that they will ask the European Commission to issue a statement on the matter.