Free Port of Trieste: the Southern and the Northern Free Port.
Let us save the Northern Free Port!
Trieste, July 1st, 2012. – Today Free Trieste held its 4th demonstration in defense of Trieste’s Northern Free Port.
The event opened in the city’s main square, Piazza Grande, where there is also the seat of the Commissioner of the Government.
Here, on the notes of the Inno a San Giusto, Free Trieste held the first Flag Raising Ceremony of the Free Territory of Trieste in decades. Decades of simulation of Italian sovereignty.
Indeed, since 1954, the Italian Government (not the Italian State) commits to administer Trieste in compliance with the Free Territory’s own law. The aforementioned Commissioner is the officer in charge of this duty.
This is why, since April, Free Trieste is asking the new Commissioner to revoke the illegal decree that suspends the Northern Free Port’s free zone regime.
Instead, the local authorities misname the area as “porto vecchio”. They say it is old, therefore it is useless. But they couldn’t be more wrong.
They claim that the area must be “returned” to the city and “open” to new investments. This is pure propaganda.
The Northern Free Port is not useless.
If anything, it is unused.
The Northern Free Port’s abandonment is a political decision across the board. Why? Because the international Free Port belongs to the Free Territory of Trieste.
Local politicians are willing to destroy it as part of a huge (and illegal) housing speculation. One that would deprive Trieste and the international community of jobs, economic development, and wealth.
This strategic port area measures 70 hectares, it has 18 meters deep seabeds, and international legal constrains that protect its free zones. Ships and vessels from all Countries can use this port to trade, load, unload, store, and produce new freight in a duty-free area.
Furthermore, the same political establishment willing to dismiss the Northern Free Port supports Gas Natural’s dangerous LNG terminal. A project that would suffocate the Free Port’s Southern sector.
All for the sake of competing Italian ports. And local speculators.
Both initiatives are illegal and harmful, because they would illegally deprive the people of Trieste of countless jobs, economic opportunities, and wealth. All while taking away the rights of many States entitled with rights over the international Free Port.
The Northern Free Port must not be “returned” to the city in the shape of some houses. Instead, it must return to the International Community of States, for them to enjoy it for what it really is: a port. A great economic opportunity, a source of jobs and development.
Free Trieste’s demonstration ended with a march off to the Northern Free Port. Here, the Movement’s volunteers engaged with fellow citizens informing them about the Free Territory’s rights and opportunities.
After 60 years of silence, Trieste is finally calling for the reactivation of its international Free Port.
No amount of propaganda can stop us.
Let us defend our port!
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