Free Trieste

The first page of the Charter of Rights (May 2015).

In Italy, taxation becomes more and more burdensome. Tax-paying citizens, already exhausted by a years long economic crisis, face new hidden taxes. There is no way out. And this is because of decades long corruption and mismanagement.

Those responsible of both defend their system by restricting the rights of the citizens. In Italy, democracy shifted on oligarchy, so much so as elections are now unnecessary. This is necessary to provide stability of governments that carry out unpopular,  unbearable economic reforms. Which end up fueling even more corruption.

If this oppressive situation is unbearable to Italians (just look at the many citizens who commit suicide due to the failure of enterprises, of banks and by the fiscal persecution of Equitalia), it is even more unbearable for people who, despite being not Italian citizens, are forced to pay another State’s public debt.

And this is the situation of the Free Territory of Trieste and of its people.

The present-day Free Territory of Trieste is independent since 15 September 1947, at the coming into force of the Treaty of Peace of Paris. It is a member state de jure of the UN, under the Security Council’s own protection, and placed under a provisional regime of Government that, since 1954, is sub-entrusted to the Italian Government.

The Italian Republic, on its side, recognizes the Free Territory of Trieste. This means Italian officers cannot take advantage of the Italian Government’s sub-mandate to simulate Italian sovereignty over the present-day Free Territory of Trieste. This constitutes also a breach of Italian laws. Laws that recognize both Trieste’s own sovereignty, as the Italian Constitution, which prevails on all other domestic laws, and the sub-mandate entrusted to the Italian Government.

The 1947 Treaty of Peace exempts the present-day Free Territory from the payment of the Italian public debt. This means that Trieste’s provisional Government, which acts on behalf of the UN, is bound to respect this provision. And so are all of its officers, as they serve their duties in the Free Territory of Trieste.

English text of art. 5, Annex X, Treaty of Peace with Italy (1947).

Trieste can only pay taxes in the autonomous State budget of the Free Territory, to be used for its own, rightful administration. No Italian tax, as any other foreign tax, can be levied in the Free Territory of Trieste without being previously “extended” to it, hence becoming one of Trieste’s own taxes.

However, regardless of the crystal clear legal framework, brought to the attention of the Commissioner of the Italian Government in office, the illegitimate collection of undue Italian taxes continues. As do the enforced recoveries of the ill-famed Equitalia S.p.A. which acts on behalf of the Italian Republic, at the expenses of Trieste’s citizens.

Lately I witnessed one such enforced recovery. Equitalia officers, escorted by the Carabinieri, were to seize the car of a debtor. The Carabinieri were there to make sure it all went by “calmly”.

It is unknown what orders did the Carabinieri actually receive, but it is reasonable thinking that it is the Equitalia officers who want to work “calmly” as in fulfilling their actions without facing protests.

They get to your front door, no warnings. If you oppose to your belongings being seized, Italian armed forces may as well do something against you. So feels the person undergoing the recovery.

Yet, those Equitalia officers committed an unlawful action. We tried to explain it to them, but they won’t listen. They say it is up to Courts making a decision. And if judges breach the law, that is none of the executors’ business, it’s the citizen’s own problem. Citizens are just little harmless beings facing the aggressiveness of a State that acts like a mafia.

Shouldn’t they address the Prefect Office, asking what to do in case a citizen has already addressed the Commissioner of the Italian Government? Not under their competences, they say. All they do is waiting for directions, but we have no way to know where such directions are from. Somebody should make a move and take prompt action.

Only, the Commissioner of the Italian Government won’t do it. She is “missing”. She won’t even answer the citizens who address her in the name of the laws of their own State: Trieste, not Italy. The Commissioner (Francesca Adelaide Garufi) is herself waiting for directions. Her superior authority is the administering Italian Government. Only, Rome remains silent. It’s better so, and avoiding compromising answers that may give raise to international tensions.

And so Italian justice keeps grinding thousands of citizens and enterprises of another State. Suffering in an undeclared, never-ending war. The war of the most corrupt European State against international law.

Translated from blog  “Environment and Legality”by Roberto Giurastante.

1965: the Supreme Court of Cassation confirms that Italian taxes may only be levied in Trieste only upon being extended by the Commissioner of the administering Italian Government.