"The forthcoming parliamentary elections in Italia are having an impact on Istria, which has become a home policy topic in Italy. It is sad that there are manipulations with Istria for the purposes of Italian elections," Jakovcic said at a press conference in Pula in comment on the film that was recently shown on the Italian state television network RAI.
Jakovcic said that Istria was oriented towards the future. "We are building an Istria of tolerance, bilingualism, multiculturalism and multiethnicity, and we will not let anyone set us against one another and take us back to the past."
He underlined that the Partisan movement and the 1941-1945 war of national liberation were "a part of Istria's glorious past" because a large number of Istrians had sided with antifascist fighters in the struggle against "genocidal fascism and Nazism", making their contribution to the free and democratic Europe.
Asked to comment on an announced joint session of the Croatian and Slovene governments, which is supposed to take place in Rijeka, Jakovcic said that it would be "an excellent move" by the two governments and that it would contribute to good neighbourly relations and to reducing tensions between the two countries.