Under the front-page banner headline "Trieste Celebrates 50 Years After", the newspaper said that as part of a meeting with Italian expatriates in Trieste on Sunday Tremaglia had laid wreaths at monuments commemorating the people dumped into a so-called foiba, or karst pit, at Basovizza at the end of World War II, and those who had perished in a Nazi concentration camp in the San Sabba rice factory.
Tremaglia was in Trieste to attend celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of restoration of the Italian sovereignty over the north Adriatic port city.
"Croatia, which today aspires to enter the European Union and which is supported in this effort by many of our ruling politicians, has passed laws providing for the restitution of property only to those having Croatian citizenship," Tremaglia said, adding that at the time they had left Croatia those people were Italians.
Italian news agency Ansa, reporting on the minister's meeting with members of the Tricolori committee, which represents the Italian expatriate community, quoted Tremaglia as saying on the margins of Sunday's meeting that Croatia "cannot join Europe unless it protects the (Italian) minority and ensures a true property restitution, which has not happened so far."