A Slovene member of the European Parliament said that this year's Remembrance Day in Italy coincided with the 60th anniversary of the Paris peace treaty which defined the borders between Italy and the former Yugoslavia, or rather Slovenia and Croatia as its successors.
Mojca Drcar-Murko was quoted by Slovene news agency STA as saying that a strong political and media campaign directed against Slovenia and Croatia was under way in Italy.
Elected to the European Parliament in 2004 on the list of the Liberal Democratic Party, Drcar-Murko has been active within the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals for Europe (ALDE), the third largest political group in the European Parliament. Three years ago she was the first to warn about dangers of Remembrance Day for Foibe Victims, which had been introduced at the time, saying that it might spark off acts of revenge in other countries.
"Distortion of the facts from the Second World War has been the semiofficial doctrine of the right-wing faction in the Italian government and with Sunday's speech by the Italian president it has become an official position," Drcar-Murko said in a press release.
"Owing to the passivity of Slovenia and Croatia, which have practically not reacted to the campaign of distortion of facts that has been conducted over the last 15 years, the European public has been receiving information from one side only. The allegation that the Slavs planned and carried out genocide against the Italians has now in Italy become the truth which no one who wants to stay alive in politics or in their profession must doubt," she said.
Drcar-Murko said that the Italian campaign about the foibe, karst pits into which Tito's Partisans dumped Italians after their execution, had also reached the European Parliament in Strasbourg, adding that Italian MEP Cristina Muscardini had called for a Mass for the foibe victims.
Slovene Prime Minister Janez Jansa has recently said that Italy has not proposed a revision of any agreement. His office said that problems in the European Union should be dealt with in a tolerant fashion and that "everyone should sweep their own doorstep first."
Slovene President Janez Drnovsek on Wednesday sent a private letter to his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano in connection with his speech on Remembrance Day in Italy.
News of the letter was published on the web site of the Slovene national broadcasting corporation and was carried by other media. However, the content of the letter was unknown.
Drnovsek's aides explained that the letter was intended for the Italian president only.