South Tyrol signpost dispute all about money

The signposts for roads and hiking trails in the Italian autonomous region of South Tyrol are almost all in German only. On Thursday the Italian minister for the regions called for all monolingual signposts in South Tyrol to be removed. But what Rome really wants to remove is not the signposts but South Tyrol's financial autonomy, which deprives Rome of tax revenues, the liberal daily La Stampa writes: "That the signpost issue has resurfaced during these hot days of July means that relations between the central state power and the autonomous region are in a particularly critical phase. And given the so-called 'historical' situation … thoughts automatically drift in the direction of budgetary issues and money. … An autonomy like the one in South Tyrol is not based on signposts … . It has much stronger foundations, and (perhaps) this is precisely what is causing the row."

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