President Pahor at a farewell meeting with Italian President Mattarella

At the invitation of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, is currently on a visit to Rome. President Pahor met President Mattarella, with whom he has maintained regular dialogue during his two terms and created a heritage of good neighbourly relations, at a working lunch. This was the last meeting of both presidents before the end of President Pahor’s term. The Slovenian President thanked President Mattarella for excellent cooperation and sincere efforts to enhance friendly relations between the neighbouring nations and countries. He specifically highlighted the joint activities aimed at overcoming some of the burdens of our common past.

13 July 2020 will be marked in history as an important milestone in Slovenian-Italian relations. Presidents Pahor and Mattarella witnessed the signing of the Memorandum on the return of the National Hall to the Slovenian national community in Italy. One hundred years after it was burned down by Italian Fascists, the National Hall was returned to the Slovenian minority after several years of efforts.

The joint tribute at the Foiba di Basovizza Memorial and the monument dedicated to Slovenian victims of fascism (persons sentenced to death at the First Trieste Trial) confirmed that the reconciliation process can only be based on piety towards all victims. President Pahor also noted the attendance of the presidents at the unveiling of a memorial to the soldiers fallen in the First World War at Doberdob in October 2016. The multilingualism and multiculturalism of the region along the Slovenian-Italian border has a great potential, which is naturally European and is also being realised through the project of the 2025 European Capital of Culture (ECC) of the towns of Nova Gorica and Gorizia. The visit of both presidents to Nova Gorica and Gorizia in October 2021 and the decision on their co-sponsorship of the 2025 ECC presented great stimulus for the project.

President Pahor met the Italian presidents, Giorgio Napolitano and Sergio Mattarella, nineteen times in Slovenia, Italy and abroad at bilateral meetings. At the invitation of Italian presidents Napolitano and Mattarella, the Slovenian President visited the Italian Republic eight times, and President Pahor hosted the Italian presidents in Slovenia on six occasions.


Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA