South Tyroleans in traditional dress in the village of Latsch. Despite being a province of Italy, around 62% of the population speak German as their native language. Paimages/Reinhard Kaufhold/dpa-Zentralbild. All rights reserved.Everybody likes the story of David and Goliath: the small guy teaches the big guy a memorable lesson. Justice is done. South Tyrolean politicians have played the David card ever since the postwar years, against both Italy and the local Italian-speaking minority. With reason, at the beginning and for a few decades following; but unreasonably, as of late.
Consider: the South Tyrolean People's party or SVP in its German acronym (an Italian translation does not exist, and there should be one by now) has been ruling the region for seventy years. Its politics has arguably made South Tyrol just as prosperous as its wealthy northern neighbour, Austrian Tyrol. The economic and linguistic continuum is luckily intact. But is it all as rosey as academics and the mainstream media alike portray it?
Milan's financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore regularly ranks the province as the best in Italy for standards of living. It came only fourth (out of 110) this year, much to everyone's surprise. Some reckon the nation-wide known table – made up of no fewer than 42 criteria – got arbitrarily fiddled with just to ring the changes.
