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Alexander Van der Bellen had people sit down and take notice at the Carinthian referendum commemoration. The president apologized to all Slovenians.
Under strict conditions of the Crown, a big party was held in Klagenfurt on Saturday to mark the centenary of the Carinthian referendum. In 1920, the majority of the southeastern population, which is inhabited mainly by Carinthian Slovenes, voted to stay with Austria and not Yugoslavia.
Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and Slovenian President Borut Pahor also did the honors. In their speeches, both Governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) and the two heads of state insisted on peaceful and joint cooperation between ethnic groups.
“I want this festival to connect us today. That is why we, Federal President Van der Bellen and I, are present together,” Pahor told the general public: “We live in the best of all time, we live in peace, what it makes progress possible. We can’t change the past, but we can shape the future. “
“Some open wounds have healed”
Finally, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen made people sit down and take note in his speech when he officially apologized in the Slovenian language for the “injustice suffered and the late implementation of constitutionally guaranteed rights” of the Slovenian ethnic group. The Slovenian ethnic group is a natural part of Austria, but “unfortunately, the manners and confessions set out in Article 8 have not always been respected”.
Van der Bellen reiterated that celebrating together, commemorating together, also requires courage, but this ceremony is also a test of good neighborly relations, mutual understanding and therefore a sign that Europe is working. “A lot has been achieved in Carinthia, some open wounds have been healed. But ethnic group politics must be developed every day, everywhere, not just in Carinthia,” Van der Bellen said.
