The Day of the Return of Primorska to its Homeland is a Slovenian national holiday, which is celebrated on the 15th of September. In 1947, the Paris Peace Treaty was signed by Italy and the winners of the Second World War, and Slovenia now celebrates the return of Primorska to its homeland in September every year. This is not the first time that the left has completely disfigured this patriotic holiday, as in the past, it was even celebrated with totalitarian symbols. The leftists also constantly insist on the wrong naming of this holiday – “annexation” with the homeland is a completely inappropriate term, as it suggests that Primorska had never before been part of our shared homeland, which is, of course, not true.
The holiday, which was established in 2005 by the first government of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), is called the Day of the Return of Primorska to its Homeland, and not the Day of the Annexation of Primorska. The leftists had wanted to change the name in the past, but the National Assembly rejected the idea – even at a time when the left held a majority in Parliament. Namely, Slovenia did not take anything from Italy, and Primorska has always been Slovenian; it had only returned to its homeland – so this is a deliberate provocation by the Association of the National Liberation Movement of Slovenia. As they were unsuccessful when they tried to legally rename the holiday, they are now trying to cause a scene, and the SD party is, of course, behind all of this – as during the pre-election campaign for the European Parliament, SD MP Matjaž Nemec presented a proposal for the renaming.
Primorska joined the Italian territory with the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920 – in exchange for fighting on the side of the Allied forces, Italy was promised a large part of western Slovenia, including the Soča Valley, Trieste, Gorizia, Trenta and Istria. Slovenia thus lost a third of its territory, on which about 350,000 Slovenians lived. Today, the return of Primorska to its homeland is a symbol of unification, so it is unfortunate that part of the political sphere continues to insist on the symbolism and vocabulary that divide the nation. But the leftists are obviously not bothered by any of this – in the trailer for the celebration called “We don’t want what is foreign, we refuse to give up what is our own,” which will take place on the 11th of September in Idrija, they are continuing to use the red star and the incorrect naming of the holiday.
Sara Bertoncelj
