Trieste, March 14th, 2015. – Today (March 14th) the Free Trieste Movement presented to the press its campaign for the “Fiscal Liberation of the citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory of Trieste”.
The Campaign’s manifesto:
No taxation without representation: in 1776, the United States of America declared their independence to pay their own, right taxes and not those imposed by the United Kingdom, which was also denying the American colonies political representation.
The US opened its second European embassy in the city-free port of Trieste.
Today the Free Territory of Trieste demands to pay its own, right taxes, instead of the inflated taxes imposed by Italy. Italy treats Trieste like a colony, denying its political representation of independent State, suffocating its Free Port and destroying its enterprises to favor Italian ports.
Under international law, the Free Territory of Trieste is entitles to its own accounts and taxation, it is only temporarily entrusted to the Italian Government and it is exempted from the payment of the Italian public debt. However, the administering Italian Government pretends that Trieste is an Italian province, thus forcing it to pay the Italian State’s taxes, heavily inflated by Italy’s enormous public debt: 130% of the gross domestic product.
To this day, the provisional Italian Government and the Republic of Italy, which is a third State, have returned to the Free Territory of Trieste only the 10% of what they have subtracted to it in taxes, missed development opportunities, the closing down of its primary industries – eg. shipyards – and the abandonment of the international Free Port’s Northern Sector.
The legal struggle for the “Fiscal Liberation of Trieste” has begun on March 6th, 2015. On this date, were lodged the acts for the hearing March 17th hearing before the Tax Commission of Trieste. In the documents, Free Trieste demonstrates the Free Territory of Trieste’s legal status as an independent State, as well as the absolute unlawfulness of Italian taxation in Trieste.
This is not a subversive action against Italy or others. It is a legitimate legal action conduced by peaceful means, before the Courts of Justice and the UN, to re-establish international legality and the rights of the Free Territory, its citizens and its enterprises, which are being violated by corrupt Italian political authorities.
Trieste is an independent sovereign State and international Free Port since the coming into force of the Treaty of Peace of Paris of 1947.
The Treaty did also establish Trieste’ provisional government (a special trusteeship) assigned to the Commandos of British-American troops, which created the Free Territory’s first State bodies and taxation system. However, since 1954, the special trusteeship is sub-entrusted to the Italian Government, which takes advantage of this role since the Cold War Era to simulate that the Free Territory of Trieste is under Italian sovereignty.
This is how the present-day Free Territory of Trieste, which is one of the seven little independent and neutral States of Europe, has the only international Free Port in the world, as well as having no public debt, was paralyzed and illegally forced to pay Italian taxes (twice greater than the due amounts). This situation is ruining Trieste’ citizens, families an enterprises.
At this point, the situation is so compromised that to survive economically, Trieste must urgently restore its representativeness as a State, pay only its own taxes, and develop the international Free Port working side by side with all the Countries holding rights over it. That means the United States, but also Russia, China, India, and all the States of the European hinterland.
Indeed, the international Free Port of Trieste is destined to the tax-free trading, storing and manufacturing of the goods of all countries, and its management is to be decided by representatives of the US, France, the UK, Russia and other successor States of the USSR, Slovenia and other successor States of Yugoslavia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary.
As early as in 2013, Free Trieste notified the administering Italian Government with a «Complaint and formal notice of Default». The document was sent also to the UN Security Council, Trieste’s international guarantor, as well as to the US, Russia, China, UK, France and other concerned States.
The Countries are now paying more and more attention to this case, while the Italian Government attempts to deny the Free Territory’s legal existence, to silence dissent, and to paralyze the international Free Port to divert its traffics from central-eastern Europe on the Italian peninsula’s southern ports, controlled by criminal cartels powerful enough to control politics as well.
This is why Free Trieste Movement drafted its legal document with which any citizen or enterprise of Trieste can defend itself and the whole Triestine community to react to these devastating injustices, even with a joint legal action. And, the more we are, the better we can corner Italian authorities, who are effectively, illegally robbing all of us, our families and our enterprises.
Those joining the Trieste’s Campaign for the Fiscal Liberation are authorized to use, in their defenses, Free Trieste’s documents at an affordable price (for free in case of serious economic difficulties), and also to enjoy legal consulting.
Read the document lodged on March 6th: HERE
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Free Trieste Movement – Movimento Trieste Libera
Piazza della Borsa 7 – Trieste Trst Triest
Telephone: 040/2470772.
Office hours: HERE.
Press Office of the Free Trieste Movement