Italian Slovenes

Italian Slovenes

Slovene minority in Italy (Italian: Minoranza slovena in Italia, Slovene: Slovenska manjšina v Italiji), also known as Slovenes in Italy (Italian: Sloveni in Italia, Slovene: Slovenci v Italiji) is the name given to Italian citizens who belong to the autochthonous Slovene ethnic and linguistic minority living in the Italian autonomous region of Friuli – Venezia Giulia. The vast majority of members of the Slovene ethnic minority live in the Provinces of Trieste, Gorizia, and Udine. The estimations regarding their number vary significantly; most figures speak of 60,000 to 90,000 people, representing between 5% and 7.5% of the overall population of the region.

The Slovene minority in Italy enjoys legal protection of its collective rights, guaranteed by the Italian constitution and specific legislation, as well as by international treaties (especially the London Memorandum of 1954), and bilateral agreements initially stipulated between Italy and Yugoslavia (especially the Treaty of Osimo of 1975) and since 1991 between Italy and Slovenia.

Since 1945, the Slovenes in Italy have enjoyed partial cultural autonomy, including an education system in Slovene. They have a wide net of cultural and civic associations. The Slovene language is co-official in many of the municipalities with presence of the Slovene minority, and visual bilingualism is applied in most of the non-urban settlements with traditional Slovene presence. However, the implementation of these rights largely depends on the local administrations; thus, the situation varies significantly from area to area.

Both the Italian and Slovenian state promote Slovene culture in Friuli – Venezia Giulia through subsidies for Slovene associations and organizations.