What now?
Autonomy means many things and affects far more than just language groups, or politics and administration.
There also exists autonomy for individuals with their stories and attitudes, or autonomy in dealing with the larger issues of our small world, such as the environment. For the future we will have a great many questions to answer.
What would an autonomous land be without its beauty?
The idea that even the finest autonomy will be of no use if the landscape and environment are neglected goes back to the autonomy advocate and environmentalist Alfons Benedikter. Strict spatial planning was intended to prevent new immigration, but also to protect against excessive development and urban sprawl. What is the significance of this idea today?
What is the use of a healthy land
in a sick world?
Climate change, air pollution, acidification of the soil, species extinction and pandemics are all symptoms of an overexploited world. When will we take all this seriously?
What use to me is autonomy
if it restricts me?
South Tyrol’s autonomy protects the rights of the different language groups. But what about individual rights when people from multilingual families have to declare themselves as monolingual for the purposes of ethnic proportionality?
What about women in all of this?
Throughout history men have tended to come to the fore, while women were more likely to stay in the background. They nevertheless played their part: Viktoria Stadlmayer helped shape the autonomy negotiations for the Tyrolean state administration, with Waltraud Gebert-Deeg, Andreina Emeri and Lidia Menapace all involved in the implementation of the results. Will the future be more female?
Are some minorities
more minor than others?
Few minorities are as protected as the language groups in South Tyrol. What about weaker groups such as the Sinti and Roma, immigrants or sexual minorities?
Does autonomy also mean that
I am allowed to decide to die?
Societies need rules to protect others. But why is it forbidden to free yourself from an incurable disease? What freedoms do we want in the future?
What does autonomy
have to do with a wheelchair?
People with disabilities have had to fight for basic rights just as hard as the political class in South Tyrol. Which group is now being deprived of its rights?
