Italy rejects Austria passport proposal

(ANSA) - Rome, December 18 - Italy has rejected an idea mooted by the new Austrian government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, which is backed by the Heinz-Christian Strache's far right party, to grant Austrian passports to people living in Trentino Alto Adige who speak German or Ladin.
    "Even if done with the velvet glove of Europeanism, Kurz's proposal has the chrism of an ethno-nationalist iron fist," Foreign Undersecretary Benedetto Della Vedova said on his Facebook page. "To clear citizenship on an ethnic basis would have very serious effects in a multicultural and open Europe".