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donations“Trieste is for Austria what Königsberg is for Prussia”
— Friedrich Engels, 1887
Abstract:
In May 2025, Trieste is no longer just a geopolitical question—it is a crossroads of global interests, European obligations, and local betrayals. This article traces the hidden legal status of the Free Port of Trieste, the silence of Italian authorities, and the growing assertion of Central European states. A story of missed opportunities, international law, and a city that serves everyone—except its own people.
A Port Held Hostage
Slovakia and Hungary are grateful. Grateful to Italy for having held an international port hostage as if it were its own backyard. Grateful for tolerating a strategic hub like Trieste being run like a condominium, divvied up between local politicians, port authorities, and EU funds. And—though they may not know it—they’re also grateful to those who laid the groundwork more than a decade ago.
Geneva 2015: the Truth on Record
June 24, 2015. Geneva, Palais Wilson. A closed-door meeting with the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. TRIEST NGO presents a dossier: Port Inquiry. Dozens of pages packed with facts, figures, and international law. In those pages—made public months later—it was clearly stated: the Free Port of Trieste is far from “Italian”, and its lawful access is guaranteed to Central and Eastern European states, including Hungary and Slovakia. No flags, no nationalism—just the cold, precise language of international legality.
The ‘Independents’—Mocked Then, Scattered Now
But even earlier, as far back as 2012, some were already shouting it in the streets. The “independentists”, as they were mockingly called. People talking about the Free Territory, forgotten treaties, suspended sovereignty. When they were lucky, they were mocked. When unlucky, dragged through courtrooms, hit with legal harassment and exemplary sentences. Yet today, the facts speak in their favor. A shame that only they had to pay the price.
2025: “Trieste Is Our Port,” Say Slovakia and Hungary
“Trieste will be Hungary’s port” Péter Szijjártó, Hungarian Foreign Minister – 2019. In the photo: an archive image of the Adria Terminal in Trieste.
Today, in May 2025, Central European countries are showing up—at what we like to call “our home”, though it isn’t really—and stating it plainly: Trieste is our port. That’s the message from Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, celebrating 500 freight trains traveling the Trieste-Bratislava line in 2024 alone. Hungary echoes it with the Adria Port project: 34 hectares of new terminal in Muggia, 650 meters of quay, 200 million euros invested. Not charity. Access. To the sea, to global trade, to Eurasian routes.
The Italian Administration: Tenants, Not Owners
And Italy? Watches on. Administers what it doesn’t own, as if it had inherited it by decree. But it’s just a tenant. Since 1954, Rome has administered Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste under a civil administration mandate, as set out in the London Memorandum. The ownership—real, legal ownership—is another matter. Budapest and Bratislava know it well, and they’re moving from words to action, from bilateral agreements to real railway lines. Just as those who filed the Port Inquiry with the UN knew it too, in near total silence.
Grant & Verdirame: International Obligations Still in Force
They were not alone. That 2015 complaint was backed by a legal opinion from two renowned international law experts: Tom Grant and Guglielmo Verdirame, of Cambridge and King’s College. Their conclusion was crystal clear:
“The provisions on the Free Port created obligations of Italy toward various States (and perhaps also toward the people of Trieste) […] Unlike the obligations regarding the administrative apparatus, there is no clear explanation of how these obligations might have lapsed.”
In plain terms: Italy has binding obligations—not only toward the UN, but toward every state entitled to use the port, and toward the people of Trieste. And no one has ever formally revoked or replaced those obligations. They still stand. More alive than ever.
Trieste at the Center of New Eurasian Routes
There was no need to wait for the war in Ukraine, for China’s Belt and Road, or for America’s Trimarium to realize Trieste is the key node. A map would have sufficed. Or the 1947 Peace Treaty. But instead, we chose to ignore, to embellish, to occupy. Today the trains roll on, but the people of Trieste are left with little more than the illusion of having a say in a port that serves everyone—except them.
The Only Way Forward: Clarify the Rules
But one thing still needs to be done. Clarify the rules. Remind the world that the Free Port belongs to all the states entitled to it—not to whoever happens to park their office chair there. If Italy wants to stay in the game, it must act as an administrator, not a landlord. Otherwise, it won’t be an NGO presenting the bill—it’ll be history itself.
Alessandro Gombač