By Carlo Bollino
Every other day, a ferry with a capacity for 500 persons connects Puglia to a space of 13 million consumers. 500 passengers on an old ferry, almost 30 years old, and that’s it. No airline, no other means to connect to that part of the Balkans that has for years been a symbol of war and lack of progress; that part of the Balkans that now connects to Italy and the European Union thank to a peaceful revolution. For the first time in 18 years The citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro will step in our territory without having to show a valid visa. They are the foretellers of the effects of an unfinished European enlargement as they freely access our cities, shops and hotels after the 19th of December.
Eurostat, the statistics office, declares that we, Italians, continue to be a migratory country: we move to live and work in other European countries with the same sense of urgency that took us across the ocean a century ago. In terms of internal migration, we come second to the Romanians. Nevertheless, we find it unimaginable to have to ask for a visa to go to another country. It is an odyssey of bureaucracy, expenditures, long queues, frequent humiliation and disappointments. At times it is a story of pain, as together with the visa refusal comes the refusal of a vital cure. It is a story of illegality as it is that refusal that leads one to become a clandestine, and once on that path, even if you are saved from drowning, you can still easily lose.
It is comprehensible that 13 million citizens celebrate the fall of the last wall, and it is incomprehensible that no one should speak of the fall of this wall from this side of the sea. And that is perhaps because nobody in Italy is prepared to face the fall of this wall. Not even Puglia, right there in the forefront. In the eye of the Balkans, Puglia has, for decades, been a symbol of the forbidden land and as of now, as it becomes accessible, it should have been the natural gate of this flux.
While the new Republic of Montenegro counts about 600 000 inhabitants and Macedonia a little above 2 million, Serbia counts more than 10 million and to neglect capturing their moves now that they are finally free to do so is a fatal mistake. Our time might be up, says a tourist operator. Austria and Germany have invested in winning the hearts and businesses of the Serbian population for years now. It is, therefore, natural that with visa liberalisation people will keep on that route. It is a marked route by now. Every day, there are 5 flights from Munich and Frankfurt to Belgrade, return. There are only three from Italy, and none of them are from Bari. The only way to reach Puglia is the sea, through Montenegro and the only ferry of a capacity of 500. A blindness of southerners. Let us remind ourselves that five years ago there were two direct flights Bari-Tirana every day. Now they have fallen to one every two days. Even though the exchanges are intense, the port lives on the exchanges with Albania – more than 700 thousand passengers a year as opposed to 500 thousand from Greece.
We, Italians, have been declaring for a very long time now our interest in the Balkans to the extent of defining it a ‘strategic area’. We have done this since the beginning of the nineties when, opting for the path of de-localization, we set off East to find places for easy investments. Our foreign policy tried to set on the same path too, landing later than enterprises and never to their aid, but undeniably contributing to peace in the region by sending thousands of soldiers and by encouraging the take-up and development of rich cooperation programmes. Thinking that we still bore the mark of colonisers, we forced ourselves to ask of nothing in return, maintaining a constant engagement for years. It is paradoxical, having been present at such an early point to now notice how late we are.
Brussels has opened its doors to almost all citizens of the Balkans: the excruciating visa bureaucracy remains in place only for the citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo, surprisingly the only countries with Muslim majorities. We hope this obstacle is removed for them as soon as possible so that in exchange of the stability they have offered to Europe, these peoples also see the sacred right to free movement acknowledged. But we must be there: after having shared the times of crisis, we must expect to enjoy the rebirth. The sea no longer brings us ships full of fleeing refugees, but capitals and consumers. No tragedy and mourning, but free people, glimpses of life and promises of integration. This is the happy end we had dreamt of, but we are failing to notice in the meantime that it is becoming true.
