'Naturally, China is an essential interlocutor for a territory that thrives on trade, but the relationship with China cannot be one of structural subordination. Trieste and its territory are for my generation the symbol of love for Italy. The tenacious will of the people of Trieste to reunite with the motherland in the post-war years, at the time of the British administration Zone A, but also the martyrdom of the Julian-Dalmatian populations forced into exile, the victims of sinkholes guilty only of being Italian, the laceration of Gorizia symbolized by Piazza della Transalpina divided in two by barbed wire, are events I have a vivid memory of from the years of my adolescence, the years in which I became passionate about politics supporting De Gasperi's Christian Democracy. Seventy years later, much has changed, thanks to Europe and the collapse of communism.'