Abstract
This article analyzes how South Tyrol as autonomous province reacted to Covid-19 within the framework of Italy’s pandemic management. It examines the special path that South Tyrol followed in the anti-crisis measures that it adopted in late spring/summer 2020, after the centralization that characterized the first months following the pandemic’s outbreak. Legitimated through a law that the provincial parliament adopted with a large majority in May, initially the special path found a generalized consensus among South Tyrolean parties and society. However, parties and interest groups criticized specific elements of the configuration in which the special path manifested itself (e.g. relaxation or differentiation of anti-Covid measures).
Although it flexibly adapted to new local circumstances, resulting in more or less strict measures compared to the national emergency decrees, ultimately the special path has not turned out to be successful from an epidemiological point of view. Nor was its governance style radically different from the national one. Both were a governing on sight and foresaw a preeminent role of the national/provincial government at the expense of the legislature. In South Tyrol, the special path rather resulted in a burning glass for preexisting socio-political cleavages and was thus met with more and more criticism. Nevertheless, it represented a reaction – shared by other Italian regions too – against the centralized pandemic management of the Conte II government.