Darko Bratina

Born in Gorizia, 30 March 1942. He was attending a Slovenian primary and secondary school, after which he enrolled at the science high school Duca degli Abruzzi in Gorizia. He graduated in 1961 and enrolled at the Faculty of Engineering in Trieste. Shortly after, he started to get interested in sociology and when he heard about the new sociology school, founded in 1962 in Trento, he abandoned the engineering studies and started studying sociology, when the faculty wasn't yet acknowledged.

In the year 1972 he became an economical sociology professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Trieste. He moved back to Gorizia in 1976 and two years later he began teaching sociology in Trieste. He advanced in his academical career until 1992, and also taught sociology of ethnical relationships from 1990 at the Faculty for International and Diplomatic Sciences in Gorizia, that was founded the same year.

Film was one of his most important interests, for which he started to develop a taste as a young man and continued to nourish it throughout his life. In Gorizia in 1977 he established the film club Kinoatelje. He was an initiator of the Slovenian film in Italy and organized the first Slovenian film retrospective. Out of that initiative the Film Video Monitor was born, an annual Slovenian film, television and video magazine. 

Bratina was also very active within the Slovenian minorities: since 1976 he collaborated at SLORI (Slovenian research institute) and was the head of the institution from 1982 till 1992. He was active with the Slovenian cultural-economical relationships (SKGZ) and was a member of the main board.

​In the year 1992 he was voted as senator on the PDS (the Democratic Party of the Left) in the Gorizia County and thus became the first Gorizian senator. He was reelected in 1994 on the list of the Progressives and in 1996 on the list of Oljke. Amidst this different parliamentary positions, he was a member of the Foreign Political Commission in the Senate, a member of the Italian delegation at the Council of Europe, a member of the Italian delegation to the WEU, and the President of the Italian delegation to the CEI since 28 November 1996.

 He died in the village of Obernai near Strasbourg, on 23 September 1997.

Majda Bratina