Venice Independence Referendum

[Viking]

Seriously, we already have the Republic of Maldives which will soon be under water, do we really need a second (or third?) Atlantis?

[Lettow77]

Venice has the economic capacity to pay for infrastructure to forestall its doom; its need to pay for southern italy is an intereference in doing so

[Syt]

...now I understand why some friends today posted "I voted" on their Facebook.

The media coverage of this fake vote is so inexistent that I buy every day a local newspaper, and it never happened to speak about it.

This doesn't mean that I do not approve a secession from Italy. 

L.

The pretty non-existing coverage has driven some users to comment that there must be an EU-ordered media blackout about the whole affair. 

[Pedrito]

What's the position of the Lega Nord on this matter?

I don't know, because the national (and local) resonance of this referendum, as said, is nil.
I suppose that regional and national LN representatives, like Veneto's governor Zaia, who's cited in the OP, can only approve of it, at least in an unofficial way.
But Lega Nord's stances about some form of fiscal federalism inside a unitary state can largely be agreed upon, at least from a Northerner point of view.
In the last 50 years the drain of resources from Northern to Southern Italy has become a matter of billions of euros every year, and while this could be understood in times of relative economic growth, it becomes impossible to justify when decline kicks in.

L.

[Josquius]

The pretty non-existing coverage has driven some users to comment that there must be an EU-ordered media blackout about the whole affair. 

Haha.
The news isn't reporting a random internet poll?
Yes. That's the reason. Yes.



This is news to me. I guess it might kick up a real movement for such a referendum in reality? Hope Italy lets it go ahead. As dumb an idea as it would be if it went ahead, proper 21st century democracies at least let their people have the choice.

[Duque de Bragança]

...now I understand why some friends today posted "I voted" on their Facebook.

The media coverage of this fake vote is so inexistent that I buy every day a local newspaper, and it never happened to speak about it.

This doesn't mean that I do not approve a secession from Italy. 

L.

The pretty non-existing coverage has driven some users to comment that there must be an EU-ordered media blackout about the whole affair. 

These Austrians need to be reminded that being called an Austrian in Italy is still an insult, and that's the favourite used by southern Italians for Padanians .
But then, balkanisation of Italy means Südtirol back in Austria...

[celedhring]

My Milanese uncle - and north Italian nationalist - very proudly claims to be "Austrian".

[Duque de Bragança]

My Milanese uncle - and north Italian nationalist - very proudly claims to be "Austrian".

Traditore!

[celedhring]

My family are Catalan nationalists, and the Italian branch are Padanian nationalists. The main conversation topic during past Christmas' dinner: "Whose south is worst? Italy's or Spain's?" 

[Josquius]

My family are Catalan nationalists, and the Italian branch are Padanian nationalists. The main conversation topic during past Christmas' dinner: "Whose south is worst? Italy's or Spain's?" 

Italy.

[jimmy olsen]

The pretty non-existing coverage has driven some users to comment that there must be an EU-ordered media blackout about the whole affair. 

Haha.
The news isn't reporting a random internet poll?
Yes. That's the reason. Yes.



This is news to me. I guess it might kick up a real movement for such a referendum in reality? Hope Italy lets it go ahead. As dumb an idea as it would be if it went ahead, proper 21st century democracies at least let their people have the choice.

Separatists should be crushed with Fire and Blood! 

[Ed Anger]

Calm down Spaz.

[Archy]

I expected a spoof on the Crimea Referendum by the Onion I'm displeased 

[citizen k]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/tank-warfare-in-venice-plan-gets-24-arrested-for-plotting-secession-from-italy-20140403-zqpwz.html

Tank warfare in Venice plan gets 24 arrested for plotting secession from Italy

Published: April 3, 2014 - 5:26AM

Rome: Italian police arrested two dozen separatists including a former parliamentarian on Wednesday on suspicion of gathering arms to violently split the wealthy northern region of Veneto from the rest of Italy.

The group had converted a bulldozer into a tank with a makeshift cannon and intended to use it in an assault on St Mark's Square in the region's capital Venice, police said.

Their plan recalled the 1997 seizure of the square's famed bell tower by armed separatists who proclaimed an independent Venetian republic, harking back to the city-state that was a major power in the eastern Mediterranean for centuries until it fell to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797.

That assault was quashed in a matter of hours.

After searching premises in several regions of Italy, police arrested 24 people on suspicion of terrorism, subversion of the democratic order and making and possessing weapons of war. Twenty-seven others are under investigation, police said.

Those arrested included Franco Rocchetta, a former lawmaker and campaigner for Venetian independence who helped organise an self-styled "referendum" that caught attention abroad last month because it took place during the Russian annexation of Crimea.

The "referendum" was an online poll that said 89 percent of respondents voted for Veneto to break away from Italy.

Wednesday's arrests coincided with a vote in parliament to move to decriminalise clandestine immigration, enraging the Northern League which had backed the law that made it a criminal offence punishable by detention and fines in 2009.

The Northern League, which has long campaigned for the autonomy of Italy's rich northern regions, said it would rally in the northern city of Verona on Sunday to protest against the arrests and the softening of the immigration law.

Mr Rocchetta was a founding member of the League, which has 4 percent of the seats in parliament, but has since left it.

"We call on the Venetians and all those who can no longer bear the intolerable oppression of the central state to fly the flag of St Mark from their homes to show their solidarity with the Venetians and Lombards who have been unjustly imprisoned," Northern League Senate leader Massimo Bitonci said.

"A state that cancels the crime of clandestine immigration ... can only bring ridicule by imprisoning those ... who are fighting for the freedom of their people," he said.

Reuters

[derspiess]

Calm down Spaz.

No shit.