pro-independence campaigners will hold a mass rally in the heart of
the lagoon city on Saturday, calling for an urgent referendum to be
held on the issue. 'Indipendenza Veneta', a newly-founded
pro-independence movement, says it expects several thousand people to
turn up for the rally.
They will be ferried across the Grand Canal in gondolas to deliver a
"declaration of independence" to the headquarters of the Veneto
regional government. It may sound fanciful, and it will be fiercely
resisted by Rome, but activists want to carve out a new country in
north-eastern Italy which would comprise Venice, the surrounding
region of Veneto and parts of Lombardy, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia
Giulia.
Recent surveys show widespread support for independence among
Venetians, who speak a distinct dialect and feel geographically and
culturally distant from Rome. A poll conducted by Corriere della Sera
in September found that 80 per cent were in favour of independence. A
more recent poll by Il Gazzettino, a local newspaper, found a slightly
lower but still overwhelming level of support – 70 per cent.
The political movement was formed in May and shortly afterwards
presented a petition with 20,000 signatures to Luca Zaia, the governor
of the Veneto region. "We have gained a lot of momentum from what is
happening in Scotland and Catalonia and things are moving fast,"
Lodovico Pizzati, the head of the movement, told The Daily Telegraph
on Friday. "And we are building on a very strong base – calls for
independence for the Veneto region go back to the 1970s. It may sound
crazy but I think Veneto will become independent before Scotland or
Catalonia."
Mr Zaia has acknowledged the high level of support for independence
but said there is no constitutional basis for Venice and the
surrounding region to secede from Italy. The pro-independence
activists say they have meanwhile referred their case to José Manuel
Barroso, the president of the European Commission. "We argue that our
right to self-determination is being violated," said Prof Pizzati, a
former World Bank economist who now lectures at Venice's Ca' Foscari
University.
Italy's economic crisis has only exacerbated Venetians' resentment
against the central government in Rome. "The economic situation here
is really desperate, with the recession hitting small and medium-sized
businesses. Meanwhile of the 70 billion euros we pay in taxes to Rome,
we get back about 50 billion euros, directly and indirectly. We are
losing out on 20 billion euros a year," said Prof Pizzati. After more
than a millennia of independence, the Most Serene Republic of Venice,
La Serenissima, was invaded by Napoleonic forces in 1797, with the
French deposing the last doge. After a few decades under Austrian
rule, Venice and the surrounding region was incorporated into Italy in
1866, five years after the unification of the rest of the country.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9589732/Mass-rally-in-Venice-to-call-for-independence-from-Italy.html
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