The New Republic Of Veneto? Venice To Vote On Seceding From Italy

[Purveyor]

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, March 17, 2014 11:11 EDT

Italians in Venice and its surrounding region are voting this week on whether to break away from the rest of the country and form their own country, organisers told AFP on Monday.

The online vote, organised by local independence parties, is not legally binding but aims to galvanise support for a bill calling for a referendum on whether the region of Veneto should split from Italy.

The new Republic of Veneto would be inspired by the ancient Venetian republic — a rich economic, cultural and trading power which existed from the 7th century until its fall to Napoleon in 1797.

The Indipendenza Veneta party behind the bill said the separatist movement was fuelled by the government’s apparent inability to stamp down on corruption, protect its citizens from a damaging recession and plug waste in the poorer south.

“We no longer want to be part of a country that has gone to the wall. Nothing works anymore,” Nicola Gardin from the party said.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/17/the-new-republic-of-veneto-venice-to-vote-on-seceding-from-italy/

[oldandhappy]

1. We are going backwards.

The world used to be small isolated individual places, villages, sometimes large enough to be city states. Gradually we clustered and worked together and became larger states and then countries and nations. Some began the vision of a world working together via the League of Nations and the the United Nations. And now we are creeping backwards -- back to smaller and smaller units.

[brooklynite]

7. Not always...

Gradually we clustered and worked together and became larger states and then countries and nations

...and sometimes our neighbors "helped" that consolidation process along...

[JimDandy]

2. I hope they did a cost analysis first.

If Venice continues to flood spectaculary, as it did this past decade, they may not have the resources to recover from such emergencies without the financial support of the rest of Italy. The fourth highest flood in the city's history was in 2008 and it will only get worse with our planet's climate change. As of late 2013, they still needed more than 800 million dollars to complete the flood barrier across the lagoon by 2016.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. They already have a proposed new name.

Atlantis.

[JimDandy]

4. LOL... Duzy n/t

[Arkana]

5. Considering Venice is sinking, I'm not sure this is a smart move.

[DetlefK]

6. If this works, bad times are ahead for Italy.

21 billion euros in taxes annually? That's gonna hurt.

Italy was a patchwork of tiny states in medieval times. And they were constantly at war and scheming against each other.

If Veneto manages to leave and starts to flourish, what about Milano, Genua, Torino, Monacco, Florence? Their situations are basically the same and they might want to leave, too.