Secession is in the air.
The Most Serene Republic of Venice (Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia) lasted for over a thousand years from the late 7th century until 1797. It came into being as a secession of the region from the Byzantine Empire and lasted until Napoleon came along. In its heyday it controlled Crete and Cyprus and was a major – if not the paramount – centre for European trading and banking.
Secession is in the blood of Venetians.
Flag of Venice with winged Lion of St. Mark
The city of Venice originated as a collection of lagoon communities banded together for mutual defence from theLombards, Huns and other invading peoples as the power of the Western Roman Empire dwindled in northern Italy. At some point in the first decades of the 8th century, the people of the Byzantine province of Venice elected their first leaderUrsus (or Orso Ipato), who was confirmed by Constantinople and given the titles of hypatus and dux. He was the first historical Doge of Venice. …..
Between 1414 and 1423, some 10,000 slaves were sold in Venice, almost all of whom were “nubile” young women from the Balkans. In February 1489, the island of Cyprus, previously a crusader state (the Kingdom of Cyprus), was annexed to Venice.
And now the people of Veneto want to secede again – this time from “the blood-thirsty beast of the Italian state”.
The Veneto Region
A self-organised “referendum” over the independence of one of Italy’s wealthiest regions has resulted in an overwhelming victory for the separatist camp, but authorities in Rome have largely ignored the result, amid scepticism over the regularity of the informal, non-binding poll.
Nevertheless, events in Veneto, the north-eastern region around Venice that is home to almost 5 million people, have attracted international attention, particularly from government-sponsored Russian media, keen to draw comparisons with the military-backed vote that sanctioned Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
Out of 3.8 million eligible voters, 2.3 million took part in Veneto’s independence “plebiscite,” organisers said Friday, after six days of voting through makeshift polling booths, via phone or the internet. The pro-secession camp was declared the winner with over 89 percent, against just under 11 percent for the unionists.
“The Venetian Republic is born again,” the leader of the ‘yes’ camp, Gianluca Busato, exclaimed at a victory rally in Treviso, in front of a crowd of a few hundred supporters. …… Secessionists, who are not attached to any mainstream political party, see themselves as the heirs of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, the state that ruled the lagoon city and its surroundings for about 1,000 years, until it was routed by Napoleon in 1797.
Their main argument for independence is economic. They calculate that Veneto subsidizes Italy’s inefficient central government and its poorer southern regions to the tune of €20 billion a year. They claim that an independent state – modeled on the likes of Catalonia or Scotland – would be far better off. “The right of self-determination that is triumphing in Veneto is the only way to free ourselves from the worst bureaucratic monster of the Western world. The blood-thirsty beast of the Italian state is hated by all of its subjects, everywhere,” Busato said.
The 44-year-old software entrepreneur was elected as one of 10 “delegates” tasked with setting independence plans into motion. “The first objective is to keep all taxes in Veneto,” he said. “Veneto’s businesses and citizens no longer have to pay immoral and illegitimate taxes to the Italian state.”
Republic of Venice territories in red c. 1500 CE
The k2p blog 