Venice Votes to Split from Italy

 

 

Venice votes to split from Italy as 89% of the city's residents opt to form a new independent state

The poll was organized by local activists and parties, who want a future state called Republic of Veneto.

The vote, which started on Sunday March 16 and will end on Friday March 21,2014 is not legally binding, as Italy only recognises national referendums.

The 5-day poll came in the same week that Crimean residents chose in a landslide vote to leave Ukraine and become part of Russia.

Inspired by Scotland’s separatist ambitions,Venetians have voted overwhelmingly for their own sovereign state in a ‘referendum’ on independence from Italy

The proposed ‘Repubblica Veneta’ would include the five million inhabitants of the Veneto region and could later expand to include parts of Lombardy, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. 

Campaigners say that the Rome government receives around 71 billion euros  each year in tax from Venice - some 21 billion euros less than it gets back in investment and services.

Organisers said that 2.36million, 73%, of those eligible to take part voted in the poll, which is not recognised by the Rome Govt.

The ballot also appointed a committee of ten who immediately declared independence from Italy. Venice may now start withholding taxes from Rome.  

About Venice

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges

Venice is the capital of the Veneto Region

The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. 

Venice historically was the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the "La Dominante", "Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals"

Venice,the floating city has only been part of Italy for 150 years. The 1000 year–old democratic Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, was quashed by Napoleon and was subsumed into Italy in 1866.

Napolean conquered Venice on May 12,1797 during the First Coalition

Venice became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formioon Oct 12,1797.

Venice was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg  in 1805 and became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, but was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814

In 1866, following the Third Italian War of Independence , Venice, along with the rest of the Veneto, became part of the newly created Kingdom of Italy