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Referendums in Lombardy and Veneto – which each vote on October 22nd on whether they favour greater local powers or not – are set to be a very different affair to Catalonia’s tumultuous vote.
Here’s why.
It’s not about independence.
No one’s planning a “Free Republic of Lombardy” or “Independent Nation of Veneto”. Voters won’t be asked if they want to secede, only if they want their region to have more control over its own governance.
Veneto’s governor did attempt to call a referendum giving voters the choice between keeping 80 percent of the region’s tax revenues or seceding from Italy altogether, but dropped the idea when the Constitutional Court rejected it.
It’s not about a separate identity.
We’re not saying that people in the north of Italy don’t have identities of their own. They do. Take Venetians, for example, who speak a language as distinct from Italian as Catalan is from Spanish.
As far as these referendums are concerned, though, identity is not the driving factor.
It’s all about the money, according to the Northern League, the party that was founded on a dream of northern independence but has since adjusted its ambitions.
No, these northern regions are not ‘Italy’s Catalonia’
Before the media starts yanking chains.
Here’s why.
It’s not about independence.
No one’s planning a “Free Republic of Lombardy” or “Independent Nation of Veneto”. Voters won’t be asked if they want to secede, only if they want their region to have more control over its own governance.
Veneto’s governor did attempt to call a referendum giving voters the choice between keeping 80 percent of the region’s tax revenues or seceding from Italy altogether, but dropped the idea when the Constitutional Court rejected it.
It’s not about a separate identity.
We’re not saying that people in the north of Italy don’t have identities of their own. They do. Take Venetians, for example, who speak a language as distinct from Italian as Catalan is from Spanish.
As far as these referendums are concerned, though, identity is not the driving factor.
It’s all about the money, according to the Northern League, the party that was founded on a dream of northern independence but has since adjusted its ambitions.
No, these northern regions are not ‘Italy’s Catalonia’
Before the media starts yanking chains.
