Committee that campaigns for the independence of Veneto from Italy
Plebiscito.eu, originally known asPlebiscite 2013 (Italian:Plebiscito 2013,P2013), is a supposedly cross-party nonpartisan committee that campaigns for the independence ofVeneto fromItaly. Its main leaders have beenLodovico Pizzati, a former secretary ofVenetian Independence (IV), one of the most activeVenetist-separatist parties so far, andGianluca Busato, who came to regional prominence in March 2014 as the main organiser of theplebiscito, an online referendum on independence.
The committee is part of along-time effort started in November 2012 with the endorsement by theRegional Council of Veneto of resolution 44/2012 on the self-determination of the Venetian people through a referendum. In April 2013Stefano Valdegamberi, a regional councillor of theUnion of the Centre and later ofPopular Future, introduced a bill (342/2013) in order to call a referendum on independence by the end of the year.[1][2][3][4][5] By 7 June the bill was endorsed by more than 15 regional councillors, sufficient to convene a special session of the Council on the issue.[6][7] Also several municipal councils endorsed the bill.[8]
In June 2013 Pizzati formed a joint separatist cartel with Valdegamberi of Popular Future (FP),Antonio Guadagnini ofVeneto State (VS),Fabrizio Comencini ofLiga Veneta Repubblica (LVR), other Venetist groups, associations and individuals.[9] Subsequently, on 7 July, Pizzati launched P2013, which has since been endorsed by politicians from different parties, activists, intellectuals, professionals and entrepreneurs.[10][11][12] They notably includedFranco Rocchetta,[13] founder and early leader ofLiga Veneta (and former federal president ofLega Nord), who returned to active politics after virtually 20 years of absence from the political scene.[14]
In November P2013 launchedPlebiscito.eu, an online referendum to be held in each and every municipality of Veneto on 16 February 2014.[18][19] The leadership of the initiative was taken byGianluca Busato, a software entrepreneur and long-time Venetist activist, whose firm powered the digital consultation.[20][21]
The vote, with no official recognition, was later postponed and took place from 16 to 21 March 2014.[20][22][23][24]
According toPlebiscito.eu's staff, 2.36 million Venetians (63.2% of all eligible voters) participated in the online referendum and 89.1% of them (that is to say 56.6% of all eligible voters) voted yes.[25][26] This was enough for P2013 to proclaim Veneto's independence from Italy inTreviso on the night of 21 March.[27][28][29]
In the poll, ten "delegates for independence" were elected too:Gianluca Busato was the preferred candidate with 135,306 votes, followed byStefano Vescovi (48,320),Selena Veronese (46,947),Silvia Gandin (43,025),Lodovico Pizzati (25,731),Gianfranco Favaro (16,670),Raffaele Serafini (16,627),Manuel Carraro (16,627),Gianluca Panto (16,321) andPaolo Bernardini (16,299). Finally, voters were asked to express their opinion on three "foreign policy issues", where Veneto to become independent: adoption of theEuro (supported by 51.4% of voters), accession toEuropean Union membership (supported by 55.7% of voters) and accession toNATO membership (supported by 64.5% of voters); turnout was however much lower for these three questions (24.6%, 22.3% and 19.8%, respectively).[25][26]
The reliability of these results was contested by a number of analysts, while some pollsters confirmed Venetians' support of independence (seehere).
The day after the referendum, Busato announced that the separatist process generated by the referendum was to be led byVeneto Yes (Italian:Veneto Sì), which would be transformed "from committee for yes to independence to a political organisation which will defend the results obtained with the declaration of independence".[30][31]
P2013, whose goal was reached, was basically supplanted byPlebiscito.eu, engaged in the "structuring of the Venetian Republic", and Veneto Yes.[32][33]
According toPlebiscito.eu, the self-proclaimed "Venetian Republic" has two "legitimate organs": the "Delegation of Ten",[34] comprising the aforementioned elects, and the "Treasury".[35] The latter was established with the self-styled "Decree 2/2014 of the Venetian Republic", issued by the Delegation of Ten on 22 April, and was initially composed byCristiano Zanin (treasurer),Stefano Venturato (counselor),Gianfranco Favaro (counselor) andLodovico Pizzati (consultant).[36]
In September 2014Plebiscito.eu and the "Venetian Republic" experienced an internal reshuffle, which brought to the abandonment of leading roles by several founding members of the committee, notably including Pizzati, Zanin,Gianluca Panto,Manuel Carraro andGiovanni Dalla-Valle.[37][38][39] The latter, along withFranco Rocchetta andAndrea Arman, distanced from the Venetist organisation over disagreements with the Delegation of Ten.[40][41]
In March 2015Plebiscito.eu organised an "election of the Provisional Parliament of the Venetian Republic".[42][43] in which Veneto Yes elected a large majority of the deputies.[44]
