A good while back, in March, an informal online plebiscite was held asking residents of Venetia, the Italian region in which Venice is situated and the core of what was once the Venetian Republic , whether or not they wanted to become independent from Italy.

A fairly misinformed article in the Atlantic blew this even way out of proportion. You can read it here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/03/europes-latest-secession-movement-venice/284562/

However it was enough to get my attention. When I found that the Italian media had completely ignored the plebiscite – which a significant number (several million) of Venetians participated in – I decided to investigate a little.

What I found was that this plebiscite was largely populist political move by the separatist Lega Nord (Norther League) neo-fascist xenophobic party. A party which has a large base of support in Venetia where there are many wealthy but relatively uneducated business owners.

I recruited a childhood friend of mine who attends Bocconi univerity and native Venetian to write an article explaining this Byzantine situation to a foreign audience — which he did quite brilliantly:

http://scinternationalreview.com/2014/04/venetian-independence-explained/

The problem is that this story hasn’t gone away. In fact it’s gotten more coverage in the foreign press. Not surprisingly The Scotsman published this article claiming the Venetians are inspired by Scots and Catalans:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/rich-venetians-hopeful-in-independence-poll-1-3341460

And then there’s this sensationalist fool:

http://globalcomment.com/will-venice-secede-from-italy/#

Both these articles really use the same arguments all of which are refutable.

“Venice would be the 7th largest economy in Europe” Really? As a part of Italy you can measure it that way but to claim that Venice would just chug along if it were separated from Italy… considering that Italy’s Infrastucture is national!  Furthermore an independent Venice would be dominated by far right political parties that would wreak their own political havoc on the new republic which would soon translate into an economic mess.

“Venice pays 1 billion euros in tax revenue to Rome” Yes, Venetia is an economically dynamic region of Italy — it has more economic activity so there is more activity to tax — this seems like more of indicator of an economically successful region.

“Venice would still be in the EU and NATO” Because an independent Venice gets automatic access to two of the most exclusive and powerful clubs in the international system? I think not.

Basically, Venetian Independence is political and economic suicide and should remain as the thought at the bottom of your last Spritz of the night.

I was surprised to find that this Italian Daily ran the following post with such a title: “Venetian Independence No Joke” – the article doesn’t really back that claim:

http://the-view-from-rome.blogautore.repubblica.it/2014/04/06/venetian-independence-no-joke/

This is the problem when wealth, stupidity and power conspire. There’s a lot of stupid people who don’t know what’s good for them. You can’t just quit on your nation because you’re richer — you’re richer because of your nation. I feel that this is a really obvious truism that “the rich” have forgotten in the globally increasingly polarized political-economic environment that separates the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots.’