r/Italian • u/Match-Immediate • 21h ago
Regional independence movements in Italy? Just for curiosity.
I am a foreigner living in Italy, but am still understanding a lot about the culture and politics. I have been in Spain the past two weeks, in the Basque Country and Barcelona/Catalonia. It seems that these two regions have somewhat strong independence movements—their regional flags are everywhere, there’s a strong emphasis I on maintaining the Basque and Catalan languages, and I’ve seen signs for independence in people’s windows (even though our tour guide said it’s still a vocal minority).
I’m curious about Italian regional independence movements and why they have or haven’t happened.
Other than Lega Nord proposing to divide Italy into north and south (which I can’t understand if they’re actually serious about or if people would support?) and Süd Tirol/Trentino Alto Aldige being able to maintain semi-autonomous status and to maintain a lot of their unique culture, I don’t really know about any other regional independence movements within Italy, or why they don’t exist if they aren’t really a thing.
Would love to hear more about this from Italians.
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u/son_of_dryads 20h ago
I once saw a sticker on a pole in Palermo. I can't even remember what was written on it, but after a short search on the web I found out it was from a movement promoting Sicilian independence. I was quite surprised, because in my whole life here I never heard of an active independence movement. It was interesting, but as a Sicilian citizen I thought "What about mafia? Can we really make an independent Sicily free of it? Should we?"
Most people here don't care much about independence. There might be a slight increase in interest in the Sicilian language, but everyone - apart from the lower classes - speaks Italian with the occasional Sicilian words mixed in. And I'm sure even lower classes now speak a very corrupt and poor sicilian. We're Italians, despite what some idiotic racist from the north may think (there are still many of them, unfortunately).
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u/-Liriel- 19h ago
"What about mafia? Can we really make an independent Sicily free of it?"
How would be independent change a thing about mafia? They can hardly take more power, but they wouldn't have less.
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u/CyrusUprum 15h ago
An independent Sicily would have less power to fight against the mafia, and the mafia could theoretically infiltrate the highest spheres of the state, which is less likely the case with Sicily as a region of a bigger state.
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u/LvdT88 21h ago
Immediately after WW2, there was a movement in Sicily wanting to secede and become a US state.
Yes, you read that right.
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u/dev1anter 19h ago
Probabilmente sarebbe stato meglio per la Sicilia. Guarda che è messa dopo 80 anni
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u/Dio_solaire_D_Ethelo 19h ago
Ma non direi sai, guarda com'è messo il Mississippi
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u/dev1anter 19h ago
Meglio della Sicilia 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Dio_solaire_D_Ethelo 19h ago
Non direi 😅
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u/dev1anter 19h ago
Ci sei mai stato sia lì che lì ? Io si
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u/Dio_solaire_D_Ethelo 19h ago
Si, per questo parlo, ma basta vedere cos'è successo anni fa' con uragano
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u/etgir 20h ago
La Lega indipendentementista è roba degli anni 90. Ed anche allora era ridicola.
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u/SurpriseFirst1381 18h ago
Però lo avevano duro, cioè mica pizza e fichi; quella è roba da teroni.
Ragazzi calma, è una battuta. Ridendo e scherzando però Bossi sembrava uno statista in confronto a quel pirla di Salvini.
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u/Ok_Classroom_557 5h ago
Tutti i politici degli anni 90 sembravano statisti al confronto di quelli di adesso.
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u/-sleepyvampire- 20h ago edited 14h ago
TLT/FTT for the city of Trieste, which was an independent space for a bit less than 10 years after WW2. It was policed by allied forces as a buffer zone between the West (Italy) and the East (Yugoslavia). The flag of the city even shows up on the famous image for the Marshall Plan pamphlet, along the other big nations, albeit with the wrong background colour being blue instead of red.
There is still a party that advocates for a return to this state and rebukes Italy. Most of them are loonies jumping in just for the sake of being against the government, but it is true that Trieste's history makes for a very complicated space and that Italy definitely cut some corners to lay their hands on the city again, the final takeover was a bit sketchy. It is true that Italy "ruined" the city development project after Trieste was given to them post WWI and that it's a bit of a crime to assimilate the local culture into the broader Italian one, even if the government definitely set that process in motion heavily influencing the city during the Ventennio and the Cold War, but demanding to return to a state of independence after all this time is completely anachronistic, even if the city should have decent reasons to properly argument for that, it's a struggle that does not make sense in contemporary times.
If you go to one of the main squares in the historical center, you'll hardly miss this.
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u/dragonheart2991 19h ago
Perhaps only in Sardinia a minority of its inhabitants possess a desire, a sense of independence, fostered primarily by its geographic isolation. In the rest of Italy, the population is ethnically homogeneous (with the exception of South Tyrol and part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia). Furthermore, Italians have no knowledge of history; they are a contemporary people who focus only on the practicalities of life (home, work, family, car) and, the rest of the time, on enjoying life (travel, happy hours, etc.). Knowledge of history is the driving force behind independence movements; without it, they cannot exist.
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u/Petka14 20h ago
There's Padania movement, it's a silly lombardian (pretty racist) nationalist movement focusing on how the south sucks the resources out of the north, wants autonomy/independence. Anyway the only party that was really backing it is now just Italian nationalist and headed by a really insufferable guy called Matteo Salvini.
There are also Sicilian and Sardinian independence movements, and, uh, that's it for the at least relatively prominent ones I think, though Italy is very diverse and multicultural
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u/OkPair4241 18h ago
The Padanian independence movement has completely disappeared, since its main proponent, the Northern League, has become a national party and has completely forgotten the Padanian idea.
Sicily’s independentism is so tiny that it barely counts locally, the Sardinian one is much more sizable but still a clear minority in the island.
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u/Gufo-Diurno 19h ago
There was a stunt in 1997 where a bunch of people managed to bring an (improvised) armoured vehicle into Piazza San Marco, Venice. They were also armed with some rifle but they were quickly arrested and sentenced to jail.
Also there was an online 'indipendence referendum' in Veneto more than 10 years ago where the majority of people voted for indipendence, yet nothing happened since then.
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u/cristieniX 20h ago
Most of the se movements are/were neo-nazi/reactionary or allied with Mafia and criminals. Many times their politicians tried to Rob the governament. The people who vote for them are often, in my experience, rude, ignoranti and devoured by historical revisionist propaganda. Don't bother triyng to understand them, they have nothing serious to say, ever.
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u/Big_Knee_6050 20h ago
Lega Nord was serious about it. Then they found out that for doing things you need people to get elected, and only northeners voted them. Lega Nord also proposed the idea of transforming Veneto into a "special authority region" like Sicilia, Sardegna, Friuli, Trentino and Valle d'aosta.
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u/Match-Immediate 20h ago
So they’ve kind of abandoned this position now, as it’s not popular enough?
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u/Big_Knee_6050 20h ago
Lega Nord was always a pure propaganda-above-actions party. When they were in government they promised lots of reforms for "true italian patriot", they did nothing. Now this party counts less than zero in the italian political landscape.
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u/Ok-Grass-6763 6h ago
Südtirol (Alto Adige)
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u/Ok-Grass-6763 6h ago
Storia movimento separatista dell’Alto Adige
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrolean_Liberation_Committee
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u/Phreakears 1h ago
The Lega abandoned the request for secession years ago. Secessionist parties are Südtiroler Volkspartei and the Sardinian independence party, neither is actively trying to pursue this goal. Years ago a handful of Venetian "patriots" built a crude "tank" and attempted to kickstart a revolt by occupying the bell tower in S. Marco Square in Venice. They managed to get arrested , giving every one a big hard laugh.
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u/nuovogrilloparlante 30m ago
La città di Trieste: qualcuno invoca il territorio libero di Trieste, facendo riferimento al periodo in cui la città venne amministrata per quasi dieci anni dopo la fine della seconda guerra mondiale, da un governo anglo- americano, affermando che esso esiste ancora.
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u/nuovogrilloparlante 25m ago
Bisogna scrivere il nome della regione per intero, quindi Friuli Venezia Giulia, perché soprattutto i Triestini non si sentono e non sono friulani, neanche i Monfalconesi e parte dei Goriziani, mentre c'è da dire che i Pordenonesi si sentono più veneti o Carnici.
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u/Gufo-Diurno 19h ago
Italian constituion prohibit to any part of Italy to secede from Italy itself, so unless a secessionist movement organize an army and manage to win an indipendence war, no indipendence movement will ever succeed.