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Italian Referendum on greater regional autonomy


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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41712263

Italy referendums: Lombardy and Veneto 'back greater autonomy'

Two of Italy's richest northern regions have voted for more autonomy, according to their leaders.

More than 90% of voters in Lombardy, home to Italy's financial capital Milan, and the Veneto region around Venice, voted yes in the non-binding referendum, their presidents claimed.

Both men are members of the Northern League, which has long argued that the north is subsidising the poorer south.

The regions together account for about 30% of Italy's national wealth.

Critics of the polls call them a stunt to bolster the right-wing Northern League before a general election next year, while the central government in Rome says the polls are unnecessary although they are permitted under the Italian constitution.

They contrast sharply with the crisis in Spain where one of the richest regions, Catalonia, held an referendum on independence on 1 October, despite the country's constitutional court ruling it illegal. In response, Spain's government plans to impose direct rule.

 

 

'Not in Sicily'

But President Roberto Maroni, who leads Lombardy, where voter turnout was about 40%, has sought to distance the Italian vote from the situation in Spain.

"We are not Catalonia," he told Reuters news agency in Milan.

"We remain inside the Italian nation with more autonomy while Catalonia wants to become the 29th state of the European Union. We, no. Not for now."

One of the regions' main complaints is that they send much more in taxes to Rome than they get back in public spending, and want to roughly halve their contribution.

Lombardy, Mr Maroni says, annually pays out €54bn (£48bn; $64bn) more than it receives while for Veneto, where voter turnout was higher, at between 57% and 61%, this figure is said to be about €15.5bn.

"Our taxes should be spent here, not in Sicily," Giuseppe Colonna, 84, told AFP news agency in Venice.

But critics object to millions of euros being spent on referendums when all regions already have the constitutional right to negotiate directly with Rome.

"Once you open up the issue of what the northern regions pay, then I expect a backlash in southern Italy," Giovanni Orsina, history professor at Rome's Luiss-Guido Carli University, told Reuters.

 

 

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And the fun fact that they are trying to get what Catalonia got 40 YEARS AGO! 

But yeah, Catalonia is sooooo oppressed :rotfl:

And it's only natural that there are so many tensions right now regarding MONEY AND NOT WANTING TO SHARE IT WITH POORER REGIONS FROM THE COUNTRY (hello, Puigdemont) with this austerity mess we live in the EU. I hope Brussels is taking notes, this is getting OUTTACONTROL! 

What will be next? Paris trying to gain independence so they don't have to share their money with rural parts of France? It seems that being greedy and selfish is the trend. Yet you dress it all up with some referendum and some voting and then it becomes civilized and democratic :lmao:

 

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Those referendums were just political propaganda from the Northern leaugue and a waste of money. ..Our Constitution already allows regions to ask for greater autonomy:that's what Emilia Romagna, another wealthy and rich Northern Italian region clearly not ruled by the Northern leaugue, is already doing.....

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8 minutes ago, Rebel Saviour said:

Those referendums were just political propaganda from the Northern leaugue and a waste of money. ..Our Constitution already allows regions to ask for greater autonomy:that's what Emilia Romagna, another wealthy and rich Northern Italian region clearly not ruled by the Northern leaugue, is already doing.....

The richer are getting more greedy, whats new? However those shortsighted morons fails to see that their greed would make them poorer if they close up to the other regions they benefit from. The same applies to Catalonia.

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13 hours ago, karbatal said:

And the fun fact that they are trying to get what Catalonia got 40 YEARS AGO! 

But yeah, Catalonia is sooooo oppressed :rotfl:

And it's only natural that there are so many tensions right now regarding MONEY AND NOT WANTING TO SHARE IT WITH POORER REGIONS FROM THE COUNTRY (hello, Puigdemont) with this austerity mess we live in the EU. I hope Brussels is taking notes, this is getting OUTTACONTROL! 

What will be next? Paris trying to gain independence so they don't have to share their money with rural parts of France? It seems that being greedy and selfish is the trend. Yet you dress it all up with some referendum and some voting and then it becomes civilized and democratic :lmao:

 

 :clap:

Exactly.

And what drives me crazy in the case of Northern Italy is how both Lombardy and Veneto got richer and richer in spite of southern Italy getting more and more poor with massive disadvantages and little help from the government that apparently now hasn't done enough for the north. :lmao:

I am really disappointed in my country but I'm not surprised. I was born made to be feeling inferior to the northerners but superior to the sourtherns (lol) as I was born in central Italy. The mentality that all sourtherners are criminals sponging off the north seems to be even more widespread these days. Not to be simplicistic but to me it is just ignorance; people feeling proud of their ancient heritage and looking down at other Italians simply because they come from poorer parts. When a person from the south goes to the north they always get criticised or looked down. People in the north always make fun of how southerners look as southerners have definitely darker skin and how they sound as they speak with a very distinguished accent....  I just can't explain. To me it's xenophobia pure and simple.

People are now using democracy so that they will be able to suppress our democratic values. How ironic. 

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44 minutes ago, MeakMaker said:

 :clap:

Exactly.

And what . drives me crazy in the case of Northern Italy is how both Lombardy and Veneto got richer and richer in spite of southern Italy getting more and more poor with massive disadvantages and little help from the government that apparently now hasn't done enough for the north. :lmao:

I am really disappointed in my country but I'm not surprised. I was born made to be feeling inferior to the northerners but superior to the sourtherns (lol) as I was born in central Italy. The mentality that all sourtherners are criminals sponging off the north seems to be even more widespread these days. Not to be simplicistic but to me it is just ignorance; people feeling proud of their ancient heritage and looking down at other Italians simply because they come from poorer parts. When a person from the south goes to the north they always get criticised or looked down. People in the north always make fun of how southerners look as southerners have definitely darker skin and how they sound as they speak with a very distinguished accent....  I just can't explain. To me it's xenophobia pure and simple.

People are now using democracy so that they will be able to suppress our democratic values. How ironic. 

Oh c'mon not everyone in the North votes for the Northern Leaugue or hates the people from the South. It's a stereotype.Prejudices still exist, but it's not 1956 anymore Lol. Plenty of people from the North nowadays have southern descent (plenty of people with Apulian heritage for example in Lombardy, especially in Milan). I was recently in Milan and nobody looked down on me or made fun of me (thank god I don't have too much of an accent:rotfl:) and everybody praised the beauty of my region when I told them I was apulian.

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3 minutes ago, Rebel Saviour said:

Oh c'mon not everyone in the North votes for the Northern Leaugue or hates the people from the South. It's a stereotype.Prejudices still exist, but it's not 1956 anymore Lol. Plenty of people from the North nowadays have southern descent (plenty of people with Apulian heritage for example in Lombardy, especially in Milan). I was recently in Milan and nobody looked down on me or made fun of me (thank god I don't have too much of an accent:rotfl:) and everybody praised the beauty of my region when I told them I was apulian.

Yes and that's great but wouldn't you agree these people who are actually voting for the Northern League have that sort of mentality? 

And you see..  even said jokingly about you accent you knew exactly what I meant. I'm sure many people in the north are open minded and free of prejudice but unfortunately there are still others who are definitely anti south. 

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11 hours ago, elijah said:

The richer are getting more greedy, whats new? However those shortsighted morons fails to see that their greed would make them poorer if they close up to the other regions they benefit from. The same applies to Catalonia.

Yes.  For example 30% of exports from Catalonia go directly to Aragon,  my region.  Surely independentists think that they go to France or Italy.  It's exactly the same mistake the UK is doing. 

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