In what appears to be a developing trend, Venice is to hold a referendum on secession from Italy.
The vote will be start on Sunday and continue until Friday.
The question pertains not just to Venice but also the surround Veneto region in which some 3.8 million people are eligible to vote. The area includes historic cities such as Treviso, Vicenza and Verona.
Activists say that the latest polling shows that 65% of voters in the region support cutting ties with Rome.
Venice famously was an independent city state for a millennium. The last doge of “La Serenissima”, or Most Serene Republic of Venice, was deposed by Napoleon in 1797. Later it spent 60 years as part of the Austrian empire before being annexed in 1866 to the newly-unified Kingdom of Italy.
If the vote goes in favour of independence, the future state will be called “Repubblica Veneta”, or Republic of Veneto. But campaigners recognise that the vote is not binding on the government in Rome and could provoke a constitutional crisis. At the same time, they promise to begin taking measures to withhold taxes, a step which could be seen as unilateral declaration of independence.
An independence movement has been brewing in the region since the 1970s and is gaining momentum with residents’ dissatisfaction with what they believe is inefficient rule from Rome and resentment at tax revenues leaving the area.
These feelings are similar to those expressed by about half the population of Catalonia. By coincidence, the vote will take place on the same day as Crimea's referendum on independence from Ukraine.
Not everyone in the Veneto wants to split completely from Italy with some lobbying for change but still within Italy. Others go further by saying not only do they wish to leave Italy, but the euro, the EU and Nato as well.
