MORE than 5m Italians took part on October 22nd in two referendums on granting autonomy to the rich, northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, which drew inevitable comparisons to the independence ballot three weeks earlier in Catalonia. Few in Italy travelled as far to cast their votes as Maurizio Zordan. The 53-year-old executive recently moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to run the American subsidiary of his family firm, which sells shop fittings for luxury-brand stores. But he felt so passionately about the referendum that he flew back to vote in his home town of Valdagno.
The governments of the two regions staged the ballots ostensibly to give themselves a popular mandate to open negotiations with Rome (even though they could have demanded talks without a vote). Both administrations are dominated by the Northern League, which once advocated secession for the richer north.
As in Catalonia, few people opposed to more autonomy bothered to vote against it, so the...Continue reading
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