Northern Italy votes for greater autonomy amid Catalan crisis

MILAN: Two of Italy’s wealthiest northern regions voted overwhelmingly in favour of greater autonomy, in the latest example of the powerful centrifugal forces reshaping European politics.

Voters in the Veneto region that includes Venice and Lombardy, home to Milan, turned out on Sunday at the high end of expectations to support the principle of more powers being devolved from Rome.

The votes took place against the backdrop of the crisis created by Catalonia’s push for independence.

Veneto President Luca Zaia hailed the results, which were delayed slightly by a hacker attack, as an institutional “big bang”.

But he reiterated that the region’s aspirations were not comparable to the secessionist agenda that has provoked a constitutional crisis in Spain.

Turnout was projected at around 58% in Veneto, where support for autonomy is stronger, and just over 40% in Lombardy.

The presidents of both regions said over 95% of voters who cast ballots had, as expected, done so to support greater autonomy.

The votes are not binding, but they will give the right-wing leaders of the two regions a strong political mandate when they embark on negotiations with the central government on the devolution of powers and tax revenues from Rome.

Secessionist sentiment in Veneto and Lombardy is restricted to fringe groups, but analysts see the autonomy drive as reflecting the same cocktail of issues and pressures that resulted in Scotland’s narrowly defeated independence vote, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the Catalan crisis. — AFP