Venetians shun calls for autonomy again as tide turns against reformers

VENETIANS have shunned en masse the fifth vote in 40 years on whether to choose autonomy from the mainland city of Mestre, which would allow the city to take issues around rising seas and the negative effects of tourism into their own hands. Only 21.7 per cent of 206,553 potential voters showed up at the polls, far short of the 50 per cent required for the referendum to be valid.

Venice became a single administration with Mestre in 1926, when its population, and that of its 11 islands, was roughly six times larger than its neighbour’s. The situation reversed in the following decades as new factories created jobs in Mestre, while Venetians began to abandon a city where life was made increasingly hard by mass tourism and frequent flooding.

After the devastating floods that hit the world heritage city in November, the subject of local governance became a key point for residents, increasingly worried about the problems that are putting Venice’s future at risk: giant cruise ships in the lagoon, a history of corrupt local politics and the impact of 20million tourists a year on its fragile environment. Residents in favour of a “Yes” vote argued that granting them more autonomy would allow the city to focus on these crucial issues

But Luigi Brugnaro, Venice’s mayor, had warned the city would have faced years in bureaucracy and lawsuits on the division of assets, if the region was divided into separate municipalities.

The idea of giving Venice more autonomy, however, is not new. Yesterday’s referendum was the fifth in 40 years. The last vote, in 2003, also failed due to a low turnout.