Venetian Nationalism

Venetian nationalism (also Venetism, from the Venetian/Italian name, Venetismo) is an ideology and a regionalist movement demanding more autonomy, or even independence from Italy, for Veneto, and promoting the re-discovery the Republic of Venice's heritage, traditions, culture and language. According to Paolo Possamai, Venetism is "the strain of Veneto and of Venetians toward the recognition of their identity and autonomy". Venetism is a broad movement, which definitely includes Venetist parties, but also encompasses people from all the political parties.

Core Venetists consider Veneto to be a nation distinct from Italy and often refuse the validity of the result of the referendum with which Veneto (or, better, Venetia, see below) was united with Italy in 1866. Some, as the members of the Venetian National Party/Veneto State and those of Venetian Independence, propose a re-edition of that referendum and campaign for the independence of Venetia, a country that would be composed of all the territories of the historical Venetian Republic, covering the current Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, some areas of Lombardy (Brescia, Bergamo, Crema and a portion of the Province of Mantua), and a portion of Trentino.

Although it usually refers to the whole Venetian autonomist movement, the term "Venetism" is sometimes used to identify specifically the very Venetists who refuse the concept of Padania, a proposed state by Lega Nord, of which Liga Veneta (the most successful Venetist party so far) is the "national" section in Veneto, while Alberto Gardin, a pro-independence publisher who supports the boycott of Italian elections, considers "Venetism" as a "partisan concept, that is part of the Italian political system (Venetists, as Socialists, Communists, PD or PdL, etc.)".