Italy is seeing difficult times, politically and socially, and now economically too (as the entire West World).
Since well before unity, contemporary Italy was always deeply divided by geography, climate, folk culture/language and ethnicity.
I do not mean simply North vs. South, which is anyway the main division: but also Venice vs. Turin or Bologna vs. Rome or Palermo vs. Naples.
Despite state propaganda, this situation was and is well known to all Italians, north to south, rich and poor, right-wing and left-wing. Also, many people (as Sardinians, Venetians, Sicilians) feel themselves first as their region inhabitants rather than part of the nation (so e.g. a Venetian feel himself as Venetian and Italian, but above all as Venetian, while a Roman is Italian at all).
And, moreover, the "external" view of this by other regions marks the differences even more (e.g. here in Veneto we feel different from Bologna and very different from Naples, while Bologna inhabitants feel us different as well and Neapolitans consider ourselves as "Germans", I mean the way Catalunyans or Scottish feel different from Spanish or English).
Now, during difficult times, the deep and old divisions come out.
More, they are economically and socially sanctioned. Dividing Italy in 3, we have from Eurostat data:
- North: pro-capite wealth among the richest European countries; educational system among the best ones;
- Centre: high pro-capite wealth, comparable or slightly more than germany and Sweden; educational system on average or slightly below european standards;
- South: the poorest European area, worse than Portugal or Greece; educational system at the level of Mexico.
More, the north-east area including Triveneto and Lombardia ("Lombardo-Veneto") is even wealthier and better educated, and its manufacturing industry is likely the best for direct profits of Europe (considering the amount of income due to production of goods and services, and taking the costs to buy materials, goods and services to produce the first ones, Lombardo-Veneto has an yearly 6.6billions€ gain vs. 5.5billions€ gain for entire Germany) and a strong "national feeling" about culture, identity and society.
So, what about Italy in a few years splitting into 3-4-5 states? or in the event of North declaring its indipendence (with likely Venetia/Lombardo-Veneto to become indipendent from the North)?
What would, in your opinion, be the consequences for other "small countries" in Europe, like Scotland, Basque Countries, Catalunya, Corsica etc. willing to become indipendent?
And how would EU, NATO, UN, Russia react to this secession? |