'Why Lombardy should secede from Italy' by Giacomo Consalez

'Why Lombardy should secede from Italy'

Giacomo Consalez - April 1, 2012


Italy is a failed experiment. Started in 1861, it was foisted upon its inhabitants by an oligarchy assembled by Savoy monarchs and the English masonry. The Piedmontese imposed their version of the centralized regime coined in France by Napoleon the 1st and subsequently exported by French armies halfway across Europe. When the Piedmontese were welcomed into Lombardy, our institutions, once citizen-friendly and efficient, took a 100-year leap back in history.

The idea of Italy as a nation was (and still remains) a pure artifact. Only 1-2% of the population of today's italy could speak or write the language at the time of unification. Local tongues spoken in the north were not understood in the south and vice versa. The piedmontese rule was enforced through slaughtery and mass executions in the south, as well as armed repression of popular unrest in the north.

In an attempt to unite a highly heterogeneous population and foster a sense of belonging to a shared national identity, italian cabinets, which failed in promoting basic literacy, building roads and railways, or setting up public services, played the colonialist card, undertaking a disastrous series of armed expeditions culminating in military defeats in northern and eastern Africa.

Meanwhile, the north continued developing its industries and trades, turning into one of the most productive territories in Europe, while the south failed to instate a functional economy and started living off of government subsidies supported by north italian taxpayers. At the beginning of the XX century, a series of corrupt and inept governments paved the way to the advent of the fascist regime.

After the bloodshed of two world wars that were lost by italy and rescued by its allies (WW1), or former foes (WW2), italy became a republic through a referendum, despite the fierce opposition of the south italian public opinion. WW2 was followed by a period of economic growth fostered by the Marshall plan. Instead of capitalizing on its sudden and unexpected wealth, italy turned into a pseudosocialist economy, run by an endless series of short-lived cabinets that thrived on political patronage, exchanging improductive government jobs for votes, particularly in the south.

To this day, the south italian economy has failed to get off the ground. Organized crime is rampant and an overwhelming majority of the population lives off of redundant and costly government jobs. Talented and wilful south italians (together with a minority of dangerous criminals) have moved to the north and integrated into the north italian society and economy.

Despite an unrelented injection of taxpayer money, the south has failed to emerge from its primeval condition and has developed a fatalistic attitude, whereby the government (i.e. north italian taxpayers) should promote growth and sustainability in southern italy. This drainage of taxpayer money is costing Lombardy (by far the main contributor to this parasitic system) a fortune, causing the Lombard economy to lose competitiveness, due to soaring taxes on labor and income.

Some people in Lombardy, including myself, believe that our region should follow its natural leaning toward a bottom-up political structure, in which the citizenry gets to control its representatives through direct democracy, thus containing government expenditure and diminishing the abuse of political authority. Many of us think that in a free market economy, with some tight rules protecting workers' rights and the environment, Lombardy could be a happy, community-driven federal democracy, open to innovation, science and the best of European civilization.

.