Letter: Out of Italy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Contrary to what Anne Hanley writes ("Padania dream fades after Bossi's flop", 15 September), the challenge of the Northern League's separatist movement has only begun. Umberto Bossi, with his 59 MPs and 3.7 million votes at the last Italian elections, now leads the largest secessionist movement in Europe.
The Austrian statesman Metternich declared that Italy was merely "a geographic expression". Now, 135 years later, it is clear that regional allegiances far outweigh national ones. A Sicilian is first and foremost a Sicilian and only secondly an Italian. A unified political entity called Italy was created through military conquest from Piedmont, but Italians were never really woven into a single national consciousness. Now the centralised, bureaucratic and inept state apparatus, largely run by Roman and Southern politicians, has begun to break down.
The independent nation of Padania may appear an amusing fiction, but fictions have a surprising habit of becoming reality.
Rev Frank Julian Gelli
London W8
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments