Italian police stops armed rebellion in Venice!

[Papay]

http://news.yahoo.com/italy-seizes-t...142335108.html

Rome (AFP) - Italian police on Wednesday arrested 24 alleged separatists for terrorism after thwarting a plan to take over St Mark's Square in Venice armed with guns and a rudimentary "tank" made from a digger.




Police said they had arrested activists from a group called "The Alliance" on charges of "terrorism conspiracy and subversion of the democratic order," which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The underground group, made up of radical separatists from the Lombardy, Sardinia and Veneto regions, had been planning to "liberate" the iconic Venetian piazza using weapons from the Albanian mafia and set up a new independent government, police said.
They were planning an attack "by hundreds of people, some of them armed" and "an insurrection from the inhabitants of northern Italy most affected by the economic crisis," law enforcers said in a statement.
"The tank was built to be used for a spectacular action on St Mark's Square," police said.
The plan comes after more than two million residents of Venice and its surrounding region last month voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking away from the rest of the country and forming their own state.
The online poll, although not legally binding and open to manipulation, showed the strenth of separatist feeling in Italy's northern regions.
Local media named one of the men arrested Wednesday as Franco Rocchetta, a former lawmaker for the Italy's Northern League party who helped organise the referendum in the wake of Crimea's break from Ukraine.
Members of the Northern League, which used to call for full independence for northern Italy and now advocates for broad autonomy, dismissed the investigation as "ridiculous and shameful".
"If the centralist state thinks it can scare or shut up men like Rocchetta, it is making a big mistake," said Antonio Borghezio, a European member of parliament from the Northern League.
Police said members of the group arrested Wednesday were also planning to set up "embassies" in "friendly countries" such as Serbia and Switzerland to obtain international recognition.
The "tank" they were planning to use was in fact a modified Fiat-Allis excavator with tracks had been fitted with "armoured protection, video cameras and a gun turret still to be added".
Video footage released by the police showed people apparently welding metal sheets onto the digger.
The police said the suspects had fired blanks from the "tank" to test it in a warehouse in Casale di Scodosia, a small town of around 5,000 inhabitants around 90 kilometres (56 miles) southwest of Venice.
Italian media reported that two of those arrested were part of a group known as "Serenissimi" that occupied the Campanile on St Mark's Square for two days in 1997 in a symbolic protest that inspired the new group.
"The Alliance bases itself on the programme of the Serenissimi but with more aggressive and violent methods," said the investigators, who are led by the prosecutor's office in Brescia in the Lombardy region.

So is seems that Italy is one more EU state that could collapse in the near future

[Stavroforos]

Yes yes, every state in the EU will collapse because every state in the EU has various nationalities which make it up.

[Garbarsardar]

So is seems that Italy is one more EU state that could collapse in the near future

Absolutely. The arrest of 24 loonies who attempted to make their own panzer precedes the collapse of European states all the time. I cannot immediately recall which was the last time a European state collapsed but I am certain that Italy is "one more" and that the near future is,erm,near. And future. Yes. That. Excellent idea.

[Plan C]

I wonder if this is related to the results of the Veneto referendum from 21 March. It would appear that Venetians feel pretty strongly about the subject, seems that vote was overwhelmingly in favour of separation from Rome, which flat out refuses to recognise the result. Understandably so, perhaps, but it may be a harbinger of further unrest.

[Papay]

I wonder if this is related to the results of the Veneto referendum from 21 March. It would appear that Venetians feel pretty strongly about the subject, seems that vote was overwhelmingly in favour of separation from Rome, which flat out refuses to recognise the result. Understandably so, perhaps, but it may be a harbinger of further unrest.

The problem with Italy is that the Italian peninsula spent too much time being many seperate states. Italy as a country is a very modern term

[Garbarsardar]

The problem with Italy is that the Italian peninsula spent too much time being many seperate states. Italy as a country is a very modern term

Italy (1861) as a country is 10 years older than Germany (1871), and don't even start me on how many different states Germany was and how much time these states spent being separate. Do you think Germany will collapse next? Or it collapsed 10 years ago and we never noticed?

The end is nigh etc.

[fkizz]

Italy (1861) as a country is 10 years older than Germany (1871), and don't even start me on how many different states Germany was and how much time these states spent being separate. Do you think Germany will collapse next? Or it collapsed 10 years ago and we never noticed?

The end is nigh etc.

Germany has never recovered the territories it had 1900s. And lost the right to have a decent army. This is masked by their strong economy, but germany as a nation has taken some unmistakable unrecoverable blows. They lost around 30%-40% of their former territory, even after east germany re annexation.

[Adar]

Germany has never recovered the territories it had 1900s. And lost the right to have a decent army. This is masked by their strong economy, but germany as a nation has taken some unmistakable unrecoverable blows. They lost around 30%-40% of their former territory, even after east germany re annexation.

But none of that land was lost due to armed rebellion or a collapse due to separatism.

It is actually quite impressive that no part has left Germany voluntarily despite the country loosing two world wars in less than 100 years.

[Farnan]

I know there is a lot of discontent in Veneto due to a belief they are subsidizing lazy Southern Italians and concern over a loss of the Venetian language.

[Astaroth]

I started deleting posts. Then I realised that the OP consists of nothing more than a link, a quote and one sentence, i.e. it provides insufficient basis for discussion.

Closed.

Feel free to PM me if you want to add to the OP and subsequently have this reopened.