Franco Rocchetta (born Venice, 12 April 1947) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, philologist and history populariser, who is usually described as the "father" of present-day Venetian nationalism and independentism.[1][2][3][4]
Early life and political career
Since his university years, Rocchetta has been a Venetist, a Europeanist, and a passionate of historical, archeological and linguistic studies, and, as such, he was active in Radical and green movements.[5] Before coming of age, he was investigated for separatist writings on walls and for his solidarity with South Tyrolean activists.[6][7]
In July 1994, after years of juxtaposition with federal secretary Bossi[16] on several institutional, organisational, ethnic, ethic and economic issues,[17][18] Rocchetta left the party before the end of a congress in which his wife and protégé Marilena Marin was replaced by Fabrizio Comencini as national secretary.[19][20] After his exit from Lega Nord, he unsuccessfully launched Liga Nathion Veneta.[21][22] He later joined the Federalists and Liberal Democrats and National Alliance, prior to leaving politics.[23]
In 2013 Rocchetta returned to active politics after virtually 20 years of absence from the political scene as a member of Plebiscite 2013, a cross-party committee which organised the 2014 referendum on Veneto's independence,[27][28] which saw the participation of 63.2% of eligible voters and the support of 89.1% among them.[29][30] Later on Rocchetta, along with Andrea Arman and Giovanni Dalla-Valle, distanced from the Venetist organisation over disagreements with the "Delegation of Ten".[31][32]
On 2 April 2014, ten days after the 2014 Venetian independence referendum was held, Rocchetta was arrested, along with a group of Venetian separatists (including leading members of the Venetian Most Serene Government and the European Federalist Free Entrepreneurs), for suspected crimes including criminal association for terrorism and subversion of the democratic order.[34] On 18 April Rocchetta, who had declared his innocence and pacifism since the beginning,[35][36] was released from prison as a tribunal in Brescia did not uphold the accusations.[37][38]
^Alessandro Casellato, "«Identità Veneta». Appunti per una genealogia" ("... Franco Rocchetta, veneziano, classe 1947, era un cultore di studi archeologici e linguistici. In gioventù, nel 1969, mentre era studente universitario (medicina all'Università di Padova) aveva fatto parte di un gruppo ecologista radicale che aveva cercato di impedire il passaggio delle petroliere in laguna e che si era firmato «Fronte di Liberazione Veneto»..."), in Alessandro Casellato and Livio Vanzetto, "United Colors of Noaltri. Localismi e globalizzazione nel Veneto contemporaneo", Sommacampagna 2006
^Giovanni Fracasso, Alle origini della Liga Veneta. Dall'embrione alla diaspora (1977-1987), Tesi di Laurea, Università di Cà Foscari, Venezia, Anno Accademico 1999-2000
^Giannandrea Mencini, "Il Fronte per la difesa di Venezia e della Laguna e le denunce di Indro Montanelli, con un Saggio Introduttivo di Gherardo Ortalli ed un'Appendice di Paolo Rosa Salva", Venice 2005 : "...vi era poi un forte senso dell'appartenenza e della collettività fra i soci, a tal punto che non vi erano portavoci o responsabili. «Vorremmo, per abitudine di cronisti» continua Radius [Pietro Radius, "I crociati della Laguna", in Corriere d'Informazione, November the 19th and the 20th of 1970] «fare nomi e descrivere persone : il padre, il figlio, il nipote, l'amico, la ragazza in abito rosso, la giovane straniera. Ma essi ci hanno pregato di non farlo. Preferiamo che la gente parli solo del Fronte. I nomi non contano»..."
^Centro Studi Internazionali Paolo Sarpi, 1969-1999 - Onore ai volontari veneti, a large placard (70x100 cm), printed in many languages, distributed and fixed in 1999 amongst the communities of the Venet Republic - from river Adda to Crete and Cyprus (both South- and North Cyprus) - and the venet communities scattered all over the world, quoted and partially transcribed in "Venetismi. Diario di un gruppo di studio sul Veneto contemporaneo, 1997-95", by Alessadro Casellato (editor), Sommacampagna 2000
^Marc Lazar, L'Italie Existe-T-Elle? Entretien avec Franco Rocchetta, Politique Internationale, n° 58, Hiver 1992/1993
^Enrico Pucci, Il federalismo è un bluff. Lega serva di Roma, Bossi al guinzaglio di Silvio, La Tribuna di Treviso, the 7th of February 2011; vide : bossi/guinzaglio/tribunatreviso/cronaca/2011
^Damian Tambini, Two interviews with Bossi and Rocchetta, Telos , Number 98-99, Winter 1993-Spring 1994
^Osvaldo Migotto, Il Senatur è in acque torbide da molti anni. Intervista a Franco Rocchetta, Corriere del Ticino, the 7th of April 2012; vide : lega/acquetorbide/corriereticino
^Marilena Marin and Franco Rocchetta, In reply to Gian Antonio Stella, in Corriere della Sera, October the 8th, 2011; vide : interventi e repliche-corriere-della-sera/marin/08 ottobre 2011
^Francesco Jori, Dalla Łiga alla Lega. Storia, movimenti, protagonisti, Marsilio, Venice 2009, pp. 90-91
