Gianluca Busato (born

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

, 14 May 1969) is an Italian entrepreneur, engineer, activist and politician who is mostly known as the main organiser of the unofficial and online Venetian independence referendum, which took place in March 2014. As a university student of Engineering at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...

, Busato joined

Liga Veneta Liga Veneta ( vec, Łiga Vèneta; en, Venetian League; abbr. LV), whose complete name is ( en, Venetian League for Salvini Premier), is a regionalist political party active in Veneto. The LV, whose ideology combines Venetian nationalism and su ...

–

Lega Nord Lega Nord (; acronym: LN), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing, federalist, populist and conservative political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as (), without changing its official n ...

and was elected municipal councillor in

Casier Casier is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Treviso, Veneto region, in north-eastern Italy. The commune has its seat in Dosson di Casier, and includes the localities of Frescada (partially), Le Grazie (partially), La Sicilia, Cà Matte. Cul ...

. Having been expelled from that party, he was one of the founding members of the

Padanian Independentist Movement The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications def ...

in 1997 and was its spokesperson for two years. In this capacity, he was convicted for having been an outspoken supporter of

Padania Padania (, also , ) is an alternative name and proposed independent state encompassing Northern Italy, derived from the name of the Po River (Latin ''Padus''), whose basin includes much of the region, centered on the Po Valley (), the major pla ...

and of the

Venetian Most Serene Government The Venetian Most Serene Government (''Veneto Serenissimo Governo'', VSG), whose members are often referred to as ''Serenissimi'', is a political organization active in Veneto. The group's goal is independence and self-government for Venetian lan ...

's seizure of St. Mark's Campanile in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. This last event led Busato to abandon his early Padanist feelings and to adhere to the Venetian independence movement. According to his own words, Busato returned to active politics only after the depenalisation of "crimes of opinion". In 2006 he wrote a pamphlet on independence and was a founding member of the

Venetians Movement Venetians Movement (''Movimento Veneti'') was a Venetian nationalism, Venetist separatism, separatist cross-party political movement which aims to promote independence regardless of individual political positions such as left or right, in a democ ...

and, a year later, he launched the

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

and avowedly

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

Venetian National Party The Venetian National Party (''Partito Nasionał Veneto'', PNV) was a Venetist, separatist and libertarian political party active in Veneto, Lombardy and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In September 2010 the party suspended its activities and its member ...

(PNV), and served as its national secretary from 2008 to 2010. He was later active, often taking leadership roles, in a succession of separatist outfits, all emerged from bulk of the PNV:

Veneto State Veneto State (''Veneto Stato'', VS) was a Venetist political party active in Veneto and eastern Lombardy. The party's goal to achieve full political independence for the former territories of the Venetian Republic from Italy through a referendum ...

(2010–2012),

Venetian Independence Venetian Independence ( it, Indipendenza Veneta, vec, Independensa Vèneta, IV) is a Venetist, liberal and, to some extent, libertarian political party active in Veneto. The party seeks to achieve full political independence for the former terr ...

(2012–2013), Plebiscite 2013 (2013–2014) and, finally,

Veneto Yes ''Plebiscito.eu'', originally known as Plebiscite 2013 ( it, Plebiscito 2013, P2013), is a supposedly cross-party nonpartisan committee that campaigns for the independence of Veneto from Italy. Its main leaders have been Lodovico Pizzati, a former ...

(since 2013). In 2014 Busato came to regional prominence as the main organiser of ''Plebiscito.eu'', an online referendum on Veneto's independence. According to the staff, 2.36 million Venetians (63.2% of all eligible voters) participated in the online referendum and 89.1% of them (that is to say 56.6% of all eligible voters) voted yes. This was enough for Busato and his followers to proclaim Veneto's independence from Italy in

on the night of 21 March. In the poll, ten "delegates for independence" were elected too: Busato was the most voted candidate with 135,306 preference votes. He has recently opened a crypto company in Slovenia, name
Enkronos
launching several ICOs since 2018. They claim to have collected 12 million dollars, both from Venetian people and other speculators.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Busato, Gianluca 1969 births Living people Politicians of Veneto Venetist politicians People from Treviso 20th-century Italian politicians 21st-century Italian politicians