160 years ago, the Italian ruling class of Istria, gathered in Poreč, cast "None" on the ballot papers to elect their representative in Vienna. In 1861, the eastern Adriatic lands were still under the rule of the Habsburg Empire, but the electoral college of Istria was viewed with greater interest in the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. This gesture, which would later be imitated by the electoral assemblies of Fiume and Zadar, fully placed Istria and its representatives in the wake of the Italian Risorgimento, to which local patriots imbued an autonomist connotation, a legacy of centuries of careful rule by the Most Serene Republic of Venice in those lands. On the occasion of the anniversary of that event and the 2021 Day of Remembrance, the Veneto Regional Council, in collaboration with the Federation of Associations of Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian Exiles, organized the conference " The autonomy of the Veneto lands, a look between past and present: one hundred and sixty years after the Diet of No One " on Thursday 25 February from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.

The event will take place in the Sala Cuoi of Palazzo Ferro Fini in Venice, seat of the Veneto Regional Council, and will be broadcast live on www.consiglioveneto.it

The conference, whose Proceedings will be published, intends to broaden the concept of "Remembrance" linked to the anniversary of February 10, going to embrace the centuries-old heritage of the Italian presence in the Eastern Adriatic in addition to the tragedies of the twentieth century. The intent of the works is to highlight how a robust autonomism is peculiar to the Italianness of the Adriatic that originates at the time of the Serenissima Republic of Venice, is preserved until the annexation at the end of the First World War of the Venezia Giulia to Italy (whose structure was instead strongly centralized) and is renewed starting from the Nineties.

 

Surgeries

 

Robert Ciambetti
President of the Regional Council of Veneto

Renzo Codarin
National President of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia

Franco Luxardo
President of the Association of Italian Dalmatians in the World – Free Municipality of Zadar in Exile 

Davide Bradanini
Consul General of Italy in Fiume

Pierfrancesco Sacco
Ambassador of Italy to Croatia

Davide Rossi
University of Trieste

Joseph of Vergottini
University of Bologna – President of FederEsuli
“The concept of “autonomy” in the constitutional twentieth century: a conceptual framework”

Kristjan Knez
President of the Society of Historical and Geographical Studies of Piran
“The 'nobody' of 1861. Episodes of the Provincial Diet of Istria and the Municipal Council of Fiume”

Esther Capuzzo
La Sapienza University of Rome
“The End of the Autonomy System in the New Provinces”

Dario Stevanato
University of Trieste – member of the delegation of the Veneto Region in the negotiations with the State for the achievement of further forms of autonomy
“Perspectives of autonomy”