Venice rejects referendum on splitting from its sister city Mestre

People of Venice rejected the referendum on splitting from sister city Mestre in the fifth vote in 40 years. A mere 18.6 per cent of 2,06,553 potential voters had shown up at the polls on December 1. The bulk of the votes in favor of a split had come from the mainland in most of the previous votes, in 1979, 1989, 1994 and 2003. The two cities became a single administration in 1926 when Mestre's petrochemical plant was being built. The population of Venice and its 11 islands was roughly six times that of nearby Mestre at that time. 

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Mestre's economy grew stronger than that of Venice

Gradually, the situation changed as new factories created jobs in Mestre while Venetians began to leave a city where life was rendered increasingly hard by mass tourism and frequent flooding. There has been a considerable change in the number of residents as well as Venice and the islands now have 91,000 residents against Mestre's 1,77,000. Venice was devastated by the second-highest flooding on record in recent days. This led to speculation in some quarters that the yes camp could draw strength from the argument that a more local administration would be better placed to solve Venice's very specific problems. 

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Venice Mayor, Parliamentarians oppose the split

Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, is vehemently against the referendum and even took legal action to try to block it, despite promising a vote in his 2015 election campaign. He has urged citizens to snub the ballot, arguing that independence would come at a huge cost and that it would take years to untangle bureaucracy. Nicola Pellicani, a parliamentarian for the center-left Democratic party who lives in Mestre, also opposes the referendum. To believe that big problems that have been there for years can be resolved by a small commune is an illusion. What we need is a strong administration – we have never had this.

(With inputs from agencies)

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