Italy unification anniversary divides more than unites

Italy is about to mark the 150th anniversary of its unification but in a country where local identity often trumps any sense of nationhood, there are more party poopers than candles on the birthday cake.With its prime minister mired in sex and corruption scandals and its image abroad at a low point, even the governments decision to declare March 17 a public holiday did not manage to inject a sorely needed dose of sense of pride and unity.According to political analyst James Walston of the American University in Rome, Italys history and culture give the country weight on the world stage, and its age of 150 years makes it one of the older nation states.However, he said that scandals surrounding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and the inability of his government to make a strong stand, had reduced Italys importance in the international arena.Italys 150th birthday party is shining a magnifying glass more on what divides the country than what unites it.Two cabinet ministers from the Northern League, a pro-devolution party in Berlusconis coalition government, voted against making the day a holiday and a third did not attend the meeting.This sparked fresh accusations, including from a former Italian president, that their long-term aim is not federalism but secession by the prosperous north. The confusion was such that the education minister vowed that schools would be open but was overruled. Business leaders said the last thing the economy needed was another non-working day so a holiday later in the year was scrapped in exchange.Italy was only united as a single political entity in 1861 after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Naples by a nationalist movement led by the revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi and backed by the rival Kingdom of Piedmont.But strong regional identities remain firmly entrenched throughout the country, with a particularly marked division between northern Italy and the poorer southern half.The biggest party pooper by far has been the Northern League, whose battle cry is Roma Ladrona (Rome the big thief) because, its political apostles preach, the capital takes taxes from the hard-working civic north and waste it on the slothful south.Critics say the League is racist and xenophobic and harbours dreams of an independent Padania (a name derived from the Latin word for the river Po) made up of eight regions.Even though Im very critical of national unity, and I am maybe the most critical within of the entire Northern League, Ill behave like those dignified citizens behaved, who have abided by the law and who behaved like democratic citizens, respecting the institutions. But certainly in my heart I feel the self-determination of the Padania region, Mario Borghezio, one of the founders of the Northern League told a news conference in Rome on Tuesday.The north-south divide, which was to have disappeared when Garibaldi landed in Sicily to start his northward march, still hangs around the countrys neck. But in Milan, residents said marking the anniversary carried an importance for the Italians.