PRESS OFFICE OF “PLEBISCITO.EU”

— PRESS RELEASE —

WASHINGTON                March 15, 2014

VENETO INDEPENDENCE LEADERS ARRESTED BY ITALIAN MILITARY
RUSSIAN AND VENETIAN REPORTERS ALSO HELD FOR IDENTIFICATION AND QUESTIONING

E-VOTING MAINFRAME UNDER HACKER ATTACK FROM FRENCH IP ADDRESS

Washington, DC – On March 14 Russian reporters Alla Demidova and Olga Kameneva flew from Moscow to Venice with an entire NTV troupe to film a reportage on the referendum of independence of Veneto to be held on March 16. The most adequate place to interview supporters of the rebirth of the Venetian Republic had to be in front of the Dogal Palace, where for centuries prominent Venetian families met to rule over their maritime empire. While interviewer and interviewees were surrounded by curious tourists and their flashing cameras, the surreal happened.

The Italian military police, a.k.a. Carabinieri, arrived escorted by 25 army soldiers wearing bullet proof vests. They ordered the Russian cameraman, as well as his Venetian colleague from local TV station Antenna Tre, to immediately stop filming, and took down the Venetian flags that two referendum organizers were carrying. “It is severely forbidden to wave St. Mark’s flag in St. Mark’s square!” yelled the Carabinieri commander (he refused to provide his name). He then proceeded by requesting documents for identification and questioning of Gianluca Busato, president of venetosi.org, the committee for the Yes vote, Orazio Scomazzon and Raffaele Serafini, coordinators of venetosi.org for Vicenza’s province.

The carabiniere then requested documents from the Antenna Tre journalists and the Russian NTV troupe. He refused the Russian passports as not valid in Italy because they were written in Cyrillic and pretended to see valid documents. He later accepted them once it was pointed out to him that they also had an English version, and accepted Serafini’s translation of the Russian passports from English to Venetian. He finally demanded identification to two Japanese citizens who were filming the whole scene while in line for their gondola ride.

Serafini, Scomazzon and Busato were then brought in to the Carabinieri station for further questioning. Once released they were met by detective Zago of the Italian police in Venice, who was investigating why the military police was interfering with civilians and journalists. Zago confirmed that Italian law forbids waving St. Mark’s flag in St. Mark’s square, but he added that technically the area between the Dogal Palace and the gondola’s station, where the arrest happened, is not considered part of the square, which is only in front of St. Mark’s basilica around the corner Everywhere else in the city people can display the flag of their patron saint without fearing military intimidation.

While this lost in translation incident happened in Venice, in nearby Treviso the mainframe of plebiscito.eu, the bipartisan committee in charge of the referendum procedures, received a massive hacker attack. “We have in our database the vital records of all 3.8 million adult Venetian citizens and their voting codes, and without it we would not be able to verify the validity and uniqueness of each vote” explains Alessandro Giacomella, Chief IT Officer of plebiscito.eu “the attack (a combination of DDOS and other brute-force attempts to unlock our systems) arrived from French IP, but we managed to neutralize that in a minute”

PRESS OFFICE OF “PLEBISCITO.EU”

— PRESS RELEASE —

LOS ANGELES                  March 12, 2014

IN FOUR DAYS VENETO VOTES TO SECEDE FROM ITALY

AFTER GRILLO, GOVERNOR ZAIA ALSO WITHDRAWS HIS SUPPORT

March 16 referendum will also ask Venetians if they want the new Venetian Republic to be part of the European Union, to adopt the Euro, and to be a NATO ally.

Los Angeles, CA – After expressing his complete support for March 16 referendum on the independence of Veneto during an interview on Radio 24, Veneto’s Governor Luca Zaia has stunningly withdrew his blessing just five days before the vote. The daily newspaper Libero reports that the Northern Leagues’ governor stated he will not vote as it would be a contradiction since it is his own provvedimento. He instead suggested waiting and see what happens on November 9 with the referendum on Catalonia’s independence.

This is the second blow that the referendum committee Plebiscito.eu receives in the week prior to the vote, as opposition leader Beppe Grillo also had initially sustained the referendum on March 8, and then immediately back pedaled on March 9. “Zaia is trying to belittle the March 16 referendum by calling it a petition because the Regional Government is being bypassed by an astonishing coalition of City Councils” explains Franco Rocchetta, founder of Liga Veneta, the precursor and co-founder of the (originally fairly acting) Northern League. “The Region has stalled, and an overwhelming number of Venetian town halls have banded together to have the referendum on March 16.” 90 percent of Venetian towns have provided citizens’ vital record information to Plebiscito.eu in order to have them receive election documents. Venetians will not only be asked on the ballot “Do You Want Veneto to Become an Independent and Sovereign Federal Republic?”, but they will also nominate ten delegates to execute the declaration of independence. This would delegitimize the regional governing body and indirectly dethrone Zaia’s leadership with a massive popular vote.

In addition to voting on independence and nominating ten delegates, on March 16 Venetian citizens will also be asked to decide on three foreign relations issues. “Do you want the Venetian Republic to join the European Union?”, “Do you want the Venetian Republic to adopt the Euro as the national currency?”, “Do you want the Venetian Republic to be a NATO ally?”. It is the first time any Italian citizens are directly asked to make decisions on foreign policy, and the possibility of declaring a new independent Venetian Republic required directly consulting the people. “There might be a two-third majority of Venetian citizens in favor of independence, and there might be leaders committed to make it immediately executive” explains political expert Gianfranco Favaro, “but there are fierce contrasting views on the aftermath. The best way is to have the majority decide”. In particular, Veneto Business, the trade association that has financed the referendum campaign is pro Euro and pro EU, but it is not at all certain that this is the majority view among Venetians.