DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY OF PADANIA
We, the Peoples of Padania,
gathered together along the great river Po from Emilia and Friuli, from Liguria,
Lombardia, and the Marche, from Piemonte, Romagna, and Sudtirol-Alto Adige, from
Toscana, Trentino, and Umbria, from Valle d'Aosta, the Veneto, and Venezia
Giulia,
united today, 15 September 1996, in Constitutional Convention, affirm and
declare:
When in the course in human events it becomes necessary for one Peoples to
dissolve the bands which bind them with another, to establish themselves as an
independent and sovereign community, and to assume the role assigned to them by
the Natural Law of Self-Determination among the nations of the Earth, respect
for International Society and all of humanity requires that they should declare
the reasons which impel them to the separation.
Since time immemorial, we live, we build, we work, we protect, we love these
lands handed down to us by our forebearers, bathed and quenched by the waters of
our great rivers;
Here we have invented an original way of living, of developing the arts, and of
working;
We belong to a historical area, Padania, which is strongly integrated socially
and economically, though in recognition of the due respect for the diversity of
the Peoples of which it is comprised;
These lands are united by the ties which run as deep as the enduring cycles of
the seasons revolving about them, as strong as the spirit of freedom of the
Peoples that inhabit them;
We, therefore, constitute a natural, cultural, social, and economic community
founded on shared values, culture, and history, and on harmonious social, moral,
and economic conditions;
Padania is our pride, our precious resource, and our only chance for freely and
fully expressing our individual natures and our feeling of community;
In contrast, the history of the Italian State has become the history of colonial
oppression, of economic exploitation, and of moral violence;
The Italian State has, over time, systematically occupied Padania's economic and
social system through its parasitic bureaucratic apparatus;
The Italian State has systematically annihilated every form of autonomy and
self-government of our Towns, our Provinces, and our Regions;
The Italian State has jeopardized the freedom of the future generations of
Padania, destroying enormous resources on fraudulent policies, on welfarism, on
the vote-pandering system, and on criminal enterprises which have irreversibly
led Italy down the path to bankruptcy;
The Italian State has deceptively forced the Peoples of Padania to be subjected
to systematic exploitation of their economic and financial resources, built up
through years of tireless daily work, to squander them on devastating welfarism,
the vote-pandering system, and mafia-style corruption in the South;
The Italian State has deliberately attempted to suppress the languages and the
cultural identities of the Peoples of Padania through the colonization of the
public education system;
The Italian State has imposed its unfair laws on the Peoples of Padania through
a judicial system applied with racist criteria;
The Italian State has sought to dominate the Peoples of Padania by assigning the
tasks and functions of public order and safety to Roman-style prefects and law
enforcement officers applying the most hateful forms of Statist colonialism;
The Italian State has appropriated the constituent powers of the Peoples of
Padania and has been deaf to ever-growing cries of protest;
For these reasons
We are profoundly convinced that the continued presence of Padania within the
confines of the Italian State would lead to gradual extinction of all hope of
rebirth and the annihilation of the identities of its Peoples;
We are aware that a free and independent Padania will become a political and
institutional focal point for the construction of a Europe of the Regions and of
the Peoples;
We are convinced that a free and independent Padania will guarantee a decisive
contribution to cooperation and tolerance and to peace among the Peoples of the
Earth;
We, united here today, represent the last hope that the oppressive Rome-based
regime can come to a rapid conclusion;
We, the Peoples of Padania
Since the courage and the faith of those who have come before us in the struggle
for the freedom of Peoples are our guiding light which must lead us to
irrevocably take charge of our own destiny;
Since we want our acts to be guided by the respect we owe to ourselves, to our
forebearers, and to our children;
Since we recognize the unalienable sovereign power of all Peoples to freely
decide with whom to be, how and by whom they should be governed;
Since we affirm our right and our will to assume the full powers of a State, to
levy and collect all taxes, vote all laws, and sign all treaties;
Since Padania will be all women and men who inhabit it, who recognize it, and
since we are those Peoples;
Since the hour has finally arrived to set forth on the great enterprise of
giving birth to this new Country which we baptize today with the name Padania;
In the name and with the authority which derives to us from the Natural Law of
Self-Determination and from our free conscience;
Calling in the name of our free Institutions the teachings of love for liberty
and the courage of our Padanian forebearers as witnesses to the honesty of our
intentions
We, the Peoples of Padania
solemnly proclaim:
PADANIA IS AN INDEPENDENT AND SOVEREIGN
FEDERAL REPUBLIC
In support of this Declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.