Renato Martin (

Jesolo Jesolo (; ) is a seaside resort town and ''comune'' of 26,873 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy. With around 5.5 million visitors per year, Jesolo ranks second among beach resorts in the country for number of tourists, and t ...

, 1963) is an Italian politician.

Political career

A member of

Liga Veneta Liga Veneta (; ; abbr. LV), whose complete name is (), is a regionalist political party active in Veneto. The LV, whose ideology combines Venetian nationalism and support for fiscal federalism, was established in 1979 under the slogan "farthe ...

–

Lega Nord Lega Nord (LN; ), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing politics, right-wing, federalism, federalist, populism, populist and conservatism, conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. In the run-up to the 201 ...

and close friend of

Jörg Haider Jörg Haider (; 26 January 1950 – 11 October 2008) was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Au ...

, Martin was elected Mayor of

in 1993 and re-elected in 1997. In 1998, when Liga Veneta split between Venetists and Padanists, Martin sided with the second group. However, after he had lost the leadership race to Gian Paolo Gobbo, he too chose to leave the party. In 1999 he thus launched Veneto Padanian Federal Republic (''Veneto Repubblica Federale Padana'', VRFP), a short-lived Venetist-Padanist party rooted above all in Jesolo. In 2002 Martin's list won the municipal elections there and Martin, who was not allowed to serve a third term as Mayor, was appointed Deputy-Mayor by his protégé

Francesco Calzavara Francesco Calzavara (born 18 September 1964 in San Donà di Piave) is a Venetist politician from Veneto, Italy. A member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord since 1993,

. After the brief experience of VRFP, Martin joined

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

as an independent and served as regional councillor in Veneto. Those who disagreed with Martin's decision to join Forza Italia formed the Party for Independent Veneto (''Partito per il Veneto Indipendente'') under Fabrizio Dal Col. This party was instrumental in the organization of a "referendum for self-determination" in Jesolo (on the example of Catalan independence referendums), which was celebrated in September 2009: only the 20% of voters showed up, but 97% of them voted in favour of independence. Martin had however a troubled relationship with Forza Italia: for instance, in 2007 he tried to unseat Calzavara, who had become a full member of Forza Italia, but he lost.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Renato Venetist politicians Forza Italia politicians Living people 1963 births Members of the Regional Council of Veneto 20th-century Italian politicians 21st-century Italian politicians