European Federalist Free Entrepreneurs

The LIFE aims at representing and defending the interests of small and medium-sized businesses (which are under-represented in big-business dominated Confindustria, Italian employers' federation), and takes a libertarian[1] stance against big government, red tape, high taxation and monopolies.

[2][3] The LIFE was founded in 1994 by a group of Venetist entrepreneurs (among them Fabio Padovan, Lucio Chiavegato and Diego Cancian) who were demanding fiscal federalism for Veneto, as an answer to what they called "the fiscal and bureaucratic oppression" by the Italian government, perceived as centralist and distant from the interests and the rights of the "Venetian people".

[4] Since its foundation, the LIFE started to evolve to be a more broadly-based association and indeed in the last years it gained strength among entrepreneurs of Lombardy, Piedmont and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Examples include Fabio Padovan (member of the Chamber of Deputies for Lega Nord in 1992–1994, founder of Fronte Marco Polo in 2000 and founding member of Liga Fronte Veneto in 2001), Giorgio Panto (founder of North-East Project in 2004), Diego Cancian (regional councilor for North-East Project in 2005–2010) and Lucio Chiavegato (president of Veneto State in 2011–2012).

[10] Chiavegato, who endured a 17-day hunger strike in jail,[11][12] was released on 18 April, along with Rocchetta and others, as the tribunal of Brescia did not uphold the accusations.