Sardinian nationalism

The Savoyard kings, who were forced to accept this island in place of the much more populated and profitable Sicily, were not pleased with the exchange[8][9] to the point of making them want to dispose of what Cavour called "the third Ireland" later, according to Mazzini who denounced part of the plot, by repeatedly trying to sell it to either Austria[10] or France.

The only exception to this has been a series of revolutionary outburst (known collectively as "Sardinian Vespers") against the local Piedmontese notables in 1794, later led by Giovanni Maria Angioy, which ended only in the first years of the 19th century but did not succeed and were ultimately suppressed.

[29] Sardinian nationalism thus established itself as the most important mass movement in Sardinia, and the Psd'Az a political force that Benito Mussolini eventually banned in 1926;[5] the overt Sardists would then be forced into hiding and some of them participated in the main European fronts of anti-fascism (like Emilio Lussu, and Dino Giacobbe and Giuseppe Zuddas in the Spanish Civil War), while others decided to join the Fascist Party, hoping that by adhering to the regime Sardinia would get autonomy in exchange (a demand facing an immediate rejection) or at least some attention from the Mainland (which they eventually got through some moderate funding concentrated in Cagliari for the local infrastructures).

[30] Following the Second World War, the Psd'Az, already weakened by the loss of many of its key members during the conflict, suffered a first split between the moderate wing and a much more radical one, led by Sebastiano Pirisi, which developed into another party (Lega Sarda, "Sardinian League") but ultimately got poor results in the 1946 Italian general election.

In the end, the line prevailing was the one supported by the DC that, claiming to be willing to avoid "serious institutional conflicts", ditched the federal hypothesis in favour of a binary system of governance agreed upon the region and the central state.

[18] The lawyer Gonario Pinna went as far as stating «the form of autonomy being currently promulgated is far from providing the island with a serious and organic capacity of self-rule, but rather hollows out its fundamental principles and shall lead to harsh disappointments whenever translated into practice».

The Sardist movement experienced a new wave of support at the end of the '60s, when the Sardinian society started becoming aware that its cultural heritage had been gradually vanishing; growing inequality was also being produced by a dual-economic structure, with the labour and resources being moved to the sector focused on the petrochemical industry[40] (particularly fostered by the PCI) and the Italian, NATO and U.S. military installations.

[46] Sardinian nationalists address a number of issues, such as the environmental damage caused by the military forces[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] (in fact, 60% of such bases in Italy are located on the island),[56] the financial and economic exploitation of the island's resources by the Italian state and mainland industrialists,[57] the lack of any political representation both in Italy and in the European Parliament[58][59] (due to an unbalanced electoral constituency that still remains to this day,[60] Sardinia has not had its own MEP since 1994),[61] the nuclear power and waste (on which a referendum was proposed by a Sardist party,[62] being held in 2011[63]) and the ongoing process of depopulation and Italianization that would destroy the Sardinian indigenous culture.

First, the actions planned in 1968[65] by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli to turn the island into the Cuba of the Mediterranean and "liberate it from colonialism" by making contact with several local nationalist groups;[66][67] in the end, the attempt of the famous communist thinker to strengthen the pro-independence militant lines, divided into the socialist Fronte Nazionale de Liberazione de sa Sardigna (FNLS) and the rightist Movimentu Nazionalista Sardu (MNS),[68] was nullified by the Italian secret military intelligence.

[77][78][79][80][81] Finally, it should be mentioned the case of a number of bombings,[75][82][83] the most notable of which being that in 2004 against Silvio Berlusconi in his visit to Porto Rotondo (Olbia) with Tony Blair;[84] the responsibility has been apparently claimed by some unknown anarcho-separatist militant groups,[80][85][86] the presence of which has not been seen again.

[2][112] In fact, this strong sense of regional identity does not seem to benefit any regional party at all, as it is also combined with lack of political engagement and a general distrust in institutions and parties, including those putting emphasis on Sardinian identity;[101] moreover, the nationalist movement has a well-documented history of fractionalization:[45][113] all attempts to unify the nationalist subgroups have so far failed; thus, the Sardist movement still suffers from being highly fragmented into a large number of political subgroups pushing different policies.

Such disconnect between societal views and political capitalization is called by some scholars, like Pala, the "disorganic connection of the regionalist actors" (connessione disorganica degli attori regionalisti).

In the 2014 regional election, for instance, more than a dozen Sardist parties of different connotations took part in the electoral competition, but yet again, because of their number and political fragmentation,[7][118][119][120] they did not manage to win as many seats as they were initially supposed to, some[121] think even because of a tactical mistake by the ProgReS-sponsored list, which was then led by the novelist Michela Murgia.