Sicilian nationalism

Hyeronimus, at first, had obtained from Hannibal the guarantee of maintaining the independence of the Siceliote kingdom limited to the eastern half of Sicily located east of the southern River Imera; later, sensing a certain weakness on Hannibal's part, the young Siceliote king came to obtain a promise to rule, in the event of a total victory against the Romans, over all of Sicily.

However, the lack of coordination of the forces of the various Sicilian cities led to the weakening of the power of the provisional government (Messina and Catania opposed Palermo's claim to want to rule the island), which soon decayed under the blows of the Bourbon repression that also had as its victim the carbonaro patriot Gaetano Abela.

The birth of this organization, whose existence was not publicly supported by the MIS, (indeed it was opposed by some of its leaders such as Antonino Varvaro, also left-wing), was motivated as a response to the growing "Italian colonial repression".

[7] Canepa himself, together with the two young militants Rosano and Lo Giudice, was killed near Randazzo in a firefight with the carabinieri on the morning of 17 June 1945 in circumstances that are not yet entirely clear.

After the death of Mario Turri (battle name of Canepa) the ranks of the army - stuffed by Salvatore Giuliano and Rosario Avila - passed to the command of Concetto Gallo.

The action of the two bandits puts the police to the test with assaults on convoys, lorries, barracks and stations, resulting in a high number of casualties.

The Italian troops managed to arrest Gallo and further "Police operations in style" scaled back the Evis and allowed the state to propose and start negotiations with the separatists that lead to the statute that granted to Sicily a special autonomy as a region in Italy in 1946.

There were and are still present to this day other parties in Sicily which are searching and pushing for Sicilian independence, but no one ever managed to reach the same results of the MIS during World War II.

[18][19] A 2014 survey commissioned by the newspaper La Repubblica to the Demos agency reported a 44% of the sample in favor of a possible independence of Sicily, third place after Veneto and Sardinia.