The PNV was indeed a split of the Venetians Movement, whose leader Patrik Riondato did not want to actively participate to elective politics,[1] but soon drew people from libertarian circles.

[3] On 13 May Stefano Venturato, candidate for president in Padua, started a hunger strike to protest against the misinformation of the local newspapers about the PNV and the interferences of the Italian police.

One of the party's candidates, Angela Cristina Oliveira da Silva, was killed in the explosion of Air France's flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

[7] At a congress in October 2009, in Limena, which was attended by several Venetist leaders, such as Patrik Riondato of Venetians Movement and Ettore Beggiato of North-East Project, the PNV chose to run the forthcoming regional election with an independentist candidate.

Gianluca Busato was re-elected secretary, while Lodovico Pizzati (son of Giulio, leader of Liga Federativa Veneta in the 1980s) was elected president.

[13] Shortly afterwards Ghiotto chose not to run and opened the way for the bid of his running-mate, Gianluca Panto, in accordance with party rules.

[23] The party campaigned for independence for the so-called Venetia, a country that would be composed of all the territories of the historical Venetian Republic, covering the current Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, some provinces of Lombardy (Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona and Mantova) and a portion of Trentino (see chart), in contrast with those Venetist parties, such as Liga Veneta–Lega Nord, currently campaigning for federal reform.

[24][25] The PNV early leader Bernardini was essentially a libertarian[citation needed] and most of party members, notably including Gianluca Panto, Claudio Ghiotto and Lodovico Pizzati, reflected his economic and political ideas.