Gianluca Busato

Gianluca Busato (born Treviso, 14 May 1969) is an Italian entrepreneur, engineer, activist and politician who is mostly known as the main organiser of the unofficial and online Venetian independence referendum, which took place in March 2014.

As a university student of Engineering at the University of Padua, Busato joined Liga Veneta–Lega Nord and was elected municipal councillor in Casier. Having been expelled from that party, he was one of the founding members of the Padanian Independentist Movement in 1997 and was its spokesperson for two years. In this capacity, he was convicted for having been an outspoken supporter of Padania and of the Venetian Most Serene Government's seizure of St. Mark's Campanile in Venice. This last event led Busato to abandon his early Padanist feelings and to adhere convincingly to the Venetian independence movement.

According to his own words, Busato returned to active politics only after the depenalisation of "crimes of opinion". In 2006 he wrote a pamphlet on independence and was a founding member of the Venetians Movement and, a year later, he launched the libertarian and avowedly separatist Venetian National Party (PNV), and served as its national secretary from 2008 to 2010. He was later active, often taking leadership roles, in a succession of separatist outfits, all emerged from bulk of the PNV: Veneto State (2010–2012), Venetian Independence (2012–2013), Plebiscite 2013 (2013–2014) and, finally, Veneto Yes (since 2013).

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