The Northern-Southern Italian divide [split]

[svin]

Originally Posted by Decimo Paolino

He is another minister of Lega Nord, Roberto Maroni... who says that Northern Italians are pure Germans (and he is one of them!)?

Who says that N.Italians are pure Germans? How can you be sure he is 100% ethnic N.Italian? Whatever... Strange specimens can be found among any folk.

p.s. What are you trying to prove by posting pictures of selected individuals? I can find pictures of odd looking Russians/Germans/Poles/Swedes/put here any nation.

[svin]

Originally Posted by Prinz Eugen

So that man claims that he is a German? And i'm the Emperor of China

Nah, more likely Decimo Paolino claims that this man claims that he is pure Germanic.

[Gil]

Regardless of his own genetic background, that man (Roberto Maroni), is entitled to his opinion and he wouldn't be the first to claim "nordic superiority" while being himself pretty far from anything nordic.

[Menydh]

I suppose that his racial traits are Armenoid as VG says. But if I had been asked about his ethnic/national background, I would have said Turkish.

Originally Posted by svin

Who says that N.Italians are pure Germans? How can you be sure he is 100% ethnic N.Italian? Whatever... Strange specimens can be found among any folk.

Some Lega Nord supporters do such claims out of an inferiority complex.

p.s. What are you trying to prove by posting pictures of selected individuals? I can find pictures of odd looking Russians/Germans/Poles/Swedes/put here any nation.

It's a hot issue with Italians. Lega Nord (Northern Italian secesionist party) supporters claim to be different from Southern Italians and some even claim to be Germanic. In my humblest opinion the former claim is right to a point, while the latter is pure fantasy. Well.. not quite pure. There is a small Germanic element in some parts of Northern Italy. But there is also a small Nordo-Germanic element in Sicily through the Normans..

[Gil]

I think the problem is in fact economic in it's root and the whole "racial" element is used as an escape goat or as a side argument to support their views. The general view (from their perspective) is that the north is germanic in character and looks while the south (namely Sicilly) is (some would say) more "mediterranean" and some even like to claim "arab".
The problem stems from the land use and development of the regions: while the north was always highly industrialised and with most population the south was rural and lacking in people and development.
Anyway, there are italians on Stirpes so I think they are better suited to talk about this.

[svin]

From what I could read from N.Italians on various message bords, nobody claimed their pure Germanic ancestry. Only one or two guys at stormfront, but they were just not very smart kids, I guess.

Of course the economic factor is the most important. I agree with Manji. Isn't N.Italian region one of the richest in Europe?

From Wikipedia:

One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy. Its capital is Milan, the largest city in Northern Italy. The current governor of Lombardy is Roberto Formigoni. Pirelli Tower, the highest skyscraper in Italy (127 m), is the seat of Lombardy's regional government.

Lombardy is one of the engines of the global economy with a GDP calculated by ISTAT at €400 billion. The region is one of the three richest regions in Europe, with a per capita gross domestic product that is 30 percent higher than the rest of Italy.

[Menydh]

Split from http://forum.stirpes.net/showthread.php?t=7492

Please, keep the discussion civic.

[Strengthandhonour]

I wonder how many times this has been discussed in this forum.
I have a funny story to share about this. I wont reveal his name but he has visited this forum in the past and others such as Skadi. His family is from Lombardy, but he was born somewhere else. He was always into northern Italian separatism and one time they decided to take a vacational trip to Sicily.
when he came back, he was so into it and left the entirre Germanic separatism garbage. One who studies the history of Italy properly, knows why the north has been more fortunate economically. The South has been wealthy in the past and it could happen again. Part of the misfortunes of the South happen from poor administration from the Italian monarchy at the beggining of the country.
The entire racial criticism is garbage. I have seen Northern Italians that look Southern and vice-versa. There is a large population of red haired Sicilians. This types of separationists exsist everywhere.

[Wilkolak]

Has anyone else noticed this trend, with so many people claiming Germanic roots, and using Germanic symbols (National Socialists, neo-pagans etc.)? I wonder why this is. About this Central Nordish, Northernmost Nordic Italian... pathetic.

[Truth-Finder]

Originally Posted by Wilkolak

Has anyone else noticed this trend, with so many people claiming Germanic roots, and using Germanic symbols (National Socialists, neo-pagans etc.)? I wonder why this is. About this Central Nordish, Northernmost Nordic Italian... pathetic.

As long as I'm informed the divide is more on economic factors. Some A.H. try to add a "racial" theory to explain this divide but it makes no sense ; just have alook to the real portrait of notorius nirtherner italians and you we'll see that not all of them are or were nordic (and I mean the TRUE portraits, not posthumous representations made several years after their dead ad from the Nth copie of an original portrait like often happens)

[Strengthandhonour]

searcher of truth is correct. Milano is the wealthiest city in Italy and the members of Lega are just doing it for the money. Sure, there is some cultural elements in the north not found in the south but its like that just about everywhere in Italy and cultural differences can change even from town to town.
I think the time of the lega is up really. They got a lot of hype out of fear of a second Balkans-like conflict erupting in Italy, but it never happened. In fact, if I am not mistaken, the wife of Bossi(or another top lega nord figure) has Sicilian blood. Hmm..a member of the lega mixing with people of a different race?how did that happen?

[Truth-Finder]

Originally Posted by Wilkolak

Has anyone else noticed this trend, with so many people claiming Germanic roots, and using Germanic symbols (National Socialists, neo-pagans etc.)? I wonder why this is. About this Central Nordish, Northernmost Nordic Italian... pathetic.

I noticed that. I even found several times on the web a group of queer folks who call themselves The True Church of Israel with a nerdicist trend.

[kyashan]

N.Italians are still S.European looking, although they are generally fairer in pigmentation and different in look compared to S.Italians.
Besides that, there are many other differences regarding genetics, culture, linguistics, gastronomy and so forth.
Sicilians and Piedmonteses can't understand each other speaking in their native tongue, simply beacause they don't belong to the same ethnicity. Someone could say that ethnicity is an arbitrary thing, but for sure they are more different than let's say, catalans are to spanish or a occitans are to normans or serbians are to croatians.

[Prinz Eugen]

IMHO what we would earn as Europeans with that kind depates?Nothing i believe!And yes the reason of North-South Italy debate is economic IMO!

[Gesta Bellica]

Why should it be just an economic issue?
as kyashan already stated there's a lot more, Northern/Southern Italians didn't like each other from the beginning, we had no need of economical reasons for that.
It's quite easy for me to separate Northern Italians from Southern Italians just by sight, after all we had more than 1000 years of separated history..

[Gil]

I'll just dip my spoon into this soup (culinary metaphors are my favourite...)
NO one better then a italian can discuss this and we, non italians, can only give our opinions based on logical perspective: there are two different basic substracts of the italian population: depigmented types in the north and pigmented types in the south. Dark types occur in the north too and so do light types in the south, that is beyond discussion.
The only question I pose is: are there different cultures, so different that a unique nation state is unbearable and justifies a political division?