Sardinian nationalism or also Sardism (Sardismu in Sardinian; Sardismo in ItalianSardismo, lemma, Garzanti Linguistica.) is a social, cultural and political movement in Sardinia calling for the self-determination of the Sardinian people in a context of national devolution, further autonomy in Italy, or even outright independence from the latter. It also promotes the protection of the island's environment and the preservation of its cultural heritage.
Even though the island has been characterized by periodical waves of ethnonationalist protests against Rome,Pala, C. 2015. Sardinia. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. 1–3. Abstract the Sardinian movement has its origins on the left of the political spectrum;Hechter (M.), The Dynamics of Secession, Acta Sociologica, vol. 35, 1992, p. 267.Entrevista a Marcel Farinelli: "Córcega y Cerdeña forman un archipiélago invisible al tener sus islas nacionalismos de signo opuesto" regionalism and attempts for Sardinian self-determination historically countered in fact the Rome-centric Italian nationalism and fascism (which eventually managed to contain the autonomist and separatist tendenciesLa Sardegna durante il ventennio fascista, Università di Tor Vergata). Over the years many Sardist parties from different ideological backgrounds have emerged (even on the right and the centre), all being in the minority, and with some of them making government coalitions of variable geometry with the statewide Italian parties. For instance, that also happened in the 2014 Sardinian regional election,Sardegna, proclamati presidente e Consiglio regionale a un mese dalle urne – La Repubblica where the combined result of all the nationalist parties had been 26% of the votes.
History In 1720, the Kingdom of Sardinia was definitely ceded by Spain to the House of Savoy after a plurisecular period of Spanish rule and a short-lived reconquest, abiding by the treaty of London that followed the War of Spanish Succession. 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<<Vittorio Amedeo accettò a malincuore, e dopo ripetute proteste, nel 1720, da governi stranieri, al solito, la Sardegna in cambio della Sicilia. E diresti che la ripugnanza con la quale egli accettò la terra in dominio, si perpetuasse, aumentando, attraverso la dinastia.>> Giuseppe Mazzini, La Sardegna, Editore Il Nuraghe, Cagliari, pp.9<<Il principe savoiardo Amedeo II avrebbe preferito un trattamento migliore dai suoi alleati, ma questi sommessamente ma efficacemente, gli fecero probabilmente capire che sarebbe potuto rimanere con nulla in mano, mentre il nuovo possedimento gli avrebbe consentito di fregiarsi comunque del titolo di re, essendo quello un regno plurisecolare.>> Giuseppi dei Nur, Buongiorno Sardegna – Da dove veniamo, Cagliari, 2013, La Biblioteca dell'Identità, pp.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<<Ancora nel 1784 Vittorio Amedeo III, attraverso i segreti canali della diplomazia, aveva offerto l'isola all'Austria di Giuseppe II in cambio di adeguati compensi in Lombardia.>> Carlino Sole, La Sardegna sabauda nel Settecento, Editore Chiarella, Sassari, 1984, pp.176 or France.La terza Irlanda. Gli scritti sulla Sardegna di Carlo Cattaneo e Giuseppe Mazzini, Condaghes, Cagliari 1995, pp. 166–169.Onnis, Omar. La Sardegna e i sardi nel tempo, Arkadia, pp.174<<Lo stato sabaudo invaso dalle armate napoleoniche era in pieno disfacimento e lo stesso Vittorio Amedeo III, nelle trattative di pace col Direttorio, aveva espressamente dato facoltà ai suoi plenipotenziari di cedere alla Francia l'isola di Sardegna, pur di mantenere i suoi possessi di terraferma e di ingrandirli eventualmente con altri territori della pianura padana sottratti agli austriaci.>> Carlino Sole, La Sardegna sabauda nel Settecento, Editore Chiarella, Sassari, 1984, pp.245 For a long time, Sardinia would be ruled in the same way as it was during the Spanish period, with its own parliament and government being composed exclusively of men from the Mainland. 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.Idee di Sardegna, Carlo Pala, Carocci Editore, 2016, pp.77
In 1847, a segment of the Sardinian elites from Cagliari and Sassari, led by the unionist Giovanni Siotto Pintor, demanded the so-called Perfect Fusion,Onnis, Omar (2015). La Sardegna e i sardi nel tempo, Arkadia, Cagliari, p.172 making it so that Sardinia could get the liberal reforms that were not available for the island because of its separate legal system, and that "the culture and civilization of the Italian Mainland would be transplanted, without any reserves and obstacles, to Sardinia";Martini, Pietro. Sull’unione civile della Sardegna colla Liguria, col Piemonte e colla Savoia, Cagliari, Timon, 1847, p.4 some Sardinian deputies in the minority, such as Federico Fenu, Giorgio Asproni and Giovanni Battista Tuveri, strongly protested against the Savoyard policies and warned against the ramifications which Sardinia could face. In the end, the king Charles Albert agreed to the request from Turin; by doing so, he dissolved what political bodies remained that could exert a modicum of control on the king's decisions over the island. Moreover, the later enlargement moves in the Peninsula on the Savoyards' part, starting with the First Italian War of Independence, further aggravated the island's political and cultural marginalization with respect to the Mainland: Sardinia ended up being an even less significant overseas departement of the Savoyard domains, whose seat of power had always been located on the Italian peninsula. The episode would lead most of the Sardinian unionists, including Pintor himself, to regret having made that proposal (Errammo tutti, "we all made a mistake"),Una data infausta per la Sardegna, Francesco Casula – Il Manifesto SardoUn arxipèlag invisible: la relació impossible de Sardenya i Còrsega sota nacionalismes, segles XVIII-XX – Marcel Farinelli, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Institut Universitari d'Història Jaume Vicens i Vives, pp.299–300 and would raise the "Sardinian Question" (questione sarda)Francesco Cesare Casula, Breve Storia di Sardegna, p. 245; op. cit.La "fusione perfetta" del 1847 aprì una nuova era per l’isola, La Nuova SardegnaOnnis, Omar (2015). La Sardegna e i sardi nel tempo, Arkadia, Cagliari, p.173M. Brigaglia, La Sardegna nel ventennio fascista, p. 317 from then on, a broad term used to cover a wide variety of issues regarding the difficult relationship between Sardinia and the mainland.Glossario di autonomia Sardo-Italiana, Francesco Cesare Casùla, Presentazione del 2007 di Francesco CossigaSardegna, isola del silenzio, Manlio Brigaglia It was in 1848 that the Sardinian intellectuals started to speak of "colonialism" in Sardinia.Birgit Wagner (2011), La questione sarda. La sfida dell’alterità in Il postcoloniale in Italia, Aut Aut n. 349
The Savoyard kings proceeded to expand their domains through the Unification of Italy: Sardinia, being already part of the Piedmontese Kingdom from the very beginning, automatically joined the new polity, which changed its name to become the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
20th century Sardism, which had been previously confined to the island's intellectuals, made its political debut for the first time on the occasion of Ireland's independence (1921) with Lussu's theories and the Sardinian Action Party or PSd'Az (one of the oldest parties in Europe advocating for regional self-determinationElias (A.) et Tronconi (F.), From protest to power. Autonomist parties and the challenges of representation, Vienna, Braumüller, 2011), which got 36% of the popular vote in 1921 regional election.Hepburn, Eve. The Ideological Polarisation and Depolarisation of Sardinian Nationalism, Regional and Federal Studies Vol. 19, No.5. (2010) 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; 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). Overall, rural Sardinia showed little interest in the Fascist state, let alone consent, while the bourgeois segments from the urban settlements were among the staunchest supporters of the regime on the island.A History of Sardinia, by Nicola Gabriele (translated by Sally Davies), University of Cagliari 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.Bastià Pirisi, politico e commediografo antifascista, pacifista e separatista, Francesco Casula, La Barbagia.net