Franco Rocchetta (born Venice, 12 April 1947) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, philologist and history populariser, who is usually described as the "father" of present-day Venetian nationalism and independentism. Early life and political career Since his university years, Rocchetta has been a Venetist, a Europeanist, and a passionate of historical, archeological and linguistic studies, and, as such, he was active in Radical and green movements. Before coming of age, he was investigated for separatist writings on walls and for his solidarity with South Tyrolean activists. During the 1960s he was a member of the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Communist Party, which he left in order to join Lotta Continua in 1969. In 1978 Rocchetta founded the "Venetian Philological Society" (of which he was elected president). Liga Veneta and Lega Nord In 1980 Rocchetta, who had been a candidate in the list led by Valdostan Union in the 1979 European Parliament election, was instrumental in the foundation of Liga Veneta, whose goal was to reorganise an independent Venetian Republic within a federal Europe. Rocchetta was thus Liga Veneta's long-time national president and practical leader, having seized party's control over Achille Tramarin in 1984 and having been elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 1985. Having been a founding member of Lega Nord, along with Umberto Bossi, Franco Castellazzi, Giorgio Conca, Gipo Farassino, Riccardo Fragassi, Marilena Marin, Bruno Ravera, Francesco Speroni and Carla Uccelli, in 1989, Rocchetta led Liga Veneta into Lega Nord, which became a federation from a confederation, in 1991. During the party's founding federal congress, he was elected federal president, a role he would keep until 1994. In the 1992 general election he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies and, after the 1994 general election, he joined Berlusconi I Cabinet as undersecretary of Foreign Affairs. In July 1994, after years of juxtaposition with federal secretary Bossi on several institutional, organisational, ethnic, ethic and economic issues, Rocchetta left the party before the end of a congress in which his wife and protégé Marilena Marin was replaced by Fabrizio Comencini as national secretary. After his exit from Lega Nord, he unsuccessfully launched Liga Nathion Veneta. He later joined the Federalists and Liberal Democrats and National Alliance, prior to leaving politics. Post-Lega Nord activity Having left the Italian Parliament following the 1996 general election, Rocchetta, while continuing to be an active spokesman for Venetian nationalism, focused on