Foundation and early years In September 1998, after prolonged bickering with federal leader
Umberto Bossi,
Fabrizio Comencini, who had been national secretary of
Liga Veneta (LV) since 1994, tried to lead the party out of
Lega Nord (LN), a federation of regional parties. This move was opposed by Bossi's loyalists and he was finally expelled from the party and replaced by
Gian Paolo Gobbo as leader of the LV. Subsequently, six out of seven members of LV–LN's group in the
Regional Council of Veneto — Fabrizio Comencini,
Ettore Beggiato,
Alessio Morosin,
Mariangelo Foggiato,
Alberto Poirè,
Michele Munaretto and
Franco Roccon — left the party and launched
Liga Veneta Repubblica (LVR), which was initially intended to be the legal continuation and legitimate heir of the LV. Another councillor,
Adriano Bertaso of
North-East Union, who had earlier left the LV, joined the party. Comencini's followers represented the more Venetist and separatist wing of the LV, while those who remained were mainly
fiscal federalists and
Padanists. The former were also keen on an alliance with the centre-right
Pole of Freedoms coalition in Veneto in support of
President Giancarlo Galan, with whom Comencini signed a pact in August 1999. The LVR, which was soon joined by three deputies and four senators, made its electoral debut in late 1998 in the municipal election in
San Bonifacio, where the party gained 20.9% of the vote and was decisive for the election of the
centre-left candidate for mayor. Despite the entity of the split among elects, most voters of the LV remained loyal to Gobbo and, ultimately, Bossi. In the
1999 European Parliament election the LVR won 3.5% of the vote in Veneto, far less than the LV, which gained a disappointing 10.7%, but proved its resilience. However, the LVR had some local strongholds in 1999 municipal elections: in the
province of Treviso, 62.6% and elected mayor in
Spresiano, 24.6% in
Resana, 11.7% in
Cavaso del Tomba and 10.4% in
Riese Pio X; in the
province of Vicenza, 34.8% and elected mayor in
Chiuppano, 21.6% in
Camisano Vicentino, 15.8% in
Torri di Quartesolo, 15.5% in
Creazzo, 14.6% in
Monticello Conte Otto, 12.8% in
Malo and 11.8% in
Schio; in the
province of Verona, 44.1% in
Arcole and 12.6% in
Cologna Veneta.
From Veneti d'Europa to Liga Fronte Veneto For the
2000 regional election, the LV entered an alliance with the Pole of Freedoms that excluded the LVR. The party, whose name was changed to '''Veneti d'Europa'
, won 2.4% of the vote and failed to overcome the 3% threshold, also due to the presence of another Venetist party, Fronte Marco Polo (1.2%), as well as the electoral recovery of the LV (12.0%). The name Veneti d'Europa'' (Venetians for Europe) was chosen as the LVR had merged with
Giuseppe Ceccato's
Future Veneto, member of the
Autonomists for Europe, a 1999 federation of splinter groups from the LN. In 2001, the party, at the time led by Venetist historian Beggiato, was merged with Fronte Marco Polo into the new
Liga Fronte Veneto, even though in some local contexts it started to use its original name and symbol again.
Giorgio Vido, who hailed from Fronte Marco Polo, was elected national secretary and Comencini national president. In the
2001 general election Bepin Segato, a separatist activist of the
Venetian Most Serene Government in jail for having opposed Italian national unity, was a party candidate for the
Senate. Despite gaining 5.6% of the vote for the
Chamber of Deputies — notably, 11.5% in the single-seat constituency around
Montebelluna, 11.0% in that of
Vittorio Veneto, 10.9% in that of
Thiene, 10.1% in that of
Oderzo and 10.0% in that of
Conegliano — and 4.9% for the Senate in Veneto (mainly disgruntled voters of the LV, after the alliance with
Silvio Berlusconi's
Forza Italia). In 2003 Beggiato replaced Vido as national secretary in a time when the party was not represented in the top elective bodies and was shrinking in popular support. In 2004 Beggiato tried to lead the party into
North-East Project (PNE), but PNE leader
Giorgio Panto wanted LFV members to join not as a party but as individuals. Comencini ruled out the idea, that would have meant giving up the party's identity. After a tumultuous congress, a group led by Beggiato, Foggiato and Munaretto switched to PNE, while Comencini was elected national secretary and Morosin national president. During this time, the party did occasionally better than the LV in local elections. This was the case of
Cittadella in 2002 (14.9% over 5.5%) and San Bonifacio in 2004 (17.8% over 4.7%): in both cases, LVR candidates,
Massimo Bitonci and
Silvano Polo respectively, were elected mayors in run-offs. Bitonci, who re-joined the LV, was re-elected in 2007, while Polo did not stand for re-election and the LVR supported the defeated centre-left candidate in 2009.
Decline and return to Liga Veneta Repubblica In the
2005 regional election, the party was part of the centre-left coalition, winning a mere 1.2% of the vote, while the LV surged to 14.7% and PNE obtained 5.4% and two regional councillors — 16.1% and Foggiato in the province of Treviso —, and being excluded again from the Regional Council. For the
2006 general election Comencini forged an alliance with
The Union, the centre-left coalition led by
Romano Prodi, and the party's score dropped to 0.7%. In 2007 the party returned to its original name,
Liga Veneta Repubblica. In the
2008 general election the LVR obtained 1.0% for the Chamber and 1.7% for the Senate. Later that year, the party signed a coalition pact with
North-East Project (PNE) and
Venetian Agreement (IV) for the next municipal, provincial and regional elections "in order to provide an adequate representation to the Venetian people, in line with what happens in
Europe, from
Scotland to
Catalonia, from
Wales to
Brittany, where federalist, autonomist and independentist parties, who respond uniquely to their territory, see their popular support increasing." However, in the 2009 provincial and municipal elections the LVR chose to support the candidates of the
Union of the Centre (UdC), having its best result in the
province of Padua (1.6%). For the
2010 regional election, after having formed
Veneto Freedom (VL) with other Venetist parties, the party finally chose to support
Antonio De Poli, regional leader of the UdC, for president under the banner of
North-East Union (UNE), along with UNE, PNE and IV. This decision caused two splits: the more separatist wing, led by Polo, joined the new
Party of the Venetians (PdV) and the left-wing minority faction, led by former leader Vido and
Bortolino Sartore, formed a new party called
Liga Veneto Autonomo (LVA) in order to participate in the centre-left coalition. In an election dominated by the LV, which rose to 35.2% of the vote, and LV's
Luca Zaia for president, the UNE list won 1.5% of vote, with peaks of 1.9% and 1.8% in the provinces of Treviso and
Belluno, and Foggiato (PNE) was re-elected to the Council. The LVA, which was able to present its list only in the province of Vicenza, one of LVR's strongholds, won 1.1% of the vote there, that is to say a big share of the vote (1.6%) the LVR gained in the previous regional election. In the
2013 general election, the LVR obtained 0.7% of the vote regionally, 1.2% in its stronghold of the province of Vicenza.
Alliance with Liga Veneta In July 2013, the LVR joined
Let Veneto Decide, a loose cross-party committee for a referendum on Veneto's independence (see Venetian nationalism#Background and history), along with
Stefano Valdegamberi (the regional councillor who presented bill 342/2013 on the referendum),
Venetian Independence (IV, the party which had envisioned the campaign),
Veneto State (VS),
Raixe Venete,
Veneto First, other Venetist groups and individuals. In March 2014, the party was a founding member of United for Independent Veneto, a more structured federation of Venetist and separatist parties, including also VS,
Independent Venetians (VI) and Valdegamberi's
Popular Future (FP). In July 2014 the coalition was transformed into "We Independent Veneto" (NVI), after the entry of other parties, notably including
North-East Project and "Chiavegato for Independence". In the 2014 municipal election in San Bonifacio former mayor Polo, who had returned into the party's fold, was the joint candidate of the LVR and LV, but lost to the centre-left candidate in the run-off. After the exit of Chiavegato and his group from the alliance and their alignment with
Alessio Morosin's IV, the remaining parties of NVI formed a joint list for the
2015 regional election named
Independence We Veneto (INV), a sort of re-edition of 2010's
North-East Union, but with a separatist platform. The list supported inclumbent President Zaia of the LV, as opposed to IV and some minor groups, including UNE, supporting
Flavio Tosi, leader of LV's breakaway
Tosi List for Veneto. In the election, Zaia was easily re-elected and the INV list won 2.7% of the vote and
Antonio Guadagnini of VS was elected regional councillor in the provincial constituency of Vicenza, while IV stopped at 2.5% with no seats. In 2017 Comencini and other INV leaders were briefly members of
Great North (GN), a liberal and federalist party. In 2018 the party elected
Gianluigi Sette, while Comencini was appointed national president. In the 2019 local elections, the LVR stood with its own lists in San Bonifacio,
Negrar di Valpolicella and
Arzignano. For the
2020 regional election the party directly entered in alliance with the LV, something that had not happened officially since the two parties divided in 1998. In the election, the LV sponsored three lists, its party list, Zaia's personal list and the "Venetian Autonomy List", whose logo was the LVR's one with minor modifications, especially "List" instead of "Liga" and the "Autonomy" banner in the lower part, along with LVR's acronym. The LVR obtained 2.4% of the vote and had
Tomas Piccinini elected to the Regional Council. In July 2025
Gianantonio Da Re, a former leader of the LV who had been ejected from
Lega in 2024, while still being a member of the LN, joined the party. The party planned to run along with the LV in the upcoming
2025 regional election, otherwise it could stand alone with Da Re as candidate for president. However, while the LV agreed to continue the alliance, it posed a veto on Da Re, who was thus excluded from the LVR's slates, and finally ended up as an independent candidate for FI. It was also decided that the LVR's list would include some IV candidates, as Morosin and
Luigi Boldo, as well as independent Venetists, as
Daniele Stival and
Gianluca Panto. In the election, the party won 1.8% of the vote and one seat for Morosin. ==Electoral results==