The island of Sardinia is one of the autonomous territories within Italy, just as Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige/South Tyrol and Aosta Valley. As these autonomies, Sardinia has one executive and one legislative body, called Giunta regionale and Consiglio regionale, which have powers on several issues. Unlike the rest of autonomous territories, the Statute ruling the island recognizes the existence of the Sardinian people.

Politics
Sardinian political spectrum includes autonomist and pro-independence parties, but State-wide political forces obtain most of the seats in elections, probably because their local sections often display the right amount of pro-autonomist and federalist leanings. Current Sardinian president, Renatu Soru, formed in 2003 the autonomist movement Proggeto Sardegna, which merged into Partito Democratico four years later.

The main pro-independence parties and movements are Partito Sardo d'Azione, Indipendèntzia Repùbrica de Sardigna, Sardigna Natzione Independentzia and A Manca pro s'Indipendentzia. On the autonomist side, Renatu Soru's Progetto Sardegna and Riformatori Sardi should be highlighted.

Language
Before the italianization of the island following the Second World War, Sardinians had traditionally spoken several languages: Sardinian in most of the territory, Catalan in the town of Alghero, and Ligurian in the south-west. There are two other languages in the north, Sassarese and Gallurese, sometimes considered as independent languages half-way between Sardinian and Corsican, or to be dialects from Corsican.

In comparison to all these languages, Sardinian is the most widely-spoken stateless language in the island, but its situation is far from being ideal. The presence of Sardinian language in many areas is still unremarkable (for instance, it is being taught only in some schools). Its use is particularly vigorous within families, some media and literary works.

One of the most important and recent developments regarding language was the process of unification of Sardinian dialects resulting in the Limba Sarda Unificada (Unified Sardinian Language), which obtained co-official status in the island and was adopted by the autonomous administration in 2006. Click here for the relevant Nationalia article on Sardinian language in education.

Links
For further information on Sardinia, check the Autonomous Region website, the pro-language organization Sotziu Limba Sarda and the cultural association I Sardi. There are also online newspapers such as La Nuova Sardegna, L'altra voce and Tempus Nostru, the latter in Sardinian.

See Sardinia profile for further information.