After staying for years out of politics, Azzano Cantarutti joined Veneto State, the joint Venetist-separatist party campaigning for outright independence of Veneto. In May 2012 he was a founding member of Venetian Independence, a split of Veneto State, and was elected president of the new party.[5][6][7] In February 2014 Cantarutti led a group of splinters out of Venetian Independence and launched the alternative Independent Venetians,[8] of which he was elected president.