Gianluca Busato was re-elected secretary, while Lodovico Pizzati (son of Giulio, leader of Liga Federativa Veneta in the 1980s) was elected president. Paolo Bernardini was appointed honorary president. The party decided to choose its candidate for President of Veneto through an on-line open primary. Five candidates ran: Claudio Ghiotto (representing the libertarian wing of the party), Sabrina Tessari, Stefano Ventuarato, Alberto Gardin (leader of Venetian Independence and, later, candidate of the Party of the Venetians) and Michele Milanetto (a former member of the Democrats of the Left, on behalf of the party's left-wing). Soon Milanetto withdrew in favour of Tessari, while Venturato did the same to endorse Ghiotto, who was thus the front-runner. More than 10,000 people voted in the primary and Ghiotto won the nomination with 54.8% of the vote, ahead of Tessari (45.0%) and Gardin (0.2%). Shortly afterwards Ghiotto chose not to run and opened the way for the bid of his running-mate, Gianluca Panto, in accordance with party rules. On election day, Panto managed to win a mere 0.4% of the vote, while the party was stuck at 0.3%. It was a big blow for the PNV, but its members saw it as the first step toward success. Busato resigned from secretary, and was replaced by Panto at a party congress in May. On 12 September 2010 the PNV was merged with the Party of the Venetians (PdV) to form Veneto State (VS). Lodovico Pizzati, president of the PNV, was elected secretary of the new party. Gianluca Busato (PNV) was elected treasurer and Giustino Cherubin (PdV) president. With the merger of the PNV into the new party, the website of the PNV was transformed into "Press News Veneto" (PNV), an online newspaper edited by Busato, covering Venetian, European, international, economic, cultural, political and, especially, separatist issues. The PNV magazine is quite independent from VS, as exposed also by the brief exit of Busato from the party in January 2011, and the critical views of the new party leadership elected in October 2011. Since then, the website became also the voice of the libertarian wing of the party, represented also by Pizzati, who had been replaced as secretary by Antonio Guadagnini.