.gif)
Northern League (Italy)
Encyclopedia
Lega Nord whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (North League for the Independence of Padania), is a federalist
and regionalist
political party in Italy founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern
and Central Italy
, most of which had arisen and expanded their share of the electorate over the 1980s.
In popular usage the party is generally referred to simply as Lega and is frequently nicknamed il Carroccio
in newspapers, after a four-wheeled war altar drawn by oxen, used by the medieval republics of Northern Italy which formed the Lombard League
in opposition to the imperialist
design of Frederick I Barbarossa
.
Lega Nord's political program advocates the transformation of Italy
into a federal state
, fiscal federalism
and greater regional autonomy
, especially for the Northern regions
. At times it has advocated secession
of the North, which it calls Padania
. Prior to the party's adoption of the term, Padania was infrequently used to name the Padan-Venetian Plain
and was promoted since 1963 by sport journalist Gianni Brera
as a modern name for Cisalpine Gaul
.
Lega Nord is by far the largest party in Veneto
, the second largest in Lombardy
, the third largest in Piedmont
, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
, Emilia-Romagna
and Liguria
. The long-standing leader of the party is Umberto Bossi
, who was Minister for Federal Reform in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet
. Leading members include Luca Zaia
, President of Veneto, Roberto Cota
, President of Piedmont, Roberto Maroni
, former Minister of the Interior, Roberto Calderoli
, Roberto Castelli
, Francesco Speroni
, Marco Reguzzoni
, Giancarlo Giorgetti
, Gian Paolo Gobbo, Flavio Tosi
and Federico Bricolo
.
The founding parties of Lega Nord were Lega Lombarda
, Liga Veneta
, Piemont Autonomista
, Uniun Ligure
, Lega Emiliano-Romagnola
, Alleanza Toscana, plus the newly formed regional parties of the other Northern regions.
At the 1983 general election
one of Lega Nord's main precursors (and, later, sections), Liga Veneta
, based in Veneto
, elected a deputy
, Achille Tramarin
, and a senator
, Graziano Girardi
. At the 1987 general election
another regional party, Lega Lombarda
, based in Lombardy
, gained national prominence when its leader Umberto Bossi
was elected to the Senate. Since then Bossi has commonly been referred to as the Senatür, the word for "senator" in a number of Northern Italian languages – a nickname he maintained even when he was no longer a senator.
The party was formed in 1989 as the successor of the Alleanza Nord
electoral coalition and was officially founded in 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. These parties continue to exist as "national sections" of the federal party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as "Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord", "Liga Veneta–Lega Nord", "Lega Nord–Piemont
", and so on.
The League exploited resentment against Rome
(with the famous slogan Roma ladrona, which loosely means "Rome big thief") and the Italian government, common in Northern Italy as many Northerners felt that the governments in Rome wasted resources collected mostly from Northerners' tax
es. The unpopularity of Southern Italians and resentment against illegal immigrants were also exploited. The party's electoral successes began roughly at a time when public disillusionment with the established political parties was high. The Tangentopoli
corruption scandals, which invested most of the established parties, were unveiled from 1992 on. However, contrarily to what many pundits observed at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable political force.
Lega Nord's first electoral breakthrough was at the 1990 regional elections, but it was with the 1992 general election
that the party emerged as a leading political actor. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators, it became the fourth largest party in country and Parliament. In 1993 Marco Formentini
, a left-wing
leghista, was elected Mayor of Milan
, the party won 49.3% in the provincial election of Varese
and, by the end of the year, before Silvio Berlusconi
launched his own political career and party, it was polled around 16-18% in electoral surveys.
in alliance with Berlusconi's Forza Italia
party within the Pole of Freedoms
coalition. Lega Nord gained just 8.4% of the vote, but, thanks to a generous division of candidacies in Northern single-seats constituencies, its parliamentary representation was almost doubled to 117 deputies and 56 senators. The post of President Chamber of Deputies
was thus given to a leghista, Irene Pivetti, a young woman hailing from the Catholic faction of the party.
After the election, the League joined Forza Italia, National Alliance
and the Christian Democratic Centre to form a coalition government under Berlusconi and the party obtained five ministries in the Berlusconi I Cabinet
: the Interior with Roberto Maroni
(who was also Deputy Prime Minister), the Budget with Giancarlo Pagliarini
, Industry with Vito Gnutti, European Affairs with Domenico Comino and Institutional Reforms with Francesco Speroni
. However, the alliance with Berlusconi and the government itself were both short-lived: it collapsed before the end of the year, with the League being instrumental in its demise.
In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the newly formed cabinet of Lamberto Dini, alongside with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left
. This caused many splinter groups to leave the party, including the Federalist Party
(which was actually founded in June 1994) of Gianfranco Miglio
, the Federalists and Liberal Democrats
of Franco Rocchetta
, Lucio Malan
and Furio Gubetti and the Federalist Italian League
of Luigi Negri and Sergio Cappelli. All these groups later merged into Forza Italia. Also Roberto Maroni opposed the new course of the party, but after some months of coldness with Bossi, he returned to active politics in June. Between 1995 and 1998 Lega Nord joined centre-left
governing coalitions in many local contexts, from the Province of Padua
to the city of Udine
.
, its best result ever (10.1%, 59 deputies and 27 senators), Lega Nord announced that its aim was the secession of Northern Italy
under the name of Padania
, an expression previously referring to the Padanian-Venetian Plain
, but to which Lega Nord gave a geographically broader usage that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers. The party even organised a referendum on independence as well as elections for a "Padanian Parliament".
The years between 1996 and 1998 can be considered the first golden age of the party, which was then the largest political force in many provinces of Northern Italy and was able to win in single-seat constituencies and provincial elections by running alone aganist both the centre-right and the centre-left. However since 1998 Lega Nord's electoral fortunes were reduced, primarily because of many splits, and especially that of Liga Veneta Repubblica in Veneto. By 1999 several leading members of the party, notably Fabrizio Comencini
(head of Liga Veneta
and until then a key ally of Bossi), Marco Formentini
(leader of the left-wing of the party and former Mayor of Milan) and Domenico Comino (leader of a pro-Berlusconi faction), left the party.
In 1998 La Padania, Lega Nord's official newspaper, published several articles attacking Silvio Berlusconi
, with whom the party would join forces again in 2000. The articles went as far as accusing Berlusconi of having links with the Mafia.
Since 1999 the League de-emphasised demands for independence in order to rather focus on devolution
, while remaining within the framework of Italy, as in its original goal: not to secede from Italy but to transform it into a federal state in order to let Padania keep more tax revenues collected there through fiscal federalism
. Moreover, after all these splits had severely damaged the party, Lega Nord lost most of its electoral strength, being reduced to 3.9% at the 2001 general election
.
(4.5%, a loss of 5.6% in three years), Bossi understood that Lega Nord was no more a viable third force between centre-right and centre-left, that its autonomy was no more a strength and that it needed to join one of the two big political coalitions in order to survive. In 2000 the party re-joined forces with Berlusconi's coalition, previous disagreements notwithstanding, leading the centre-right to a landslide victory in that year regional elections in Northern regions and to a triumph in the 2001 general election
as part of Berlusconi's House of Freedoms
.
In 2001–2006 Lega Nord, although being severely reduced in its parliamentary representation, controlled three key ministries: Justice with Roberto Castelli
, Labour and Social Affairs with Roberto Maroni
, and Institutional Reforms and Devolution with Umberto Bossi
(replaced by Roberto Calderoli
in June 2004). In March 2004 Bossi suffered a stroke
that led many to question over the party's survival, but that ultimately confirmed Lega Nord's strength. The party was widely considered the staunchest ally of Berlusconi and formed the so-called "axis of the North" along with Forza Italia
, opposed to the axis formed by National Alliance
and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats.
During the five years in government with the centre-right, the Parliament passed an important constitutional reform, which included federalism
and more powers for the Prime Minister. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy and the Sardinian Action Party
for the 2006 general election
was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected by voters in the 2006 constitutional referendum.
on 24 January 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano
to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organised by Berlusconi as The People of Freedom
(PdL), now without the support of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC). Lega Nord ran the election in coalition with the PdL and the Movement for Autonomy, gaining a stunning 8.3% of the vote (+4.2%) and obtaining 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13).
Following this result, since May 2008 Lega Nord has been represented in Berlusconi IV Cabinet
by four ministers (Roberto Maroni
, Interior; Luca Zaia
, Agriculture; Umberto Bossi
, Reforms and Federalism; Roberto Calderoli
, Legislative simplification) and five under-secretaries (Roberto Castelli
, Infrastructures; Michelino Davico, Interior; Daniele Molgora, Economy and Finances; Francesca Martini
, Health; Maurizio Balocchi, Legislative simplification).
In April 2009 one of Lega Nord's pet projects, a bill introducing a path towards fiscal federalism
, was approved by the Senate, after having passed by the Chamber. The bill gained bipartisan support by Italy of Values
, that voted in favour, and by the Democratic Party
, that chose not to oppose the measure. As of late March 2011 all the most important decrees of the reform were approved by the Parliament and Bossi publicily praised the Democrats' leader Pier Luigi Bersani
for not having opposed the decisive decree on regional and provincial fiscality. Lega Nord influenced the government also on illegal immigration, especially when dealing with immigrants coming from the sea. While the UNCHR
and Catholic bishops expressed some concerns over the handling of asylum seekers, the decision of Maroni to send back to Libya
the boats full of illegal immigrants was praised also by some leading Democrats, notably including Piero Fassino
, and was backed by some 76% of Italians according to a poll.
In agreement with the PdL, in the 2010 regional elections
, Luca Zaia
was candidate for President in Veneto
and Roberto Cota
in Piedmont
, while in the other Northern regions, including Lombardy
, the League supported candidates of the PdL. Both Zaia and Cota were elected. The party became the largest in Veneto with 35.2% and the second-largest in Lombardy with 26.2%, while getting stronger all around the North and in some regions of Central Italy.
. The League was the only major party to oppose the new government
.
, following what Umberto Bossi
stated in 1982 to his early followers: "It does not matter how old are you, what your job is and what your political tendency: what matters is that you and we are all Lombard. [...] It is as Lombards, indeed, that we have a fundamental common goal in face of which our division in parties should fall behind". Writes Roberto Biorcio, a political scientist: "The political commitment of Umberto Bossi was influenced by his encounter with Bruno Salvadori, leader of the Valdotanian Union
[...]. The convictions of Salvadori on federalism, the self-determination of the peoples (the so-called nations without state) and the belonging to a people on the basis of cultural criteria and not on blood, were adopted by the future leader of the League".
Since the beginning the electorate of the party has been very diverse on a left-right scale. At the 1992 general election
, for instance, 25.4% of the party supporters were former Christian Democratic
voters, 18.5% Communists
, 12.5% Socialists
and 6.6% Missini
.
, fiscal federalism
, regionalism
and support of the traditional cultures of Northern Italy. The historical goal of the party is to transform Italy into a federal state, letting Padania
keep more tax revenues collected there under a regime of fiscal federalism
. Thus, through Lega Nord, federalism has become a major issue in the country. This is also the main difference between the League and most European regionalist parties (South Tyrolean People's Party
, Basque Nationalist Party
, Republican Left of Catalonia, Scottish National Party
, Vlaams Belang
, etc.), which focus on special rights for their own regions.
Sometimes it seemed possible that the League might also unite with similar leagues in Central
and Southern Italy, but it did not succeed in doing so. The party continues dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, notably the South Tyrolean People's Party
, the Valdotanian Union
, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party
, the Movement for Autonomy
and the Sardinian Action Party
, and has some figures from the South in its parliamentary ranks. Notably, Angela Maraventano
, Deputy-Mayor of Lampedusa
, is a senator of Lega Nord. Although it is no more a member of the European Free Alliance
, the party has ties with many regionalist parties around Europe, including left-wing parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia. Lega Nord has some ties also with the Swiss
Ticino League
.
The political culture of Lega Nord is a mix of pride for the heritage of Northern Italy
(particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial
ist Lombard League
; the warrior on the party emblems represents Alberto da Giussano
, a mythical figure in the wars against Frederick I Barbarossa
, from which Leghisti inherited anti-monopolism and anti-centralism), resentment for some Southern Italian habits and Roman
authorities, distrust of Italy and especially its flag
, some support for the free market
, anti-statism
, independentism
, and claims of a Celtic heritage.
Despite being officially founded on federalism, Lega Nord is no longer a single-issue party. It is difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is variously conservative
, centrist
and left-wing
with regard to different issues. For example, the party supports both liberal
ideas, such as deregulation
, and social-democratic
ones, such as the defense of workers' wages and pensions. This is because Lega Nord, as a "people's party" representing the North as a whole, includes both liberal-conservative
and social-democratic factions. In general, it supports the social market economy
and many others goals typical of Christian-democratic
parties, and has been described as a "neo-labour party
" by some commentators and also by some of its members.
The original program of the party identified "federalist libertarianism" as ideology. In fact the party has often varied its tone and policies, replacing its original libertarianism
and social liberalism
with a more socially conservative
approach, alterning anti-clericalism
with a pro-Catholic Church stance, Europeanism
with a marked Euroscepticism
, and abandoning its original pacifism
and uncompromising ecologism.
In 2008 Umberto Bossi
explained in an interview that Lega Nord is "libertarian
, but also socialist
" and that the right-wing he likes is anti-statist and with a "libertarian idea of a state which does not weigh on citizens". When asked to tell his most preferred politician of the 20th Century he said Giacomo Matteotti
, a Socialist
MP who was killed by Fascist
squads in 1925, and remembered his anti-fascist and left-wing roots.
Lega Nord is populist
in the sense that it is an anti-monopolist and anti-elitist
popular and participative party (it is one of the few Italian political parties not to permit freemasons
to join), fighting against the "vested interests", once identified by Bossi in "Agnelli
, the Pope
and the Mafia
". The party is also libertarian-populist in its promotion of small ownership, small and medium-sized enterprise, small government
as opposed to governmental bureaucracy
, waste of public funds, pork barrel
spending and corruption
. These are the main reasons why the party is strong in the North, despite being obscured (especially at the beginning of its history) and badly presented by national media, television and newspapers. According to some sources, Lega Nord is an example of a right-wing populist
party.
stance on social issues, such as abortion
, euthanasia
, medical embryonic stem cell
research, artificial insemination
, same-sex marriage
(although there is an association called Los Padania, where "Los" stands for "free sexual orientation", linked to the party and Lega Nord was once in favour of same-sex marriage) and drug use (though it did once support the legalization of marijuana
along with Marco Pannella
's Radicals
). Despite this the party has been home to some social liberals
: Giancarlo Pagliarini
, Rossana Boldi, Giovanna Bianchi Clerici and, to some extent, Roberto Castelli
.
Lega Nord opposes statism
, supports lower taxes, especially for families and small enterpreneurs. It is also against the flow of public money in help to big businesses facing crisis, as for FIAT
and Alitalia
.
The party, in its political program, is committed to the environment
, supporting public green areas, the establishment of natural parks, recycling, and the end (or regulation) of the construction of sheds in country areas, especially in Veneto. Lega Nord, which has a strong agricultural wing, also supports the protection of traditional food, opposes GMO
s and has campaingned for a revision of the quota system of the Common Agricultural Policy
.
One of the League's war horses is an American
-styled election of prosecutors
, along with the regionalization of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court
.
In foreign policy, the League often criticises the European Union
(it was the only party in the Italian Parliament, along with the Communist Refoundation Party
, to vote against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
, but voted in favour of the Treaty of Lisbon
,) and opposes what it calls the idea of an "European Super-State", favoring instead a "Europe of Regions", as the Christian Social Union of Bavaria
and the European Free Alliance
do. The party has never had a particularly pro-United States
stance, although it admires the American federal political system
. Its MPs opposed both the Gulf War
in 1991 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo
in 1999 in the name of pacifism
, and Umberto Bossi personally met Slobodan Milosević
during that war. However, after the September 11 attacks and the emergence of Islamic terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in the War on Terror
, while expressing several reservations about American policy on Iraq. The League is also a staunch supporter of Israel
. In 2011 the party was severely opposed to the Italian participation to the war in Libya
.
Through the Associazione Umanitaria Padana, Lega Nord participates in humanitarian projects which are intended to respect local cultures, traditions, and identities. The campaigns are carried out in under-developed countries or in those that have suffered from war or natural catastrophes. Locations of recent missions include Darfur
, Iraq
, Afghanistan
and Côte d'Ivoire
. The association is led by Sara Fumagalli, wife of Roberto Castelli
and born-again Catholic after a piligrimage in Međugorje.
The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years: some opponents claimed it wanted secession of Padania
, while at other times it appeared to be requesting only autonomy for Northern regions. The League eventually settled on federalism
, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties.
In 1996 the party switched to open separatism, calling for the independence of Padania. As a symbolic act of birth of the new nation, on 13 September 1996 Umberto Bossi
took a bottle of water from the springs of Po River , which was poured in the sea of Venice
by a little girl two days later. A voluntary group of militants, the "Green Volunteers", often referred as "green shirts" (green
being the colour of Padania), was also established.
The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", going back to the ideas by Miglio: an Italian federal republic, divided into three "macro-regions" ("Padania", "Etruria" and the "South"). The new buzzword devolution
(often used in English
) was also introduced, but with less success than "federalism". This decision caused some criticism from party ranks and led to the formation of some minor breakaway factions.
As observed above, the peculiarity of Lega Nord among European regionalist parties is that its main goal is the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions.
to some national populist parties of the European far-right, including Jean-Marie Le Pen
's National Front, Jörg Haider
's Freedom Party of Austria
and the Vlaams Blok
: "the League rejects any association with neo-fascists but plays on themes of xenophobia regionalism and trivial racism".
In 2002 the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI) first denounced the party: "members of Lega Nord made a particularly intense use of racist and xenophobic propaganda, although it should be noted that even members of other parties used a xenophobic or otherwise intolerant political talk." In 2006 the ECRI noticed that "some members of Lega Nord have intensified the use of racist and xenophobic political talk." While noting that those expressing themselvers this way "were mostly local representatives of this party, also some important political leaders of the party at the national level issued racist and xenophobic statements. These talks continued to target mainly non-EU immigrants, but also other members of minority groups such as Roma and Sinti
." ECRI also recalled that "in December 2004, the court of first instance of Verona
found six local representatives of Lega Nord guilty of incitement to racial hatred, in connection with a campaign aimed at ousting a group of Sinti from a temporary camp in the local territory." However in 2007 the Court of Cassation
cancelled the sentence.
Although several of its members tend to speak strongly against illegal immigrants (in 2003, Umberto Bossi
himself suggested opening fire on the boats of illegal immigrants from Africa
, whom he described as bingo-bongos, and Giancarlo Gentilini
, at the time Mayor of Treviso
, labeled foreigners as "immigrant slackers", saying "we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang"), the official line of the party is much more moderate. In a 2010 interview after some riots in Milan between South American and North African immigrants, Roberto Maroni
, minister of the Interior and leghista with left-libertarian
upbringings, stated that "the police state is not the solution" to integration problems and, calling for a "new model of integration", he maintained that "we should think that, other than a permit of stay, a job and a house, there are further conditions that today are missing for integration to succeed". Bossi soon endorsed Maroni's words and his will to calm down the party's hardliners.
Moreover, after more than 15 years of government by Lega Nord, the Province of Treviso
is widely considered the place in Italy where immigrants are best integrated. Similar things can be said also about the city of Verona
, governed by Flavio Tosi
, who evolved from being a hardliner to be one of the most popular mayors of Italy.
Lega Nord rejects all charges of xenophobia, instead claiming that the North is the victim of discrimination and racism. Moreover the first black
mayor in Italy belongs to the League: Sandy Cane
(whose mother is Italian and her father is an African American
) was elected mayor of the small town of Viggiù
, near Varese
, in 2009. In an interview with The Independent
, Ms. Cane said that the League does not include racist or xenophobic members. More recently, the League appointed a local coordinator of Islamic origin in Malnate
, Hajer Fezzani. She is an Afro-Arab
, born in Tunisia
, and a non-practicing Muslim.
(EFA) and its first two MEPs, Francesco Speroni
and Luigi Moretti
, joined the Rainbow Group
in the European Parliament
during the fourth parliamentary term (1989–1994). Between 1994 and 1997 it was a member of the Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
(ELDR) and one MEP of Lega Nord, Raimondo Fassa, continued to sit in the ELDR group
until 1999. During the sixth parliamentary term (1999–2004), it was briefly a component of the Technical Group of Independents
(TGI) along with Italian Radicals
and then returned to the Non-Inscrits
.
Following the 2004 European election
Lega Nord joined the Independence/Democracy (I/D) group and later the Union for Europe of the Nations
(UEN), a somewhat awkward affiliation for a party proposing a "Europe of Regions". The party was affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
(ALDE) in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
until 2006, when its members joined the European Democrat Group
(EDG).
Following the 2009 European election
Lega Nord joined the newly formed Europe of Freedom and Democracy
(EFD) group.
and, more broadly, the bulk of the original Lega Lombarda
(including Umberto Bossi
, Roberto Maroni
and Marco Formentini
) has tended to be the left-wing of the party, while that from province of Bergamo
(notably Roberto Calderoli
) has tended to be more conservative
. In fact both Bossi and Maroni hailed from the far-left of the political spectrum, having been active in the Italian Communist Party
, il manifesto
movement, the Party of Proletarian Unity, Proletarian Democracy
and the Greens
before starting Lega Lombarda, and conceived Lega Nord as a centre-left
(and, to some extent, social-democratic
) political force. From the left came also Marco Formentini, a long-time member of the left-wing of the Italian Socialist Party
, and Rosi Mauro, a trade unionist of the metal workers' section of the Italian Labour Union
(a trade union linked to the Socialists) and, later, leader of the "Padanian Trade Union" (SinPa).
Since its foundation, Liga Veneta
was instead characterised more as a liberal
and centrist
party and has always proposed a more libertarian
political line, due to the different political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base. In the early 1990s, the League stole votes especially from the Communists and the Socialists in western and central Lombardy
, while the party basically replaced Christian Democracy
as dominant political force in eastern Lombardy and Veneto
. In fact, also Lega Lombarda included liberal-conservative
figures, such as Gianfranco Miglio
and Vito Gnutti, both former Christian Democrats
, while Giovanni Meo Zilio, a Socialist
partisan during the Italian Resistance
, was one of the founding fathers of Liga Veneta. Moreover, with the passing of time, the party underwent a process of homogenisation.
Between Maroni and Calderoli, there has been a liberal-centrist wing composed of people like Roberto Castelli
, a conspicuous group of former Liberals
(including Manuela Dal Lago
, Daniele Molgora and Francesco Speroni
) and a new generation of politicians (including Roberto Cota
, Giancarlo Giorgetti
, Marco Reguzzoni
, Luca Zaia
and Angelo Alessandri
). Calderoli's followers have generally been warmer supporters of the alliance with The People of Freedom
and Silvio Berlusconi
, while Maroni (who is well known for his moderate attitudes, despite his far-left roots), Giorgetti and, up to some point, Reguzzoni have tended to be more critical and "movimentist".
In Emilia-Romagna
, a left-wing heartland, the party has many former Communists in its ranks, and many others have Communist upbringings.
, Rosi Mauro and Federico Bricolo
. The second is formed around Roberto Calderoli
, who is the powerful coordinator of Lega Nord's "national" secretariats and includes among his closest supporters Giacomo Stucchi and Davide Boni. The third one is led by Roberto Maroni
, who tends to be more independent from Bossi and is somewhat critical of the centre-right affiliation of the party, and includes Giancarlo Giorgetti
, Attilio Fontana, Matteo Salvini
and Flavio Tosi
. Gian Paolo Gobbo and Luca Zaia
, leaders of the party in Veneto, although very loyal to Bossi, tend to be independent from "federal" factions and have been engaged in a long power struggle with Flavio Tosi (see Factions of Liga Veneta). Indeed Corriere della Sera
identified four main groups: "magic circle", Maroniani, Calderoliani and "Venetians" (or, better, Venetists), leaving aside the core independentists (see next section).
Roberto Cota
, leader of Lega Nord Piemont
, the third largest "national" section of Lega Nord, is very close to Bossi and was part of the "magic circle", but, since his election as President of Piedmont
, he has become more independent. Equidistant from the main factions are also Roberto Castelli
and Francesco Speroni
.
By 2011 Maroniani clearly became the strongest faction within the party and Maroni, who was acclaimed at the traditional rally in Pontida
in June, became Bossi's obvious successor. Maroniani are the largest faction as they have a wider support among rank-and-file members who are active at the local level and vote in party congresses and they are well represented in all the regions. Apart from Lombardy, they are particularly strong in Veneto thanks to the alliance with Tosi, who, despite being a conservative-liberal
, is the lieutenant of Maroni east of the Lake Garda
and whose supporters dominate in various parts of the region.
In 2011 Maroni and Calderoli, who had been on opposite sides for years, joined forces against the "magic circle" and its influence on Bossi. After Pontida 2011, Mauro and Reguzzoni tried to convince Bossi to remove Giorgetti from the leadership of Lega Lombarda, but this move was strongly opposed by Maroni and Calderoli, who were supported in this also by Cota and most Venetians. The attempted "coup d'etat" produced an umparalleled backclash against the "magic circle": 49 deputies out of 59 wanted to replace Reguzzoni as floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies
with Giacomo Stucchi, but Bossi imposed the status quo.
After earning resounding victories in the provincial congresses of Verona
, Belluno
and oriental Veneto during the first half of 2011, Maroniani (with the support of Calderoliani went on to win also in Brescia
and Val Camonica
, defeating the candidates of the "magic circle" by landslidesas. In October, fearing to watch a remake of those congresses in his homeprovince, Varese
, Bossi imposed his candidate (who was declared elected unopposed) there, but he was not able to prevent many delegates to openly contest him. In fact, there had been an open vote, Maroniani would have prevailed. The episode was a shock both for Bossiani and Maroniani. Subsequently, there were rumors that, in case of an early election, Bossi would exclude from party lists most of incumbent deputies and senators, and replace them with loyalists. As a response, a quadriumvirate composed of Maroni, Calderoli, Cota and Zaia might try to oppose the move and, possibly, form a new party from scratch.
, most of whom are affiliated to the "Padanian Catholics", founded by late Roberto Ronchi and currently led by Giuseppe Leoni. Another leading Catholic is Massimo Polledri. In fact many Leghisti are committed to Catholic social teaching
and the social market economy
, and several party members are former members or voters of Christian Democracy.
Then, there is a right-wing
which is represented mainly by Mario Borghezio
, a former Monarchist
who is the leader of "Christian Padania", which is a key advocate of social conservatism
within party ranks and has some links with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X
.
Third and fourth, the party has always included also a group of libertarians
, whose leading members were Gilberto Oneto and Giancarlo Pagliarini
, who left the party in the late 2000s, and an "Independentist Unit", which gathered the more secessionist figures of the party. The independentist wing crosses all the other factions and tendencies and in fact includes, among others, Borghezio and Francesco Speroni
. Also Oneto, father of Padanian nationalism, and Pagliarini were close to this group.
Finally, the party is home to an agricultural wing, which is particularly strong in southern Lombardy
, Emilia-Romagna
and Veneto
, and is represented by the Cobas del latte, a farmers' trade union, the "Land Movement", whose leader was Giovanni Robusti, and politicians such as Luca Zaia
, a former Minister of Agriculture, Fabio Rainieri, president of Lega Nord Emilia
, and Erminio Boso, a historic and now marginal figure from Trentino.
-Berlusconi
pact which led to the formation of the Pole of Freedoms
, Roberto Maroni
signed a pact with Mario Segni
's Pact for Italy
, which was later cancelled. When, in December 1994, Bossi finally decided to withdraw the party's support to Berlusconi's first government
, Maroni, who was minister of the Interior, vocally disagreed. Many party members (40 deputies out of 117 and 17 senators out of 60) left the party and some, including Luigi Negri and Lucio Malan
, switched to Forza Italia
. Others, including Pierluigi Petrini, floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies, joined the centre-left. Maroni, after some months of coldness with Bossi, returned to be an active member of the League.
After the 1996 general election
, which Lega Nord fought outside the big two coalitions, the differences between those who supported an alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini
, etc.) and those who preferred to enter Romano Prodi
's Olive Tree (Marco Formentini
, Irene Pivetti, etc.) did not disappear. Some of them (15 deputies out of 59 and 9 senators out of 27) left the party to switch either to centre-right or centre-left parties. Pivetti a few months after the election. Comencini left in 1998 to launch Liga Veneta Repubblica with the mid-term objective of entering in coalition with Forza Italia in Veneto
. Gnutti and Comino were expelled in 1999, after they had formed an alliance with the centre-right at the local level. Formentini left in 1999 too.
After a defeat at the 1999 European Parliament election
, senior members of the party thought it was not possible to attain the party's goals if it continued to stay outside the two big coalitions. Some, including Maroni, who, despite his defence of Berlusconi in 1994, had always been left-leaning in the heart, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. Bossi asked Maroni to negotiate an agreement with Massimo D'Alema
, who once described Lega Nord as "a rib of the left". These talks were successful and Maroni was indicated as the joint candidate for President of Lombardy
for the 2000 regional election
. Despite this, Bossi decided to join again Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming 2001 general election
. Lega Nord won the 2000 regional elections, as part of the House of Freedoms
, and was returned to national office in 2001.
During the years in government in Rome (2001–2006), the party saw the emergence of two different political viewpoints about alliances: some, led by Roberto Calderoli
and Roberto Castelli
(with the backing of Umberto Bossi), vigorously supported participation with the centre-right, while others, represented by Roberto Maroni and Giancarlo Giorgetti
, were less warm about it. Some of them spoke about joining the centre-left some time after the 2006 general election
, which they were certain to lose. This idea was ascribed to the fact that, without any support from the left, it seemed even more difficult to win the constitutional referendum, which would have turned Italy into a federal state. The centre-left did not change its position and Lega Nord lost the vote. As a result, Leghisti became much less keen on an alliance with the left.
Similar differences emerged within Lega Nord also during its last participation in government under Berlusconi (2008–2011). While Calderoli continued to be a keen supporter of the government, Maroni seemed far less warm on Berlusconi and, at times, keener on an alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party
. Calderoli's line had the backing of Roberto Cota
, Marco Reguzzoni
, Federico Bricolo
and, chiefly, Umberto Bossi, while Maroni was backed by Giancarlo Giorgetti, Francesco Speroni
, Luca Zaia
and, especially, Flavio Tosi
. In this context, senior opposition MPs proposed Maroni as Prime Minister.
and has varied over time, reaching a maximum of 10.1% of the vote at the 1996 general election (around 25% north of the Po River). That year, the League scored 29.3% of the vote in Veneto
, 25.5% in Lombardy
, 23.2% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
, 18.2% in Piedmont
, 13.2% in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% in Liguria
, 7.2% in Emilia-Romagna
, 1.8% in Tuscany
, 1.5% in the Marche
, and 1.0% in Umbria
. The Leghisti were able to elect 59 deputies and 27 senators (39 and 19, respectively, in single-seat constituencies), helping the centre-left to win, due to its successes in some Northern constituencies characterised by three-way races. The League won barely all the seats in the provinces
of the so-called Pedemontana, the area at the feet of the Prealps, from Udine
to Cuneo
, encompassing Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont. Lega Nord is stronger in the areas of the late Republic of Venice
and among Catholics.
At the 2008 general election
Lega Nord scored 8.3% at the national level, slightly below the result of 1996: 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy, 13.0% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 12.6% in Piedmont, 9.4% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 7.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 6.8% in Liguria, 2.2% in the Marche, 2.0% in Tuscany and 1.7% in Umbria.
At the 2009 European Parliament election
Lega Nord won 10.2% of the vote: 28.4% in Veneto, 22.7% in Lombardy, 17.5% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 15.7% in Piedmont, 9.9% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 11.1% in Emilia-Romagna, 9.9% in Liguria, 5.5% in the Marche, 4.3% in Tuscany, 3.6% in Umbria and other surprising results, such as 24.6% in Lampedusa
, 5.1% in Ogliastra
, Sardinia
and 1.2% in Reggio Calabria
.
At the 2010 regional elections
gained 35.2% of the vote in Veneto, 26.2% in Lombardy, 16.7% in Piedmont, 13.7% in Emilia-Romagna, 10.2% in Liguria, 6.3% in the Marche, 6.5% in Tuscany and 4.3% in Umbria.
Mayors of Lega Nord govern 391 comuni
, including some important cities such as Verona
, Treviso
, Monza
and Varese
. In addition Lega Nord currently controls 13 of the 110 Italian Provinces
, including some of the most populous ones, namely Brescia
, Bergamo
, Varese
, Como
, Lodi
and Sondrio
in Lombardy, Treviso
, Vicenza
, Venice
and Belluno
in Veneto, Cuneo
and Biella
in Piedmont and Udine
in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Yet Lega Nord is the largest party also in the Province of Verona
.
According to a poll conducted in February 2010 by GPG, 45% of Northerners support the independence of Padania. A poll conducted by SWG in June 2010 puts that figure at 61% of Northerners (with 80% of them supporting at least federal reform), while noting that 55% of Italians consider Padania as only a political invention, against 42% believing in its real existence (45% of the sample being composed of Northerners, 19% of Central Italians and 36% of Southerners). As for federal reform, according to the poll, 58% of Italians support it. A more recent poll by SWG puts the support for fiscal federalism and secession respectively at 68% and 37% in Piedmont and Liguria, 77% and 46% in Lombardy, 81% and 55% in Triveneto
(comprising Veneto), 63% and 31% in Emilia-Romagna
, 51% and 19% in Central Italy
(not including Lazio).
and North-Central
regions are shown in the table below.
Provincial Presidents:
Mayors (cities over 50,000 inhab.):
Lega Lombarda
Piemont Autonomista / Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Friuli / Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lega Emiliano-Romagnola / Lega Nord Emilia
Uniun Ligure / Lega Nord Liguria
Alleanza Toscana / Lega Nord Toscana
Lega Nord Trentino
Lega Nord Sud Tirolo
Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta
Lega Nord Romagna
Lega Nord Marche
Lega Nord Umbria
Lega Nord Trieste
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
and regionalist
Regionalism (politics)
Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system...
political party in Italy founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
and Central Italy
Central Italy
Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...
, most of which had arisen and expanded their share of the electorate over the 1980s.
In popular usage the party is generally referred to simply as Lega and is frequently nicknamed il Carroccio
Carroccio
A Carroccio was a four-wheeled war altar, mounting a large vexillum standard, drawn by oxen, used by the medieval republics of Italy. It was a rectangular platform on which the standard of the city and an altar were erected; priests held services on the altar before the battle, and the trumpeters...
in newspapers, after a four-wheeled war altar drawn by oxen, used by the medieval republics of Northern Italy which formed the Lombard League
Lombard League
The Lombard League was an alliance formed around 1167, which at its apex included most of the cities of northern Italy , including, among others, Crema, Cremona, Mantua, Piacenza, Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Padua, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Treviso, Venice, Vercelli, Vicenza, Verona,...
in opposition to the imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
design of Frederick I Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
.
Lega Nord's political program advocates the transformation of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
into a federal state
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
, fiscal federalism
Fiscal federalism
As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government"...
and greater regional autonomy
Autonomous area
An autonomous area or autonomous entity is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a national minority. Countries that include autonomous areas are often...
, especially for the Northern regions
Regions of Italy
The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
. At times it has advocated secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
of the North, which it calls Padania
Padania
Padania is an alternative name for the Po Valley in Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a political party in Italy, proposed Padania as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy...
. Prior to the party's adoption of the term, Padania was infrequently used to name the Padan-Venetian Plain
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
and was promoted since 1963 by sport journalist Gianni Brera
Gianni Brera
Giovanni Luigi "Gianni" Brera was an Italian sports journalist and novelist.-Biography:Brera was born in San Zenone al Po, near Pavia, the son of Carlo, a tailor, and Marietta Ghisoni...
as a modern name for Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul, in Latin: Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior, also called Gallia Togata, was a Roman province until 41 BC when it was merged into Roman Italy.It bore the name Gallia, because the great body of its inhabitants, after the expulsion of the Etruscans, consisted of Gauls or Celts...
.
Lega Nord is by far the largest party in Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, the second largest in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, the third largest in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...
, Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
and Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
. The long-standing leader of the party is Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
, who was Minister for Federal Reform in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet
Berlusconi IV Cabinet
Berlusconi IV Cabinet has been the cabinet of the government of Italy from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011.As of July 2011, it was composed of 24 ministers, 4 deputy ministers and 39 under-secretaries, for a total of 67 members.-Sources:*...
. Leading members include Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
, President of Veneto, Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
, President of Piedmont, Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
, former Minister of the Interior, Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
, Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
, Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
, Marco Reguzzoni
Marco Reguzzoni
Marco Giovanni Reguzzoni is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He was President of Varese Province from 2002 to 12 February 2008. Today he is a member of the Italian Parliament as congressman....
, Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti was national secretary of the Lombard League from 2002. Elected MP for the first time in 1996, from 2001 to 2006 he was Chairman of the Budget Committee in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He was described by the New York Times as a powerful deputy of Mr. Bossi and by the...
, Gian Paolo Gobbo, Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi is an Italian Venetist politician. He is member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.-Career:Having joined Liga Veneta in 1991, he was elected to the Municipal Council of Verona in 1994 at the age of 25. From 1997 to 2003 he was also provincial secretary of Liga Veneta for the Province of Verona...
and Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo is an Italian politician. He is a Venetist, member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.He has been member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2008, when he was elected to the Senate, where he chairs the parliamentary group of Lega Nord...
.
The founding parties of Lega Nord were Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy. Led by Giancarlo Giorgetti, the party is the second largest in the region....
, Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta is a regionalist political party based in Veneto, combining Venetism and fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta is by far the largest party in Veneto and the party of Luca Zaia, President of Veneto since March 2010.It was the first party of its kind in Northern Italy, predating Umberto...
, Piemont Autonomista
Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont is a regionalist political party in Italy that is the regional section of Lega Nord in Piedmont.Its leader Roberto Cota is the President of Piedmont since March 2010.-Early years:...
, Uniun Ligure
Lega Nord Liguria
Lega Nord Liguria is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the regional section of Lega Nord in Liguria. The current national secretary is Francesco Bruzzone.-History:...
, Lega Emiliano-Romagnola
Lega Nord Emilia
Lega Nord Emilia is a regionalist political party in Italy active in the Emilian part of Emilia-Romagna. It is one of the 13 "national" sections forming Lega Nord.-History:...
, Alleanza Toscana, plus the newly formed regional parties of the other Northern regions.
Precursors and foundation
Italian general election, 1983
The Italian election of 1983 was held on June 26. The ninth Parliament of republican Italy was selected.The Pentaparty formula, the governative alliance between five centrist parties, caused unexpected problems to the Christian Democracy. The alliance was fixed and universal, extended both to the...
one of Lega Nord's main precursors (and, later, sections), Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta is a regionalist political party based in Veneto, combining Venetism and fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta is by far the largest party in Veneto and the party of Luca Zaia, President of Veneto since March 2010.It was the first party of its kind in Northern Italy, predating Umberto...
, based in Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, elected a deputy
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
, Achille Tramarin
Achille Tramarin
Achille Tramarin is an Italian Venetist politician.In 1978–1980 he took part to the foundation of Liga Veneta and in 1980 he was elected first national secretary of the party...
, and a senator
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
, Graziano Girardi
Graziano Girardi
Graziano Girardi is an Italian Venetist politician.An early member of Liga Veneta, he was elected senator in 1983, the fist in party's history. After having briefly joined the Union of the Venetian People, he returned into Liga Veneta and, in 1991, he joined the Lega Nord of which he is currently...
. At the 1987 general election
Italian general election, 1987
The Italian election of 1987 was held on June 14. Italian citizens chose the tenth Parliament of the Italian Republic.This election marked the final inversion of the trend of the entire republican history of Italy: for the first time, the distance between the Christian Democrats and the Communists...
another regional party, Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy. Led by Giancarlo Giorgetti, the party is the second largest in the region....
, based in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, gained national prominence when its leader Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
was elected to the Senate. Since then Bossi has commonly been referred to as the Senatür, the word for "senator" in a number of Northern Italian languages – a nickname he maintained even when he was no longer a senator.
The party was formed in 1989 as the successor of the Alleanza Nord
Lega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord
Lega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord was an electoral alliance for the 1989 European Parliament election in Italy.It was composed by six regionalist parties representative of six Northern regions:*Lega Lombarda*Liga Veneta...
electoral coalition and was officially founded in 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. These parties continue to exist as "national sections" of the federal party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as "Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord", "Liga Veneta–Lega Nord", "Lega Nord–Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont is a regionalist political party in Italy that is the regional section of Lega Nord in Piedmont.Its leader Roberto Cota is the President of Piedmont since March 2010.-Early years:...
", and so on.
The League exploited resentment against Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(with the famous slogan Roma ladrona, which loosely means "Rome big thief") and the Italian government, common in Northern Italy as many Northerners felt that the governments in Rome wasted resources collected mostly from Northerners' tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es. The unpopularity of Southern Italians and resentment against illegal immigrants were also exploited. The party's electoral successes began roughly at a time when public disillusionment with the established political parties was high. The Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...
corruption scandals, which invested most of the established parties, were unveiled from 1992 on. However, contrarily to what many pundits observed at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable political force.
Lega Nord's first electoral breakthrough was at the 1990 regional elections, but it was with the 1992 general election
Italian general election, 1992
The Italian general elections of 1992 were held on the 5 April 1992.The 1992 elections were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italy, the Italian Communist Party , which had been disbanded in 1991...
that the party emerged as a leading political actor. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators, it became the fourth largest party in country and Parliament. In 1993 Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....
, a left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
leghista, was elected Mayor of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, the party won 49.3% in the provincial election of Varese
Province of Varese
The Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese but its largest city is Busto Arsizio....
and, by the end of the year, before Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
launched his own political career and party, it was polled around 16-18% in electoral surveys.
First government participation
The party fought the 1994 general electionItalian general election, 1994
An early national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won handily the election for the Chamber and only narrowly lost that for the Senate....
in alliance with Berlusconi's Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
party within the Pole of Freedoms
Pole of Freedoms
The Pole of Freedoms was a centre-right electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi.The alliance was composed primarily of Forza Italia and the Lega Nord, but also included Christian Democratic Centre and the Union of the Centre...
coalition. Lega Nord gained just 8.4% of the vote, but, thanks to a generous division of candidacies in Northern single-seats constituencies, its parliamentary representation was almost doubled to 117 deputies and 56 senators. The post of President Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
was thus given to a leghista, Irene Pivetti, a young woman hailing from the Catholic faction of the party.
After the election, the League joined Forza Italia, National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
and the Christian Democratic Centre to form a coalition government under Berlusconi and the party obtained five ministries in the Berlusconi I Cabinet
Berlusconi I Cabinet
The Berlusconi I Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 10 May 1994 to January 17, 1995.It was composed of 26 ministers and 38 under-secretaries, for a total of 64 members.Composition of the government:...
: the Interior with Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
(who was also Deputy Prime Minister), the Budget with Giancarlo Pagliarini
Giancarlo Pagliarini
Giancarlo Pagliarini is an Italian politician.Born in Milan, he was later elected to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord in 1992 and re-elected in 1994, then elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 and in 2001...
, Industry with Vito Gnutti, European Affairs with Domenico Comino and Institutional Reforms with Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
. However, the alliance with Berlusconi and the government itself were both short-lived: it collapsed before the end of the year, with the League being instrumental in its demise.
In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the newly formed cabinet of Lamberto Dini, alongside with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...
. This caused many splinter groups to leave the party, including the Federalist Party
Federalist Party (Italy)
The Federalist Party was a federalist Italian political party.It was launched as Federalist Union on 1 June 1994 by Gianfranco Miglio, an influent Senator and political scientist who left Lega Nord in May over disagreements with Umberto Bossi, and Umberto Giovine, an ex-Socialist who was at the...
(which was actually founded in June 1994) of Gianfranco Miglio
Gianfranco Miglio
thumb|Gianfranco Miglio School Centre in [[Adro]].Gianfranco Miglio was an Italian jurist, political scientist and politician, founder of the Partito Federalista. For 30 years, he presided over the Political science Faculty of Milan's Università Cattolica...
, the Federalists and Liberal Democrats
Federalists and Liberal Democrats
The Federalists and Liberal Democrats was a federalist and liberal Italian political party.-History:...
of Franco Rocchetta
Franco Rocchetta
Franco Rocchetta is a Venetist politician.Rocchetta was born in Venice. He was a founding member of Liga Veneta in 1978–1980, and its national president and practical leader...
, Lucio Malan
Lucio Malan
Lucio Malan is an Italian politician.Malan was born in Luserna San Giovanni, Turin. He earned his BA in Literature at the University of Turin, then he obtained a master's degree in history at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where Lucio Malan was also tutor-assistant.Lucio Malan is member of the...
and Furio Gubetti and the Federalist Italian League
Federalist Italian League
The Federalist Italian League was a short-lived federalist and liberal Italian political party.-History:The party was founded by dissident members of Lega Nord on 13 February 1995, including Luigi Negri , Enrico Hüllwech and Giorgio Vido...
of Luigi Negri and Sergio Cappelli. All these groups later merged into Forza Italia. Also Roberto Maroni opposed the new course of the party, but after some months of coldness with Bossi, he returned to active politics in June. Between 1995 and 1998 Lega Nord joined centre-left
Centre-left
Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...
governing coalitions in many local contexts, from the Province of Padua
Province of Padua
The Province of Padua is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Padua.-History and territory:...
to the city of Udine
Udine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...
.
Independentist years
After a huge success at the 1996 general electionItalian general election, 1996
An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...
, its best result ever (10.1%, 59 deputies and 27 senators), Lega Nord announced that its aim was the secession of Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
under the name of Padania
Padania
Padania is an alternative name for the Po Valley in Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a political party in Italy, proposed Padania as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy...
, an expression previously referring to the Padanian-Venetian Plain
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
, but to which Lega Nord gave a geographically broader usage that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers. The party even organised a referendum on independence as well as elections for a "Padanian Parliament".
The years between 1996 and 1998 can be considered the first golden age of the party, which was then the largest political force in many provinces of Northern Italy and was able to win in single-seat constituencies and provincial elections by running alone aganist both the centre-right and the centre-left. However since 1998 Lega Nord's electoral fortunes were reduced, primarily because of many splits, and especially that of Liga Veneta Repubblica in Veneto. By 1999 several leading members of the party, notably Fabrizio Comencini
Fabrizio Comencini
Fabrizio Comencini is a Venetist politician.Comencini started his political career in the Italian Social Movement , for which he was elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 1985 and 1990. In the early 1990s, during his second term as regional councillor, he switched to Liga Veneta–Lega Nord...
(head of Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta is a regionalist political party based in Veneto, combining Venetism and fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta is by far the largest party in Veneto and the party of Luca Zaia, President of Veneto since March 2010.It was the first party of its kind in Northern Italy, predating Umberto...
and until then a key ally of Bossi), Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....
(leader of the left-wing of the party and former Mayor of Milan) and Domenico Comino (leader of a pro-Berlusconi faction), left the party.
In 1998 La Padania, Lega Nord's official newspaper, published several articles attacking Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
, with whom the party would join forces again in 2000. The articles went as far as accusing Berlusconi of having links with the Mafia.
Since 1999 the League de-emphasised demands for independence in order to rather focus on devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
, while remaining within the framework of Italy, as in its original goal: not to secede from Italy but to transform it into a federal state in order to let Padania keep more tax revenues collected there through fiscal federalism
Fiscal federalism
As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government"...
. Moreover, after all these splits had severely damaged the party, Lega Nord lost most of its electoral strength, being reduced to 3.9% at the 2001 general election
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
.
House of Freedoms
After a huge setback at the 1999 European Parliament electionEuropean Parliament election, 1999 (Italy)
The European Parliament election of 1999 in Italy was the election of the delegation from Italy to the European Parliament in 1999.-References:...
(4.5%, a loss of 5.6% in three years), Bossi understood that Lega Nord was no more a viable third force between centre-right and centre-left, that its autonomy was no more a strength and that it needed to join one of the two big political coalitions in order to survive. In 2000 the party re-joined forces with Berlusconi's coalition, previous disagreements notwithstanding, leading the centre-right to a landslide victory in that year regional elections in Northern regions and to a triumph in the 2001 general election
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
as part of Berlusconi's House of Freedoms
House of Freedoms
The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance...
.
In 2001–2006 Lega Nord, although being severely reduced in its parliamentary representation, controlled three key ministries: Justice with Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
, Labour and Social Affairs with Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
, and Institutional Reforms and Devolution with Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
(replaced by Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
in June 2004). In March 2004 Bossi suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
that led many to question over the party's survival, but that ultimately confirmed Lega Nord's strength. The party was widely considered the staunchest ally of Berlusconi and formed the so-called "axis of the North" along with Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
, opposed to the axis formed by National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats.
During the five years in government with the centre-right, the Parliament passed an important constitutional reform, which included federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
and more powers for the Prime Minister. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy and the Sardinian Action Party
Sardinian Action Party
The Sardinian Action Party is a regionalist social-democratic political party in Sardinia, which has recently sided with The People of Freedom, the largest centre-right party in Italy.-History:...
for the 2006 general election
Italian general election, 2006
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...
was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected by voters in the 2006 constitutional referendum.
Fourth Berlusconi government
In the aftermath of the fall of Romano Prodi's governmentProdi II Cabinet
The Prodi II Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008, a total of 722 days, or 1 year, 11 months and 21 days...
on 24 January 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organised by Berlusconi as The People of Freedom
The People of Freedom
The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....
(PdL), now without the support of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC). Lega Nord ran the election in coalition with the PdL and the Movement for Autonomy, gaining a stunning 8.3% of the vote (+4.2%) and obtaining 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13).
Following this result, since May 2008 Lega Nord has been represented in Berlusconi IV Cabinet
Berlusconi IV Cabinet
Berlusconi IV Cabinet has been the cabinet of the government of Italy from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011.As of July 2011, it was composed of 24 ministers, 4 deputy ministers and 39 under-secretaries, for a total of 67 members.-Sources:*...
by four ministers (Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
, Interior; Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
, Agriculture; Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
, Reforms and Federalism; Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
, Legislative simplification) and five under-secretaries (Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
, Infrastructures; Michelino Davico, Interior; Daniele Molgora, Economy and Finances; Francesca Martini
Francesca Martini
Francesca Martini is a Venetist politician. She is a member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.She was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2001, but she failed re-election five years later...
, Health; Maurizio Balocchi, Legislative simplification).
In April 2009 one of Lega Nord's pet projects, a bill introducing a path towards fiscal federalism
Fiscal federalism
As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government"...
, was approved by the Senate, after having passed by the Chamber. The bill gained bipartisan support by Italy of Values
Italy of Values
Italy of Values is a centrist, populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party, which is affiliated to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party , is headed by former Mani pulite prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996.The party aims to gather and give...
, that voted in favour, and by the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
, that chose not to oppose the measure. As of late March 2011 all the most important decrees of the reform were approved by the Parliament and Bossi publicily praised the Democrats' leader Pier Luigi Bersani
Pier Luigi Bersani
Pier Luigi Bersani is an Italian politician and the current Secretary of the Democratic Party of Italy, the main center-left political party in Italy . He was Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship from 1996 to 1999, Minister of Transports from 1999 to 2001, and Minister of Economic...
for not having opposed the decisive decree on regional and provincial fiscality. Lega Nord influenced the government also on illegal immigration, especially when dealing with immigrants coming from the sea. While the UNCHR
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...
and Catholic bishops expressed some concerns over the handling of asylum seekers, the decision of Maroni to send back to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
the boats full of illegal immigrants was praised also by some leading Democrats, notably including Piero Fassino
Piero Fassino
Pietro Franco "Piero" Fassino is an Italian politician with the Democratic Party, the current Mayor of Turin and a former national secretary of the Democrats of the Left party.-Biography:...
, and was backed by some 76% of Italians according to a poll.
In agreement with the PdL, in the 2010 regional elections
Italian regional elections, 2010
A big round of regional elections in Italy took place on 28–29 March in 13 regions out of 20, including nine of the ten largest ones: Lombardy, Campania, Veneto, Lazio, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Apulia, Tuscany and Calabria...
, Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
was candidate for President in Veneto
Venetian regional election, 2010
The Venetian regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010, as part of Italy's big round of regional elections.Luca Zaia, rising star of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord, was elected President by a landslide. With the support of 60.2% of Venetians, he was the most voted President of Veneto since...
and Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
in Piedmont
Piedmontese regional election, 2010
The Piedmontese regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010, as part of Italy's big round of regional elections.The incumbent President of the Region, Mercedes Bresso of the centre-left Democratic Party, lost her seat to Roberto Cota, leader of Lega Piemont and floor leader of Lega...
, while in the other Northern regions, including Lombardy
Lombard regional election, 2010
The Lombard regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010. The 9th term of the Regional Council was chosen.Roberto Formigoni, who was the longest-serving President of Region in Italy along with Giancarlo Galan of Veneto, obtained a historic fourth consecutive term. His opponent was...
, the League supported candidates of the PdL. Both Zaia and Cota were elected. The party became the largest in Veneto with 35.2% and the second-largest in Lombardy with 26.2%, while getting stronger all around the North and in some regions of Central Italy.
Out of government
In November 2011 Berlusconi resigned and was replaced by Mario MontiMario Monti
Mario Monti is an Italian economist and academic who is Prime Minister of Italy, as well as Minister of Economy and Finance, since November 2011. Monti served as a European Commissioner from 1995 to 2004, with responsibility for the Internal Market, Services, Customs and Taxation from 1995 to 1999...
. The League was the only major party to oppose the new government
Monti Cabinet
The Monti cabinet is the incumbent cabinet of the government of Italy and was announced on 16 November 2011. The cabinet is composed of technocrats, three of whom are women. It includes 12 ministers with portfolio, and five without portfolio.-References:...
.
Ideology
Lega Nord has aimed to unite all those Northern Italians who support autonomy and federalism for their land. For this reason it tends to be a multi-ideological catch-all partyBig tent
In politics, a big tent party or catch-all party is a political party seeking to attract people with diverse viewpoints. The party does not require adherence to some ideology as a criterion for membership...
, following what Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
stated in 1982 to his early followers: "It does not matter how old are you, what your job is and what your political tendency: what matters is that you and we are all Lombard. [...] It is as Lombards, indeed, that we have a fundamental common goal in face of which our division in parties should fall behind". Writes Roberto Biorcio, a political scientist: "The political commitment of Umberto Bossi was influenced by his encounter with Bruno Salvadori, leader of the Valdotanian Union
Valdotanian Union
The Valdotanian Union is a regionalist-centrist Italian political party active in Aosta Valley. Its leaders are Ego Perron, party president, and Augusto Rollandin, President of the Region....
[...]. The convictions of Salvadori on federalism, the self-determination of the peoples (the so-called nations without state) and the belonging to a people on the basis of cultural criteria and not on blood, were adopted by the future leader of the League".
Since the beginning the electorate of the party has been very diverse on a left-right scale. At the 1992 general election
Italian general election, 1992
The Italian general elections of 1992 were held on the 5 April 1992.The 1992 elections were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italy, the Italian Communist Party , which had been disbanded in 1991...
, for instance, 25.4% of the party supporters were former Christian Democratic
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
voters, 18.5% Communists
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
, 12.5% Socialists
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
and 6.6% Missini
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...
.
Catch-all nature
The party's ideology is a combination of political federalismFederalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
, fiscal federalism
Fiscal federalism
As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government"...
, regionalism
Regionalism (politics)
Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system...
and support of the traditional cultures of Northern Italy. The historical goal of the party is to transform Italy into a federal state, letting Padania
Padania
Padania is an alternative name for the Po Valley in Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a political party in Italy, proposed Padania as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy...
keep more tax revenues collected there under a regime of fiscal federalism
Fiscal federalism
As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government"...
. Thus, through Lega Nord, federalism has become a major issue in the country. This is also the main difference between the League and most European regionalist parties (South Tyrolean People's Party
South Tyrolean People's Party
The South Tyrolean People's Party is a regionalist Christian democratic political party active in the Italian province of South Tyrol.Founded in 1945, the SVP represents the German-speaking population of the province, as well as Ladin speakers. Since the first election of the Provincial Council in...
, Basque Nationalist Party
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...
, Republican Left of Catalonia, Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
, Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang is a Belgian far-right political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels that advocates the independence of Flanders and strict limits on immigration, whereby immigrants would be obliged to adopt Flemish culture and language...
, etc.), which focus on special rights for their own regions.
Sometimes it seemed possible that the League might also unite with similar leagues in Central
Central Italy
Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...
and Southern Italy, but it did not succeed in doing so. The party continues dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, notably the South Tyrolean People's Party
South Tyrolean People's Party
The South Tyrolean People's Party is a regionalist Christian democratic political party active in the Italian province of South Tyrol.Founded in 1945, the SVP represents the German-speaking population of the province, as well as Ladin speakers. Since the first election of the Provincial Council in...
, the Valdotanian Union
Valdotanian Union
The Valdotanian Union is a regionalist-centrist Italian political party active in Aosta Valley. Its leaders are Ego Perron, party president, and Augusto Rollandin, President of the Region....
, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party
Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party
The Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party is a regionalist Christian-democratic Italian political party based in Trentino.-History:The party was founded in 1948 as Trentino Tyrolean People's Party . In 1982 a split between the conservative wing, led by Franco Tretter, and the centrist wing of the...
, the Movement for Autonomy
Movement for Autonomy
The Movement for Autonomies is a regionalist Christian democratic political party in Italy. It demands economic development and greater autonomy for Sicily, mainly, and for other regions of Southern Italy...
and the Sardinian Action Party
Sardinian Action Party
The Sardinian Action Party is a regionalist social-democratic political party in Sardinia, which has recently sided with The People of Freedom, the largest centre-right party in Italy.-History:...
, and has some figures from the South in its parliamentary ranks. Notably, Angela Maraventano
Angela Maraventano
Angela Maraventano is an Italian politician, senator of Northern League elected in Emilia-Romagna during the election of 2008. She was deputy-mayor of Lampedusa from May 2007 to January 2009....
, Deputy-Mayor of Lampedusa
Lampedusa
Lampedusa is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The comune of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lampione. It is the southernmost part of Italy. Tunisia, which is about ...
, is a senator of Lega Nord. Although it is no more a member of the European Free Alliance
European Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance is a European political party. It consists of various national-level political parties in Europe which advocate either full political independence , or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region...
, the party has ties with many regionalist parties around Europe, including left-wing parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia. Lega Nord has some ties also with the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Ticino League
Ticino League
The Ticino League is an isolationist, national conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino.In 1991, after some public campaigning in the Sunday journal Mattino della Domenica against political power and use of public money, the editor Giuliano Bignasca and the...
.
The political culture of Lega Nord is a mix of pride for the heritage of Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
(particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
ist Lombard League
Lombard League
The Lombard League was an alliance formed around 1167, which at its apex included most of the cities of northern Italy , including, among others, Crema, Cremona, Mantua, Piacenza, Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Padua, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Treviso, Venice, Vercelli, Vicenza, Verona,...
; the warrior on the party emblems represents Alberto da Giussano
Alberto da Giussano
Alberto da Giussano was an Italian legendary Guelph warrior during the wars of the Lombard League against Frederick Barbarossa in the 12th century...
, a mythical figure in the wars against Frederick I Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
, from which Leghisti inherited anti-monopolism and anti-centralism), resentment for some Southern Italian habits and Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
authorities, distrust of Italy and especially its flag
Flag of Italy
The flag of Italy is a tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical pales of green, white, and red, with the green at the hoist side...
, some support for the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
, anti-statism
Statism
Statism is a term usually describing a political philosophy, whether of the right or the left, that emphasises the role of the state in politics or supports the use of the state to achieve economic, military or social goals...
, independentism
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
, and claims of a Celtic heritage.
Despite being officially founded on federalism, Lega Nord is no longer a single-issue party. It is difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is variously conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, centrist
Centrism
In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...
and left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
with regard to different issues. For example, the party supports both liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
ideas, such as deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
, and social-democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
ones, such as the defense of workers' wages and pensions. This is because Lega Nord, as a "people's party" representing the North as a whole, includes both liberal-conservative
Liberal conservatism
Liberal conservatism also known as progressive conservatism is a variant of political conservatism which incorporates liberal elements. As "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had different meanings over time and across countries, the term "liberal conservatism" has been used in quite different...
and social-democratic factions. In general, it supports the social market economy
Social market economy
The social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the economic philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...
and many others goals typical of Christian-democratic
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
parties, and has been described as a "neo-labour party
Labour Party
The name Labour Party , or similar, is used by several political parties around the world, particularly common in countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. They are most commonly, but not exclusively, social democrats or democratic socialists and have been traditionally allied to the Labour...
" by some commentators and also by some of its members.
The original program of the party identified "federalist libertarianism" as ideology. In fact the party has often varied its tone and policies, replacing its original libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
and social liberalism
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
with a more socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
approach, alterning anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
with a pro-Catholic Church stance, Europeanism
Europeanism
Although this term is occasionally used to describe support for European integration , it is more commonly used in relation to the idea that Europeans have common norms and values that transcend national or state identity, that have been promoted most actively...
with a marked Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
, and abandoning its original pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
and uncompromising ecologism.
In 2008 Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
explained in an interview that Lega Nord is "libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, but also socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
" and that the right-wing he likes is anti-statist and with a "libertarian idea of a state which does not weigh on citizens". When asked to tell his most preferred politician of the 20th Century he said Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence they used to gain votes...
, a Socialist
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
MP who was killed by Fascist
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
squads in 1925, and remembered his anti-fascist and left-wing roots.
Lega Nord is populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
in the sense that it is an anti-monopolist and anti-elitist
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
popular and participative party (it is one of the few Italian political parties not to permit freemasons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
to join), fighting against the "vested interests", once identified by Bossi in "Agnelli
Agnelli
Agnelli is a surname, and can refer to:*Members of the Agnelli family of Italy, including:**Giovanni Agnelli , Italian manufacturer and founder of Fiat***Edoardo Agnelli , Italian industrialist, son of Giovanni...
, the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
and the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
". The party is also libertarian-populist in its promotion of small ownership, small and medium-sized enterprise, small government
Small government
A Small government is one which minimizes its own activities. It is a concept important to classical liberalism and libertarianism.-In Hong Kong:...
as opposed to governmental bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
, waste of public funds, pork barrel
Pork barrel
Pork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
spending and corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
. These are the main reasons why the party is strong in the North, despite being obscured (especially at the beginning of its history) and badly presented by national media, television and newspapers. According to some sources, Lega Nord is an example of a right-wing populist
Right-wing populism
Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects existing political consensus and combines laissez-faire liberalism and anti-elitism. It is considered "right-wing" because of its rejection of social equality and government programs to achieve it, its opposition to social integration, and...
party.
Platform and policies
The party usually takes a socially conservativeSocial conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
stance on social issues, such as abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
, medical embryonic stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
research, artificial insemination
Artificial insemination
Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse or natural insemination...
, same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
(although there is an association called Los Padania, where "Los" stands for "free sexual orientation", linked to the party and Lega Nord was once in favour of same-sex marriage) and drug use (though it did once support the legalization of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
along with Marco Pannella
Marco Pannella
Giacinto Pannella, better known as Marco Pannella is an Italian politician.He is the historic leader of the Italian Radicals...
's Radicals
Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals is an Italian political party which describes itself as a liberale, liberista e libertario political movement .It was...
). Despite this the party has been home to some social liberals
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
: Giancarlo Pagliarini
Giancarlo Pagliarini
Giancarlo Pagliarini is an Italian politician.Born in Milan, he was later elected to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord in 1992 and re-elected in 1994, then elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 and in 2001...
, Rossana Boldi, Giovanna Bianchi Clerici and, to some extent, Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
.
Statism
Statism is a term usually describing a political philosophy, whether of the right or the left, that emphasises the role of the state in politics or supports the use of the state to achieve economic, military or social goals...
, supports lower taxes, especially for families and small enterpreneurs. It is also against the flow of public money in help to big businesses facing crisis, as for FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
and Alitalia
Alitalia
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , in its later stages known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...
.
The party, in its political program, is committed to the environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
, supporting public green areas, the establishment of natural parks, recycling, and the end (or regulation) of the construction of sheds in country areas, especially in Veneto. Lega Nord, which has a strong agricultural wing, also supports the protection of traditional food, opposes GMO
Genetically modified organism
A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one...
s and has campaingned for a revision of the quota system of the Common Agricultural Policy
Common Agricultural Policy
The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in 2006 ....
.
One of the League's war horses is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-styled election of prosecutors
Elections in the United States
The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at the federal , state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular...
, along with the regionalization of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court
Constitutional Court of Italy
The Constitutional Court of Italy is a supreme court of Italy, the other being the Court of Cassation. Sometimes the name Consulta is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome....
.
In foreign policy, the League often criticises the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(it was the only party in the Italian Parliament, along with the Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
, to vote against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...
, but voted in favour of the Treaty of Lisbon
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....
,) and opposes what it calls the idea of an "European Super-State", favoring instead a "Europe of Regions", as the Christian Social Union of Bavaria
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
and the European Free Alliance
European Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance is a European political party. It consists of various national-level political parties in Europe which advocate either full political independence , or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region...
do. The party has never had a particularly pro-United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stance, although it admires the American federal political system
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
. Its MPs opposed both the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
in 1999 in the name of pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, and Umberto Bossi personally met Slobodan Milosević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
during that war. However, after the September 11 attacks and the emergence of Islamic terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, while expressing several reservations about American policy on Iraq. The League is also a staunch supporter of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. In 2011 the party was severely opposed to the Italian participation to the war in Libya
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...
.
Through the Associazione Umanitaria Padana, Lega Nord participates in humanitarian projects which are intended to respect local cultures, traditions, and identities. The campaigns are carried out in under-developed countries or in those that have suffered from war or natural catastrophes. Locations of recent missions include Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
. The association is led by Sara Fumagalli, wife of Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
and born-again Catholic after a piligrimage in Međugorje.
Federalism and secession
Padania
Padania is an alternative name for the Po Valley in Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a political party in Italy, proposed Padania as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy...
, while at other times it appeared to be requesting only autonomy for Northern regions. The League eventually settled on federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties.
In 1996 the party switched to open separatism, calling for the independence of Padania. As a symbolic act of birth of the new nation, on 13 September 1996 Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
took a bottle of water from the springs of Po River , which was poured in the sea of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
by a little girl two days later. A voluntary group of militants, the "Green Volunteers", often referred as "green shirts" (green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
being the colour of Padania), was also established.
The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", going back to the ideas by Miglio: an Italian federal republic, divided into three "macro-regions" ("Padania", "Etruria" and the "South"). The new buzzword devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
(often used in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) was also introduced, but with less success than "federalism". This decision caused some criticism from party ranks and led to the formation of some minor breakaway factions.
As observed above, the peculiarity of Lega Nord among European regionalist parties is that its main goal is the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions.
Immigration
The party takes a tough stance on crime, immigration, especially from Muslim countries, and terrorism. It supports the promotion of immigration from non-Muslim countries in order to protect the "Christian identity" of Italy and Europe, which, according to party officials, should be based on "Judeo-Christian heritage". Because of this, the party is often labeled as "xenophobic" and "anti-immigrant". In 1992 the League was compared by Le Nouvel ObservateurLe Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....
to some national populist parties of the European far-right, including Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's National Front, Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
's Freedom Party of Austria
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
and the Vlaams Blok
Vlaams Blok
The Vlaams Blok was a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. From its creation in 1978, it was the most notable militant right wing of the Flemish movement. Vlaams...
: "the League rejects any association with neo-fascists but plays on themes of xenophobia regionalism and trivial racism".
In 2002 the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance is the Council of Europe’s independent human rights monitoring body specialised in combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance. It consists of 47 experts, one from every CoE member state. ECRI publishes...
(ECRI) first denounced the party: "members of Lega Nord made a particularly intense use of racist and xenophobic propaganda, although it should be noted that even members of other parties used a xenophobic or otherwise intolerant political talk." In 2006 the ECRI noticed that "some members of Lega Nord have intensified the use of racist and xenophobic political talk." While noting that those expressing themselvers this way "were mostly local representatives of this party, also some important political leaders of the party at the national level issued racist and xenophobic statements. These talks continued to target mainly non-EU immigrants, but also other members of minority groups such as Roma and Sinti
Sinti
Sinti or Sinta or Sinte is the name of a Romani or Gypsy population in Europe. Traditionally nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled...
." ECRI also recalled that "in December 2004, the court of first instance of Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
found six local representatives of Lega Nord guilty of incitement to racial hatred, in connection with a campaign aimed at ousting a group of Sinti from a temporary camp in the local territory." However in 2007 the Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (Italy)
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the major court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Rome Hall of Justice.The Court of Cassation exists also to “ensure the observation and the correct interpretation of law” by ensuring the same application of law in the inferior and appeal courts...
cancelled the sentence.
Although several of its members tend to speak strongly against illegal immigrants (in 2003, Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
himself suggested opening fire on the boats of illegal immigrants from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, whom he described as bingo-bongos, and Giancarlo Gentilini
Giancarlo Gentilini
Giancarlo Gentilini is the current Deputy Mayor, and former Mayor, of the city of Treviso, Italy.-Career:Gentilini has worked as director at the legal bureau of the Cassamarca until his retirement....
, at the time Mayor of Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, labeled foreigners as "immigrant slackers", saying "we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang"), the official line of the party is much more moderate. In a 2010 interview after some riots in Milan between South American and North African immigrants, Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
, minister of the Interior and leghista with left-libertarian
Left-libertarianism
Left-libertarianism names several related but distinct approaches to politics, society, culture, and political and social theory, which stress equally both individual freedom and social justice.-Schools of thought:...
upbringings, stated that "the police state is not the solution" to integration problems and, calling for a "new model of integration", he maintained that "we should think that, other than a permit of stay, a job and a house, there are further conditions that today are missing for integration to succeed". Bossi soon endorsed Maroni's words and his will to calm down the party's hardliners.
Moreover, after more than 15 years of government by Lega Nord, the Province of Treviso
Province of Treviso
The Province of Treviso is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso.The province has an area of 2,477 km², and a total population of 886.886 . There are 95 municipalities in the province .-Municipalities:-External links:*...
is widely considered the place in Italy where immigrants are best integrated. Similar things can be said also about the city of Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, governed by Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi is an Italian Venetist politician. He is member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.-Career:Having joined Liga Veneta in 1991, he was elected to the Municipal Council of Verona in 1994 at the age of 25. From 1997 to 2003 he was also provincial secretary of Liga Veneta for the Province of Verona...
, who evolved from being a hardliner to be one of the most popular mayors of Italy.
Lega Nord rejects all charges of xenophobia, instead claiming that the North is the victim of discrimination and racism. Moreover the first black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
mayor in Italy belongs to the League: Sandy Cane
Sandy Cane
Sandra "Sandy" Maria Cane is an Italian politician who is currently the mayor of Viggiù comune....
(whose mother is Italian and her father is an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
) was elected mayor of the small town of Viggiù
Viggiù
Viggiù is a comune in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 50 km northwest of Milan and about 8 km northeast of Varese, on the border with Switzerland...
, near Varese
Varese
Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...
, in 2009. In an interview with The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Ms. Cane said that the League does not include racist or xenophobic members. More recently, the League appointed a local coordinator of Islamic origin in Malnate
Malnate
Malnate is a town and comune located in the province of Varese, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy....
, Hajer Fezzani. She is an Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab refers to people of mixed Black African and genealogical Arab ancestral heritage and/or linguistically and culturally Arabized Black Africans...
, born in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, and a non-practicing Muslim.
International affiliation
Lega Nord was originally a member of the European Free AllianceEuropean Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance is a European political party. It consists of various national-level political parties in Europe which advocate either full political independence , or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region...
(EFA) and its first two MEPs, Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
and Luigi Moretti
Luigi Moretti
Luigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect.- Education and academic career :He was born in via Napoleone III, on the Esquiline Hill, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life...
, joined the Rainbow Group
Rainbow Group (1989–1994)
The Rainbow Group in the European Parliament was a regionalist political group with representation in the European Parliament between 1989 and 1994.-History:In 1989 the previous Rainbow Group split...
in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
during the fourth parliamentary term (1989–1994). Between 1994 and 1997 it was a member of the Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party is a European political party mainly active in the European Union, composed of 56 national-level liberal and liberal-democratic parties from across Europe...
(ELDR) and one MEP of Lega Nord, Raimondo Fassa, continued to sit in the ELDR group
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (European Parliament group)
The Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party was a liberal political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1994 and 2004. The group comprised the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and its constituent national-level parties.Its predecessors have existed since...
until 1999. During the sixth parliamentary term (1999–2004), it was briefly a component of the Technical Group of Independents
Technical Group of Independents (1999–2001)
The Technical Group of Independent Members was a heterogeneous political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1999 and 2001. Unlike other political groups of the European Parliament, it did not have a coherent political complexion. Its existence prompted a five-year examination of...
(TGI) along with Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals is an Italian political party which describes itself as a liberale, liberista e libertario political movement .It was...
and then returned to the Non-Inscrits
Non-Inscrits
Non-Inscrits are Members of the European Parliament who do not sit in one of the recognized political groups....
.
Following the 2004 European election
European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)
Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on 12 and 13 June 2004. Italy's highly fragmented party system made it hard to identify an overall trend, but the results were generally seen as a defeat for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a victory for the centre-left opposition...
Lega Nord joined the Independence/Democracy (I/D) group and later the Union for Europe of the Nations
Union for Europe of the Nations
Union for Europe of the Nations was a political group of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2009.-History:UEN was formed on 20 July 1999, supplanting the earlier Union for Europe. Its member parties Fianna Fáil and National Alliance were the driving forces behind the group, despite their...
(UEN), a somewhat awkward affiliation for a party proposing a "Europe of Regions". The party was affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe is a transnational alliance between two European political parties: the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and the European Democratic Party. It has political groups in the European Parliament, the EU Committee of the Regions, the...
(ALDE) in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...
until 2006, when its members joined the European Democrat Group
European Democrat Group
The European Democrat Group is a conservative group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It was originally founded as the Group of Independent Representatives in 1970 by British and Scandinavian members of PACE, having about 35-40 members from the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark,...
(EDG).
Following the 2009 European election
European Parliament election, 2009 (Italy)
European elections to elect 72 members of the European Parliament representing Italy were held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on December 18, 2008...
Lega Nord joined the newly formed Europe of Freedom and Democracy
Europe of Freedom and Democracy
Europe of Freedom and Democracy is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. Formed after the European parliamentary election in 2009, it is mostly made up of elements of the now defunct Independence/Democracy and Union for a Europe of Nations groups from the out-going...
(EFD) group.
Factions
Although there are almost no official factions within the party, it is possible to distinguish several tendencies or wings.Regional/ideological divides
The wing from the province of VareseProvince of Varese
The Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese but its largest city is Busto Arsizio....
and, more broadly, the bulk of the original Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy. Led by Giancarlo Giorgetti, the party is the second largest in the region....
(including Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
, Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
and Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....
) has tended to be the left-wing of the party, while that from province of Bergamo
Province of Bergamo
The Province of Bergamo is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of 1,098,740 , an area of 2,722.86 square km, and contains 244 comuni...
(notably Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
) has tended to be more conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
. In fact both Bossi and Maroni hailed from the far-left of the political spectrum, having been active in the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
, il manifesto
Il Manifesto
il manifesto is an Italian newspaper. While it calls itself communist, it is not connected to any political party. It was founded as a monthly review in 1969 by a collective of left-wing journalists engaged in the wave of critical thought and activity on the Italian left in that period. Prominent...
movement, the Party of Proletarian Unity, Proletarian Democracy
Proletarian Democracy
Proletarian Democracy was a political party in Italy.-1970s:DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party , Workers Vanguard and the Workers Movement for Socialism...
and the Greens
Green Lists
The Green Lists was an green Italian political party.It was founded in 1986 and merged in 1991 with the Rainbow Greens to form the Federation of the Greens....
before starting Lega Lombarda, and conceived Lega Nord as a centre-left
Centre-left
Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...
(and, to some extent, social-democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
) political force. From the left came also Marco Formentini, a long-time member of the left-wing of the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, and Rosi Mauro, a trade unionist of the metal workers' section of the Italian Labour Union
Italian Labour Union
The Italian Labour Union , in italian 'Unione Italiana del Lavoro', is a national trade union center in Italy. It was founded in 1950 as Socialist split from CGIL. It represents more than 1,9 million workers....
(a trade union linked to the Socialists) and, later, leader of the "Padanian Trade Union" (SinPa).
Since its foundation, Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta
Liga Veneta is a regionalist political party based in Veneto, combining Venetism and fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta is by far the largest party in Veneto and the party of Luca Zaia, President of Veneto since March 2010.It was the first party of its kind in Northern Italy, predating Umberto...
was instead characterised more as a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and centrist
Centrism
In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...
party and has always proposed a more libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
political line, due to the different political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base. In the early 1990s, the League stole votes especially from the Communists and the Socialists in western and central Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, while the party basically replaced Christian Democracy
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
as dominant political force in eastern Lombardy and Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
. In fact, also Lega Lombarda included liberal-conservative
Liberal conservatism
Liberal conservatism also known as progressive conservatism is a variant of political conservatism which incorporates liberal elements. As "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had different meanings over time and across countries, the term "liberal conservatism" has been used in quite different...
figures, such as Gianfranco Miglio
Gianfranco Miglio
thumb|Gianfranco Miglio School Centre in [[Adro]].Gianfranco Miglio was an Italian jurist, political scientist and politician, founder of the Partito Federalista. For 30 years, he presided over the Political science Faculty of Milan's Università Cattolica...
and Vito Gnutti, both former Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
, while Giovanni Meo Zilio, a Socialist
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
partisan during the Italian Resistance
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
, was one of the founding fathers of Liga Veneta. Moreover, with the passing of time, the party underwent a process of homogenisation.
Between Maroni and Calderoli, there has been a liberal-centrist wing composed of people like Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
, a conspicuous group of former Liberals
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
(including Manuela Dal Lago
Manuela Dal Lago
Manuela Dal Lago is an Italian Venetist politician. She is member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.In the late 1970s she started her political career in the Italian Liberal Party, reaching the position of youth leader of the party in Veneto...
, Daniele Molgora and Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
) and a new generation of politicians (including Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
, Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti was national secretary of the Lombard League from 2002. Elected MP for the first time in 1996, from 2001 to 2006 he was Chairman of the Budget Committee in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He was described by the New York Times as a powerful deputy of Mr. Bossi and by the...
, Marco Reguzzoni
Marco Reguzzoni
Marco Giovanni Reguzzoni is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He was President of Varese Province from 2002 to 12 February 2008. Today he is a member of the Italian Parliament as congressman....
, Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
and Angelo Alessandri
Angelo Alessandri
Angelo Alessandri is the leader of Lega Nord Emilia and federal president of Lega Nord ....
). Calderoli's followers have generally been warmer supporters of the alliance with The People of Freedom
The People of Freedom
The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....
and Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
, while Maroni (who is well known for his moderate attitudes, despite his far-left roots), Giorgetti and, up to some point, Reguzzoni have tended to be more critical and "movimentist".
In Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
, a left-wing heartland, the party has many former Communists in its ranks, and many others have Communist upbringings.
1997 Padanian elections
In October 1997 Lega Nord organised what it called "the first elections to the Padanian Parliament". Roughly 4 million Northern Italians (6 million according to the party) went to the "polls" and chose between a number of Padanian parties. This is a short resume of the affiliations of leading party members:- Marco FormentiniMarco FormentiniMarco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....
, Giovanni Meo Zilio, Roberto Bernardelli, Franco Colleoni and Mariella Mazzetto, with the support of Roberto MaroniRoberto MaroniRoberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
, launched the Europeanist and social-democraticSocial democracySocial democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
European Democrats – Padanian Labour (52 seats out of 210); - Vito Gnutti, Giancarlo PagliariniGiancarlo PagliariniGiancarlo Pagliarini is an Italian politician.Born in Milan, he was later elected to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord in 1992 and re-elected in 1994, then elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 and in 2001...
, Domenico Comino, Roberto CotaRoberto CotaRoberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
and Massimo Zanello led the liberal-conservativeLiberal conservatismLiberal conservatism also known as progressive conservatism is a variant of political conservatism which incorporates liberal elements. As "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had different meanings over time and across countries, the term "liberal conservatism" has been used in quite different...
Liberal Democrats – Forza Padania (50 seats); - Oreste Rossi, Enzo Flego and Walter Gherardini formed the national-conservativeNational conservatismNational conservatism is a political term used primarily in Europe to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on national interests than standard conservatism as well as upholding cultural and ethnic identity, while not being outspokenly nationalist or supporting a far-right...
Padanian Right (27 seats); - Roberto Ronchi and Giuseppe Leoni founded the Christian-democraticChristian DemocracyChristian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
Padanian Catholics (20 seats); - a group of Venetian Leghisti formed the Venetist Padanian Lions (14 seats);
- Leopoldo Siegel and Marco Pottino launched Libertarian and Liberal Padania (12 seats);
- Matteo SalviniMatteo SalviniMatteo Salvini is an Italian politician andMember of the European Parliamentfor North-West regionwith the Lega Nord from 2004 to 2006 as part of the Non-Inscrits and now as a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group.He sat onthe European Parliament's Committee on Culture and...
and Mauro Manfredini were candidates of the Padanian Communists (5 seats); - Erminio Boso led the agrarianAgrarianismAgrarianism has two common meanings. The first meaning refers to a social philosophy or political philosophy which values rural society as superior to urban society, the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker, and sees farming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values...
-conservative Padanian Union – Agriculture, Environment, Hunting, Fishing (5 seats); - Benedetto Della VedovaBenedetto Della VedovaBenedetto Della Vedova is an Italian politician, formerly the leader of Liberal Reformers, a minor liberal and libertarian party, and currently member of The Liberal Part, a liberal faction within the centre-right People of Freedom party.-Biography:His political experience began in 1994 with the...
, a RadicalItalian RadicalsItalian Radicals is an Italian political party which describes itself as a liberale, liberista e libertario political movement .It was...
politician, was elected at the head of an anti-prohibitionistProhibitionismProhibitionism is a legal philosophy and political theory often used in lobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement...
and free-market libertarianLibertarianismLibertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
list in MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, while Nando Dalla Chiesa, a GreenFederation of the GreensThe Federation of the Greens is a green political party in Italy, which includes also a large eco-socialist faction. Since 2009 the party leader is Angelo Bonelli.-Early years:...
MP, was an unsuccessful candidate in Milan too.
2008–2011 developments
Since 2008, besides the traditional regional divides, the party has been increasingly divided among three groups, crossing regional upbringings. The first is composed by the so-called "magic circle", that is to say Bossi's inner circle, notably including Marco ReguzzoniMarco Reguzzoni
Marco Giovanni Reguzzoni is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He was President of Varese Province from 2002 to 12 February 2008. Today he is a member of the Italian Parliament as congressman....
, Rosi Mauro and Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo is an Italian politician. He is a Venetist, member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.He has been member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2008, when he was elected to the Senate, where he chairs the parliamentary group of Lega Nord...
. The second is formed around Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
, who is the powerful coordinator of Lega Nord's "national" secretariats and includes among his closest supporters Giacomo Stucchi and Davide Boni. The third one is led by Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
, who tends to be more independent from Bossi and is somewhat critical of the centre-right affiliation of the party, and includes Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti was national secretary of the Lombard League from 2002. Elected MP for the first time in 1996, from 2001 to 2006 he was Chairman of the Budget Committee in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He was described by the New York Times as a powerful deputy of Mr. Bossi and by the...
, Attilio Fontana, Matteo Salvini
Matteo Salvini
Matteo Salvini is an Italian politician andMember of the European Parliamentfor North-West regionwith the Lega Nord from 2004 to 2006 as part of the Non-Inscrits and now as a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group.He sat onthe European Parliament's Committee on Culture and...
and Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi is an Italian Venetist politician. He is member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.-Career:Having joined Liga Veneta in 1991, he was elected to the Municipal Council of Verona in 1994 at the age of 25. From 1997 to 2003 he was also provincial secretary of Liga Veneta for the Province of Verona...
. Gian Paolo Gobbo and Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
, leaders of the party in Veneto, although very loyal to Bossi, tend to be independent from "federal" factions and have been engaged in a long power struggle with Flavio Tosi (see Factions of Liga Veneta). Indeed Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
identified four main groups: "magic circle", Maroniani, Calderoliani and "Venetians" (or, better, Venetists), leaving aside the core independentists (see next section).
Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
, leader of Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont is a regionalist political party in Italy that is the regional section of Lega Nord in Piedmont.Its leader Roberto Cota is the President of Piedmont since March 2010.-Early years:...
, the third largest "national" section of Lega Nord, is very close to Bossi and was part of the "magic circle", but, since his election as President of Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, he has become more independent. Equidistant from the main factions are also Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
and Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
.
By 2011 Maroniani clearly became the strongest faction within the party and Maroni, who was acclaimed at the traditional rally in Pontida
Pontida
Pontida is a comune in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 40 km northeast of Milan and about 13 km northwest of Bergamo...
in June, became Bossi's obvious successor. Maroniani are the largest faction as they have a wider support among rank-and-file members who are active at the local level and vote in party congresses and they are well represented in all the regions. Apart from Lombardy, they are particularly strong in Veneto thanks to the alliance with Tosi, who, despite being a conservative-liberal
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
, is the lieutenant of Maroni east of the Lake Garda
Lake Garda
Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is located in Northern Italy, about half-way between Brescia and Verona, and between Venice and Milan. Glaciers formed this alpine region at the end of the last ice age...
and whose supporters dominate in various parts of the region.
In 2011 Maroni and Calderoli, who had been on opposite sides for years, joined forces against the "magic circle" and its influence on Bossi. After Pontida 2011, Mauro and Reguzzoni tried to convince Bossi to remove Giorgetti from the leadership of Lega Lombarda, but this move was strongly opposed by Maroni and Calderoli, who were supported in this also by Cota and most Venetians. The attempted "coup d'etat" produced an umparalleled backclash against the "magic circle": 49 deputies out of 59 wanted to replace Reguzzoni as floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
with Giacomo Stucchi, but Bossi imposed the status quo.
After earning resounding victories in the provincial congresses of Verona
Province of Verona
The Province of Verona is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Verona.-Overview:The province has an area of 3,109 km², and a total population of 912,981...
, Belluno
Province of Belluno
TheThe Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.It has an area of 3,678 km², and a total population of 214,026 .-Geography:...
and oriental Veneto during the first half of 2011, Maroniani (with the support of Calderoliani went on to win also in Brescia
Province of Brescia
The Province of Brescia is a Province in Lombardy, Italy. It borders with the province of Sondrio in the N and NW, the province of Bergamo in the W, province of Cremona in the SW and S, the province of Mantova to the S, and to the east, the province of Verona and Trentino .Source for statistical...
and Val Camonica
Val Camonica
Val Camonica is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, about 90 km long. It starts from the Tonale Pass, at 1883 metres above sea level and ends at Corna Trentapassi, in the comune of Pisogne, near Lake Iseo...
, defeating the candidates of the "magic circle" by landslidesas. In October, fearing to watch a remake of those congresses in his homeprovince, Varese
Province of Varese
The Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese but its largest city is Busto Arsizio....
, Bossi imposed his candidate (who was declared elected unopposed) there, but he was not able to prevent many delegates to openly contest him. In fact, there had been an open vote, Maroniani would have prevailed. The episode was a shock both for Bossiani and Maroniani. Subsequently, there were rumors that, in case of an early election, Bossi would exclude from party lists most of incumbent deputies and senators, and replace them with loyalists. As a response, a quadriumvirate composed of Maroni, Calderoli, Cota and Zaia might try to oppose the move and, possibly, form a new party from scratch.
Issue-oriented groups
The League is home also to some smaller issue-oriented groups, which tend to be better organised. First, there is a group of Christian democratsChristian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
, most of whom are affiliated to the "Padanian Catholics", founded by late Roberto Ronchi and currently led by Giuseppe Leoni. Another leading Catholic is Massimo Polledri. In fact many Leghisti are committed to Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching is a body of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church on matters of poverty and wealth, economics, social organization and the role of the state...
and the social market economy
Social market economy
The social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the economic philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...
, and several party members are former members or voters of Christian Democracy.
Then, there is a right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
which is represented mainly by Mario Borghezio
Mario Borghezio
Mario Borghezio is an Italian politician from the Northern League. He is a Member of the European Parliament, and sits with the eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group. He is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairsand of the Committee on Petitions...
, a former Monarchist
Monarchist National Party
The Monarchist National Party was a political party in Italy founded in 1946, uniting conservatives, liberal conservatives, conservative liberals and nationalists...
who is the leader of "Christian Padania", which is a key advocate of social conservatism
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
within party ranks and has some links with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X
Society of St. Pius X
The Society of Saint Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
.
Third and fourth, the party has always included also a group of libertarians
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, whose leading members were Gilberto Oneto and Giancarlo Pagliarini
Giancarlo Pagliarini
Giancarlo Pagliarini is an Italian politician.Born in Milan, he was later elected to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord in 1992 and re-elected in 1994, then elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 and in 2001...
, who left the party in the late 2000s, and an "Independentist Unit", which gathered the more secessionist figures of the party. The independentist wing crosses all the other factions and tendencies and in fact includes, among others, Borghezio and Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
. Also Oneto, father of Padanian nationalism, and Pagliarini were close to this group.
Finally, the party is home to an agricultural wing, which is particularly strong in southern Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
and Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, and is represented by the Cobas del latte, a farmers' trade union, the "Land Movement", whose leader was Giovanni Robusti, and politicians such as Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
, a former Minister of Agriculture, Fabio Rainieri, president of Lega Nord Emilia
Lega Nord Emilia
Lega Nord Emilia is a regionalist political party in Italy active in the Emilian part of Emilia-Romagna. It is one of the 13 "national" sections forming Lega Nord.-History:...
, and Erminio Boso, a historic and now marginal figure from Trentino.
Alliances and coalitions
Within Lega Nord there have always been different perspectives on coalitions. In early 1994, some days before the announcement of the BossiUmberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
-Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
pact which led to the formation of the Pole of Freedoms
Pole of Freedoms
The Pole of Freedoms was a centre-right electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi.The alliance was composed primarily of Forza Italia and the Lega Nord, but also included Christian Democratic Centre and the Union of the Centre...
, Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
signed a pact with Mario Segni
Mario Segni
Mariotto Segni, more often known as Mario, is an Italian politician, son of Antonio Segni, one time President of the Republic of Italy....
's Pact for Italy
Pact for Italy
The Pact of Italy was a centrist electoral coalition in Italy, launched by Mario Segni and Mino Martinazzoli in 1994....
, which was later cancelled. When, in December 1994, Bossi finally decided to withdraw the party's support to Berlusconi's first government
Berlusconi I Cabinet
The Berlusconi I Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 10 May 1994 to January 17, 1995.It was composed of 26 ministers and 38 under-secretaries, for a total of 64 members.Composition of the government:...
, Maroni, who was minister of the Interior, vocally disagreed. Many party members (40 deputies out of 117 and 17 senators out of 60) left the party and some, including Luigi Negri and Lucio Malan
Lucio Malan
Lucio Malan is an Italian politician.Malan was born in Luserna San Giovanni, Turin. He earned his BA in Literature at the University of Turin, then he obtained a master's degree in history at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where Lucio Malan was also tutor-assistant.Lucio Malan is member of the...
, switched to Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
. Others, including Pierluigi Petrini, floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies, joined the centre-left. Maroni, after some months of coldness with Bossi, returned to be an active member of the League.
After the 1996 general election
Italian general election, 1996
An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...
, which Lega Nord fought outside the big two coalitions, the differences between those who supported an alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini
Fabrizio Comencini
Fabrizio Comencini is a Venetist politician.Comencini started his political career in the Italian Social Movement , for which he was elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 1985 and 1990. In the early 1990s, during his second term as regional councillor, he switched to Liga Veneta–Lega Nord...
, etc.) and those who preferred to enter Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
's Olive Tree (Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini
Marco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....
, Irene Pivetti, etc.) did not disappear. Some of them (15 deputies out of 59 and 9 senators out of 27) left the party to switch either to centre-right or centre-left parties. Pivetti a few months after the election. Comencini left in 1998 to launch Liga Veneta Repubblica with the mid-term objective of entering in coalition with Forza Italia in Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
. Gnutti and Comino were expelled in 1999, after they had formed an alliance with the centre-right at the local level. Formentini left in 1999 too.
After a defeat at the 1999 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 1999
The European Parliament Election, 1999 was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory and where...
, senior members of the party thought it was not possible to attain the party's goals if it continued to stay outside the two big coalitions. Some, including Maroni, who, despite his defence of Berlusconi in 1994, had always been left-leaning in the heart, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. Bossi asked Maroni to negotiate an agreement with Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician. He is also a journalist and a former national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left...
, who once described Lega Nord as "a rib of the left". These talks were successful and Maroni was indicated as the joint candidate for President of Lombardy
President of Lombardy
The President of Lombardy is the supreme authority of Lombardy, the most populated Region of Italy.-Election:Originally appointed by the Regional Council of Lombardy, since 1995 de facto and 2000 de jure, he is elected by popular vote every five years under universal suffrage: the candidate who...
for the 2000 regional election
Lombard regional election, 2000
The Lombard regional election of 2000 took place on 16 April 2000. The 7th term of the Regional Council was chosen.Roberto Formigoni was re-elected for the second time in a row President, defeating Mino Martinazzoli...
. Despite this, Bossi decided to join again Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming 2001 general election
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
. Lega Nord won the 2000 regional elections, as part of the House of Freedoms
House of Freedoms
The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance...
, and was returned to national office in 2001.
During the years in government in Rome (2001–2006), the party saw the emergence of two different political viewpoints about alliances: some, led by Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
and Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli
Roberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
(with the backing of Umberto Bossi), vigorously supported participation with the centre-right, while others, represented by Roberto Maroni and Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti
Giancarlo Giorgetti was national secretary of the Lombard League from 2002. Elected MP for the first time in 1996, from 2001 to 2006 he was Chairman of the Budget Committee in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He was described by the New York Times as a powerful deputy of Mr. Bossi and by the...
, were less warm about it. Some of them spoke about joining the centre-left some time after the 2006 general election
Italian general election, 2006
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...
, which they were certain to lose. This idea was ascribed to the fact that, without any support from the left, it seemed even more difficult to win the constitutional referendum, which would have turned Italy into a federal state. The centre-left did not change its position and Lega Nord lost the vote. As a result, Leghisti became much less keen on an alliance with the left.
Similar differences emerged within Lega Nord also during its last participation in government under Berlusconi (2008–2011). While Calderoli continued to be a keen supporter of the government, Maroni seemed far less warm on Berlusconi and, at times, keener on an alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
. Calderoli's line had the backing of Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota
Roberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
, Marco Reguzzoni
Marco Reguzzoni
Marco Giovanni Reguzzoni is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He was President of Varese Province from 2002 to 12 February 2008. Today he is a member of the Italian Parliament as congressman....
, Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo
Federico Bricolo is an Italian politician. He is a Venetist, member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.He has been member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2008, when he was elected to the Senate, where he chairs the parliamentary group of Lega Nord...
and, chiefly, Umberto Bossi, while Maroni was backed by Giancarlo Giorgetti, Francesco Speroni
Francesco Speroni
Francesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
, Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia
Luca Zaia is an Italian Venetist politician, member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Since March 2010 Zaia is President of Veneto...
and, especially, Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi is an Italian Venetist politician. He is member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.-Career:Having joined Liga Veneta in 1991, he was elected to the Municipal Council of Verona in 1994 at the age of 25. From 1997 to 2003 he was also provincial secretary of Liga Veneta for the Province of Verona...
. In this context, senior opposition MPs proposed Maroni as Prime Minister.
Popular support
Support for Lega Nord is diverse even within PadaniaPadania
Padania is an alternative name for the Po Valley in Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a political party in Italy, proposed Padania as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy...
and has varied over time, reaching a maximum of 10.1% of the vote at the 1996 general election (around 25% north of the Po River). That year, the League scored 29.3% of the vote in Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, 25.5% in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, 23.2% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...
, 18.2% in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, 13.2% in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% in Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
, 7.2% in Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
, 1.8% in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, 1.5% in the Marche
Marche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...
, and 1.0% in Umbria
Umbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
. The Leghisti were able to elect 59 deputies and 27 senators (39 and 19, respectively, in single-seat constituencies), helping the centre-left to win, due to its successes in some Northern constituencies characterised by three-way races. The League won barely all the seats in the provinces
Provinces of Italy
In Italy, a province is an administrative division of intermediate level between a municipality and a region .-Overview:...
of the so-called Pedemontana, the area at the feet of the Prealps, from Udine
Province of Udine
The Province of Udine is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capital is the city of Udine....
to Cuneo
Province of Cuneo
ayr is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ....
, encompassing Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont. Lega Nord is stronger in the areas of the late Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
and among Catholics.
At the 2008 general election
Italian general election, 2008
A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...
Lega Nord scored 8.3% at the national level, slightly below the result of 1996: 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy, 13.0% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 12.6% in Piedmont, 9.4% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 7.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 6.8% in Liguria, 2.2% in the Marche, 2.0% in Tuscany and 1.7% in Umbria.
At the 2009 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 2009 (Italy)
European elections to elect 72 members of the European Parliament representing Italy were held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on December 18, 2008...
Lega Nord won 10.2% of the vote: 28.4% in Veneto, 22.7% in Lombardy, 17.5% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 15.7% in Piedmont, 9.9% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 11.1% in Emilia-Romagna, 9.9% in Liguria, 5.5% in the Marche, 4.3% in Tuscany, 3.6% in Umbria and other surprising results, such as 24.6% in Lampedusa
Lampedusa
Lampedusa is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The comune of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lampione. It is the southernmost part of Italy. Tunisia, which is about ...
, 5.1% in Ogliastra
Province of Ogliastra
Ogliastra is a province in eastern Sardinia, Italy. Ogliastra is the most mountainous province in Sardinia. With only some 58,000 inhabitants, it is also the least populous province of Italy. It corresponds roughly to the medieval Giudicato of Agugliastra...
, Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and 1.2% in Reggio Calabria
Province of Reggio Calabria
The Province of Reggio Calabria is a province in the Calabria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Reggio., it has an area of 3,183 km², and a total population of 565,866. There are 97 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Reggio Calabria.- Economy :The region is...
.
At the 2010 regional elections
Italian regional elections, 2010
A big round of regional elections in Italy took place on 28–29 March in 13 regions out of 20, including nine of the ten largest ones: Lombardy, Campania, Veneto, Lazio, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Apulia, Tuscany and Calabria...
gained 35.2% of the vote in Veneto, 26.2% in Lombardy, 16.7% in Piedmont, 13.7% in Emilia-Romagna, 10.2% in Liguria, 6.3% in the Marche, 6.5% in Tuscany and 4.3% in Umbria.
Mayors of Lega Nord govern 391 comuni
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
, including some important cities such as Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, Monza
Monza
Monza is a city and comune on the river Lambro, a tributary of the Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy some 15 km north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Monza and Brianza. It is best known for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.On June...
and Varese
Varese
Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...
. In addition Lega Nord currently controls 13 of the 110 Italian Provinces
Provinces of Italy
In Italy, a province is an administrative division of intermediate level between a municipality and a region .-Overview:...
, including some of the most populous ones, namely Brescia
Province of Brescia
The Province of Brescia is a Province in Lombardy, Italy. It borders with the province of Sondrio in the N and NW, the province of Bergamo in the W, province of Cremona in the SW and S, the province of Mantova to the S, and to the east, the province of Verona and Trentino .Source for statistical...
, Bergamo
Province of Bergamo
The Province of Bergamo is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of 1,098,740 , an area of 2,722.86 square km, and contains 244 comuni...
, Varese
Province of Varese
The Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese but its largest city is Busto Arsizio....
, Como
Province of Como
The Province of Como is a province in the north of the Lombardy region of Italy and borders the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni to the North, the Italian provinces of Sondrio and Lecco to the East, the Province of Milan to the south and the Province of Varese to the West...
, Lodi
Province of Lodi
The Province of Lodi is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lodi.It has an area of 782 km², and a total population of 209,874 . There are 61 comuni in the province . As of May 31, 2005, the main comuni by population are:- External links :...
and Sondrio
Province of Sondrio
The Province of Sondrio is in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the town of Sondrio.It has an area of 3,212 km², and a total population of 176,856...
in Lombardy, Treviso
Province of Treviso
The Province of Treviso is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso.The province has an area of 2,477 km², and a total population of 886.886 . There are 95 municipalities in the province .-Municipalities:-External links:*...
, Vicenza
Province of Vicenza
The Province of Vicenza is a province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Its capital city is Vicenza.The province has an area of 2,723 km², and a total population of 840,000 . There are 121 comuni in the province...
, Venice
Province of Venice
The Province of Venice is a province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Venice.It has an area of 2,467 km², and a total population of 829,418 . There are 44 comuni in the province . As of 2005, the main comuni by population are:-External links:* * : photos of...
and Belluno
Province of Belluno
TheThe Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.It has an area of 3,678 km², and a total population of 214,026 .-Geography:...
in Veneto, Cuneo
Province of Cuneo
ayr is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ....
and Biella
Province of Biella
The Province of Biella is a province of Italy located in Piedmont. It was created in 1992 and its capital is the city of Biella.It has an area of 913 km², and a total population of 187,249...
in Piedmont and Udine
Province of Udine
The Province of Udine is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capital is the city of Udine....
in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Yet Lega Nord is the largest party also in the Province of Verona
Province of Verona
The Province of Verona is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Verona.-Overview:The province has an area of 3,109 km², and a total population of 912,981...
.
According to a poll conducted in February 2010 by GPG, 45% of Northerners support the independence of Padania. A poll conducted by SWG in June 2010 puts that figure at 61% of Northerners (with 80% of them supporting at least federal reform), while noting that 55% of Italians consider Padania as only a political invention, against 42% believing in its real existence (45% of the sample being composed of Northerners, 19% of Central Italians and 36% of Southerners). As for federal reform, according to the poll, 58% of Italians support it. A more recent poll by SWG puts the support for fiscal federalism and secession respectively at 68% and 37% in Piedmont and Liguria, 77% and 46% in Lombardy, 81% and 55% in Triveneto
Triveneto
The name Tre Venezie was created in 1863 by historical linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli . The area included what would become by 1866-1919 the three Italian regions of Venezia Euganea, Venezia Giulia and Venezia Tridentina...
(comprising Veneto), 63% and 31% in Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
, 51% and 19% in Central Italy
Central Italy
Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...
(not including Lazio).
Electoral results
The electoral results of Lega Nord (and its predecessors) in NorthernNorthern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
and North-Central
Central Italy
Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...
regions are shown in the table below.
Regional elections
| Year | Aosta V. | Liguria | Piedmont | Lombardy | Veneto | Trentino | S. Tyrol | Friuli-VG | Emilia-R. | Tuscany | Marche | Umbria |
| 1985 | ||||||||||||
| 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 3.7 | |||||||||
| 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | |||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||||||
| 6.1 | 5.1 | 18.9 | 7.2 | |||||||||
| 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||||||||
| 1993 | 7.6 | |||||||||||
| 16.2 | 3.0 | 26.7 | ||||||||||
| 1995 | ||||||||||||
| 6.6 | 9.9 | 17.7 | 16.7 | |||||||||
| 3.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 | ||||||||||
| 1998 | 3.4 | |||||||||||
| 8.8 | 0.9 | 17.3 | ||||||||||
| 2000 | ||||||||||||
| 4.3 | 7.6 | 15.5 | 12.0 | |||||||||
| 2.6 | 0.6 | |||||||||||
| 0.3 | ||||||||||||
| 2003 | ||||||||||||
| 6.2 | 0.5 | 9.3 | ||||||||||
| 2005 Italian regional elections, 2005 The Italian regional elections of 3–4 April 2005 were a major victory for the centre-left The Union coalition, led by Romano Prodi. The centre-right coalition, governing in the national government, was defeated in all the regions it held, except for its strongholds in Lombardy and Veneto, whose... |
||||||||||||
| 4.7 | 8.5 | 15.8 | 14.7 | |||||||||
| 4.8 | 1.3 | 0.9 | ||||||||||
| 2008 | ||||||||||||
| 19.0 | 2.1 | 12.9 | ||||||||||
| 2010 Italian regional elections, 2010 A big round of regional elections in Italy took place on 28–29 March in 13 regions out of 20, including nine of the ten largest ones: Lombardy, Campania, Veneto, Lazio, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Apulia, Tuscany and Calabria... |
||||||||||||
| 10.2 | 16.7 | 26.2 | 35.2 | |||||||||
| 13.6 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 4.3 |
General elections
| Year | Liguria | Piedmont | Lombardy | Veneto | Trentino-ST | Friuli-VG | Emilia-R. | Tuscany | Marche | Umbria | ITALY |
| 1992 Italian general election, 1992 The Italian general elections of 1992 were held on the 5 April 1992.The 1992 elections were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italy, the Italian Communist Party , which had been disbanded in 1991... |
14.3 | 16.3 | 23.0 | 17.8 | 8.9 | 15.3 | 9.6 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 8.7 |
| 1994 Italian general election, 1994 An early national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won handily the election for the Chamber and only narrowly lost that for the Senate.... |
11.4 | 15.7 | 22.1 | 21.6 | 7.6 | 16.9 | 6.4 | 2.2 | |||
| 8.4 | |||||||||||
| 1996 Italian general election, 1996 An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic... |
10.2 | 18.2 | 25.5 | 29.3 | 13.2 | 23.2 | 7.2 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 10.1 |
| 2001 Italian general election, 2001 A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen.... |
3.9 | 5.9 | 12.1 | 10.2 | 3.7 | 8.2 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | ||
| 3.9 | |||||||||||
| 2006 Italian general election, 2006 In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The... |
3.7 | 6.3 | 11.7 | 11.1 | 4.5 | 7.2 | 3.9 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 4.1 |
| 2008 Italian general election, 2008 A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative... |
6.8 | 12.6 | 21.6 | 27.1 | 9.4 | 13.0 | 7.8 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 8.3 |
European elections
| Year | Aosta V. | Liguria | Piedmont | Lombardy | Veneto | Trentino-ST | Friuli-VG | Emilia-R. | Tuscany | Marche | Umbria | ITALY |
| 1989 European Parliament election, 1989 (Italy) The third elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 18 June 1989.The election was paired with a non-binding referendum about the devolution of powers to the European Economic Community.-Electoral system:... |
0.5 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 8.1 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.8 |
| 1994 European Parliament election, 1994 (Italy) The European Parliament election of 1994 in Italy was the election of the delegation from Italy to the European Parliament in 1994.It was the first continental election after the scandal of Tangentopoli which destroyed the traditional republican parties of Italy: consequently, all new parties... |
5.7 | 8.0 | 11.5 | 17.7 | 15.7 | 4.8 | 11.2 | 6.4 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 6.6 |
| 1999 European Parliament election, 1999 (Italy) The European Parliament election of 1999 in Italy was the election of the delegation from Italy to the European Parliament in 1999.-References:... |
2.0 | 3.7 | 7.8 | 13.1 | 10.7 | 2.4 | 10.1 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 4.5 |
| 2004 European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy) Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on 12 and 13 June 2004. Italy's highly fragmented party system made it hard to identify an overall trend, but the results were generally seen as a defeat for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a victory for the centre-left opposition... |
3.0 | 4.1 | 8.2 | 13.8 | 14.1 | 3.5 | 8.5 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 5.0 |
| 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (Italy) European elections to elect 72 members of the European Parliament representing Italy were held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on December 18, 2008... |
4.4 | 9.9 | 15.7 | 22.7 | 28.4 | 9.9 | 17.5 | 11.1 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 3.6 | 10.2 |
Elects in legislative assemblies
The number of elects (MPs, regional councillors and MEPs) of the party by election are shown in the table below.| 1985 reg. | 1987 gen. | 1989 Eur. | 1990 reg. | 1992 gen. | 1994 gen. | 1994 Eur. | 1995 reg. | 1996 gen. | 1999 Eur. | 2000 reg. | 2001 gen. | 2004 Eur. | 2005 reg. | 2006 gen. | 2008 gen. | 2009 Eur. | 2010 reg. | |
| Liguria | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Piedmont | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 12 | |||||||||||||
| Lombardy | 15 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 20 | |||||||||||||
| Veneto | 2 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 20 | ||||||||||||
| Trentino-AA | 7 (1993) | 3 (1998) | 2 (2003) | 7 (2008) | ||||||||||||||
| Friuli-VG | 18 (1993) | 12 (1998) | 4 (2003) | 8 (2008) | ||||||||||||||
| Emilia-Romagna | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| Aosta Valley | 3 (1993) | - (1998) |
- (2003) |
- (2008) |
||||||||||||||
| ITALY | 2 | 2 | 80 | 177 | 6 | 86 | 4 | 47 | 4 | 39 | 86 | 9 |
Local government
Regional Presidents:Provincial Presidents:
Mayors (cities over 50,000 inhab.):
Federal level
- Federal Secretary: Umberto BossiUmberto BossiUmberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
(1991–present)- Coordinator of Federal Secretariat: Roberto Ronchi (1991–1994), Roberto MaroniRoberto MaroniRoberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
(1994–2001), Francesco SperoniFrancesco SperoniFrancesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
(2001–2005), Roberto MaroniRoberto MaroniRoberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
(2005–present) - Coordinator of National Sections: Roberto CalderoliRoberto CalderoliRoberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
(2002–present)
- Coordinator of Federal Secretariat: Roberto Ronchi (1991–1994), Roberto Maroni
- Federal President: Franco RocchettaFranco RocchettaFranco Rocchetta is a Venetist politician.Rocchetta was born in Venice. He was a founding member of Liga Veneta in 1978–1980, and its national president and practical leader...
(1991–1994), Stefano StefaniStefano StefaniStefano Stefani is a Venetist politician and leading member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.Stefani is a veteran member of the party, having joined Liga Veneta in the 1980s, well before its merger into Lega Nord. A strong proponent of the unity of the "Padanian peoples", from 1995 through 2002 he was...
(1995–2002), Luciano GasperiniLuciano GasperiniLuciano Gasperini is an Italian venetist politician.A senator for Liga Veneta–Lega Nord from Veneto in 1996–2001, he was chairman of the party's group from 1999 to 2000 and in 1999 he was the party's candidate for the post of President of the Italian Republic. In 1999 and 2004 he was candidate for...
(2002–2005), Angelo AlessandriAngelo AlessandriAngelo Alessandri is the leader of Lega Nord Emilia and federal president of Lega Nord ....
(2005–present) - Federal Administrative Secretary: Alessandro Patelli (1991–1993), Maurizio Balocchi (1993–2010), Francesco Belsito (2010–present)
- Honorary President: Luigi Rossi (1991–1996)
- Party Leader in the Chamber of DeputiesItalian Chamber of DeputiesThe Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
: Marco FormentiniMarco FormentiniMarco Formentini is an Italian politician from the Northern League, then for the Democrats and finally for Democracy is Freedom - Daisy. When he was young he was member of the Italian Socialist Party....
(1992–1993), Roberto MaroniRoberto MaroniRoberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
(1993–1994), Pierluigi Petrini (1994–1995), Vito Gnutti (1995–1996), Domenico Comino (1996–1999), Giancarlo PagliariniGiancarlo PagliariniGiancarlo Pagliarini is an Italian politician.Born in Milan, he was later elected to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord in 1992 and re-elected in 1994, then elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 and in 2001...
(1999–2001), Alessandro Cè (2001–2005), Andrea Gibelli (2005–2006), Roberto MaroniRoberto MaroniRoberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
(2006–2008), Roberto CotaRoberto CotaRoberto Cota is the leader of Lega Nord Piemont and a leading member of Lega Nord.After a degree in law, Cota joined the party in 1990. In 2000 he was elected to the Regional Council of Piedmont and was President of it until 2005...
(2008–2010), Marco ReguzzoniMarco ReguzzoniMarco Giovanni Reguzzoni is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He was President of Varese Province from 2002 to 12 February 2008. Today he is a member of the Italian Parliament as congressman....
(2010–present) - Party Leader in the SenateItalian SenateThe Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
: Francesco SperoniFrancesco SperoniFrancesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
(1992–1994), Francesco Tabladini (1994–1996), Francesco SperoniFrancesco SperoniFrancesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
(1996–1999), Luciano GasperiniLuciano GasperiniLuciano Gasperini is an Italian venetist politician.A senator for Liga Veneta–Lega Nord from Veneto in 1996–2001, he was chairman of the party's group from 1999 to 2000 and in 1999 he was the party's candidate for the post of President of the Italian Republic. In 1999 and 2004 he was candidate for...
(1998–1999), Roberto CastelliRoberto CastelliRoberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
(1999–2001), Francesco Moro (2001–2004), Ettore Pirovano (2004–2006), Roberto CastelliRoberto CastelliRoberto Castelli is an Italian politician. He was the Minister of Justice in the third Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, he is a Senator and one of the main representatives of Lega Nord.- Career :...
(2006–2008), Federico BricoloFederico BricoloFederico Bricolo is an Italian politician. He is a Venetist, member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord.He has been member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2008, when he was elected to the Senate, where he chairs the parliamentary group of Lega Nord...
(2008–present) - Party Leader in the European ParliamentEuropean ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
: Francesco SperoniFrancesco SperoniFrancesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
(1989–1992), Luigi MorettiLuigi MorettiLuigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect.- Education and academic career :He was born in via Napoleone III, on the Esquiline Hill, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life...
(1992–1999), Francesco SperoniFrancesco SperoniFrancesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
(1999–2004), Mario BorghezioMario BorghezioMario Borghezio is an Italian politician from the Northern League. He is a Member of the European Parliament, and sits with the eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group. He is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairsand of the Committee on Petitions...
(2004–2009), Francesco SperoniFrancesco SperoniFrancesco Enrico Speroni is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West Italy constituency, first elected in the 2004 European Parliament election...
(2009–present)
National level
Liga VenetaLiga Veneta
Liga Veneta is a regionalist political party based in Veneto, combining Venetism and fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta is by far the largest party in Veneto and the party of Luca Zaia, President of Veneto since March 2010.It was the first party of its kind in Northern Italy, predating Umberto...
Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy. Led by Giancarlo Giorgetti, the party is the second largest in the region....
Piemont Autonomista / Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont
Lega Nord Piemont is a regionalist political party in Italy that is the regional section of Lega Nord in Piedmont.Its leader Roberto Cota is the President of Piedmont since March 2010.-Early years:...
Lega Nord Friuli / Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the regional section of Lega Nord in Friuli-Venezia Giulia....
Lega Emiliano-Romagnola / Lega Nord Emilia
Lega Nord Emilia
Lega Nord Emilia is a regionalist political party in Italy active in the Emilian part of Emilia-Romagna. It is one of the 13 "national" sections forming Lega Nord.-History:...
Uniun Ligure / Lega Nord Liguria
Lega Nord Liguria
Lega Nord Liguria is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the regional section of Lega Nord in Liguria. The current national secretary is Francesco Bruzzone.-History:...
Alleanza Toscana / Lega Nord Toscana
Lega Nord Trentino
Lega Nord Trentino
Lega Nord Trentino is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the provincial section of Lega Nord in Trentino. The current national secretary is Maurizio Fugatti, deputy to the Italian Parliament...
Lega Nord Sud Tirolo
Lega Nord Sud Tirolo
Lega Nord Sud Tirolo/Lega Nord Südtirol is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the provincial section of Lega Nord in South Tyrol...
Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta
Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta
Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the regional section of Lega Nord in Aosta Valley...
Lega Nord Romagna
Lega Nord Romagna
Lega Nord Romagna is a regionalist political party in Italy active in the Romagna, part of Emilia-Romagna. It is one of the two regional sections of Lega Nord in Emilia-Romagna, the other being Lega Nord Emilia....
Lega Nord Marche
Lega Nord Marche
Lega Nord Marche is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the regional section of Lega Nord in the Marche. The current national secretary is Luca Rodolfo Paolini, who was elected deputy in the 2008 general election in Tuscany: it was the first time ever that Lega Nord Marche was...
Lega Nord Umbria
Lega Nord Umbria
Lega Nord Umbria is a regionalist political party in Italy which is the regional section of Lega Nord in Umbria. The party is provisionally directed by Luca Rodolfo Paolini, national secretary of Lega Nord Marche....
Lega Nord Trieste
Lega Nord Trieste
Lega Nord Trieste was a regionalist political party in Italy. It was the provincial section of Lega Nord in the Province of Trieste, before merging into Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia in 2001....