^a: Green was the official colour ofLega Nord until 2018, when blue was adopted. Despite this, green is still widely used to represent also the new Lega in charts and maps.
The LSP was established in December 2017 as the sister party of the LN, active innorthern Italy, and as the replacement ofUs with Salvini (NcS), LN's previous affiliate incentral andsouthern Italy. The new party aimed at offering LN's values and policies to the rest of the country. Some political commentators described the LSP as a parallel party of the LN, with the aim of politically replacing it, also because of its statutory debt of €49 million.[25][26][27] Indeed, since January 2020, the LN has become mostly inactive and has been practically supplanted by the LSP, which is active all around Italy. The LSP came third in the2018 general election and first in the2019 European Parliament election. Like the LN, the LSP is a confederation of regional parties, of which the largest and long-running areLiga Veneta andLega Lombarda, established in 1980 and 1984, respectively. Despite misgivings within the party'sPadanian nationalist faction, thepolitical base of the LSP is in northern Italy, where the party gets most of its support and where it has maintained the traditionalautonomist outlook of the LN,[28] especially inVeneto[29] andLombardy.[30]
In the2017 leadership election, Salvini was confirmed LN's leader, defeatingGianni Fava, from the party's traditionalist wing.[35] The May 2017 federal congress marked the "national" turnaround. In October 2017, Salvini announced that in the2018 general election the party would be re-branded simply as "Lega" and would field lists also in central-southern Italy. On 14 December 2017, the "Lega per Salvini Premier" party was established by long-time LN memberRoberto Calderoli and its constitution was published in theGazzetta Ufficiale.[36] LSP's official goals were the transformation of Italy "into a modern federal state through democratic and electoral methods" and the support of "the freedom and sovereignty of peoples at the European level". LSP's symbol was inspired fromDonald Trump's campaign for the2016 Republican Party presidential primaries in theUnited States: a blue rectangle with the words "Lega per Salvini Premier" in white, surrounded by a thin white frame. A week later Salvini presented the new electoral logo: the word "Nord" and theSun of the Alps were removed, the word "Lega" and the representation ofAlberto da Giussano remained, while the slogan "Salvini Premier" was added.[37]
In the 2018 general election, the League gained its best-so-far result of 17.4% of the vote, becoming the largest party within the centre-right coalition and establishing itself as the country's third largest political force. After the election, the party formed an alliance with the populistFive Star Movement (M5S), which had come first in the election with 32.7% of the vote. The so-called "yellow-green government" was led byGiuseppe Conte, an independent jurist close to the M5S, and included Salvini asminister of the Interior. Since the government's formation, thanks to Salvini's approval as minister, the party was regularly the country's largest party inopinion polls, at around or over 30%. In the2019 European Parliament election, the League won 34.3% of the vote, winning for the first time a plurality of the electorate, while the M5S stopped at 17.1%. In August 2019 Salvini announced his intention to leave the coalition with the M5S, and called for a snap general election.[38] However, after successful talks between the M5S and theDemocratic Party (PD), the incumbent government was eventually replaced by anew government led by Conte. The League thus returned into the opposition, together with its electoral allies of the centre-right coalition.
During 2019, along with the LN's membership recruitment in the Centre-North, the party launched a parallel drive in the Centre-South for the LSP,[39] practically supplanting NcS. Finally, during a federal congress on 21 December 2019, the party's constitution underwent some major changes, including reduced powers for the federal president, the extension of the federal secretary's and federal council's terms from three to five years, the introduction of "dual membership" and the faculty given to the federal council to grant the use of the party's symbol to other political parties.[40] With the end of its membership drive in August 2020, the LSP became active throughout Italy. The LN, unable to be dissolved because of its burden of €49 million debt to the Italian state, was instead formally kept alive, while its membership cards were donated to former activists.[41][42]
Salvini's popularity was supposed to create better chances for the League to continue its winning streak in regional elections (the latest being the2019 regional election inUmbria, whereDonatella Tesei was elected president with 57.6% of the vote and the League obtained 37.0%), particularly inEmilia-Romagna, a large region long-governed by thecentre-left coalition. However, in the2020 Emilia-Romagna regional election the party's candidate,Lucia Borgonzoni, stopped at 43.6% of the vote and was defeated by incumbent presidentStefano Bonaccini (PD). The League's list obtained 32.0% and came second after the PD.[43] The LSP, which had already peaked in opinion polls after quitting the yellow-green government, continued a slow decline in opinion polls and would be eventually eclipsed both by the PD and the FdI during 2021.
In the2020 Venetian regional election,Luca Zaia, whose popularity was the result of a long-term focus on his home-regionVeneto,[44] was re-elected for a third consecutive term with 76.8% of the vote; Liga Veneta fielded two lists, including the League's official one and Zaia's personal list,[45] which obtained 16.9% and 44.6%, respectively. In theTuscan regional election, League's candidateSusanna Ceccardi was defeated in her bid to become president of Tuscany. The fact that the League had grown electorally only in Veneto and had lost appeal in other regions started to weaken Salvini's leadership, which was more or less silently contested by the "centrist" wing of the party formed byGiancarlo Giorgetti, Zaia and all of the party's regional presidents, from Lombardy'sAttilio Fontana toFriuli-Venezia Giulia'sMassimiliano Fedriga,[46][47] who would become president of theConference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces in 2021.[48][49]
In June 2021, Salvini proposed a federation with FI and other centre-right parties supporting Draghi (thus excluding FdI),[61] which has so far went nowhere, as well as a campaign for six referendums on justice along with the liberalRadical Party.[62] In February 2022 five of the six referendums were approved by Italy'sConstitutional Court, opening the way for a popular vote by June.[63]
In the run-up of the2022 Italian local elections, the party launched a new organisation named Italy First (Italian:Prima l'Italia) in southern Italy.[64][65] The League ran under the "Italy First" banner in most southern cities[66][67][68] and in the2022 Sicilian regional election.[69][70] According to Calderoli, who registered the new symbol on Salvini's behalf,[71] Italy First could eventually become a new political party,[72] possibly including also FI and other centrist parties.[73] However, as the notion of replacing the League's symbol also in northern Italy was criticised by several party members, especially in Veneto,[74][75] Calderoli ruled it out.[72]
In July 2022, the M5S did not participate in a Senate's confidence vote on a government bill. Prime Minister Draghi offered his resignation, which was rejected by President Mattarella.[76] After a few days, Draghi sought a confidence vote again to secure the government majority supporting his cabinet, while rejecting the proposal put forward by Lega and FI of a new government without the M5S.[77] In that occasion, the League, despite calls from its regional presidents to do otherwise,[78] as well as the M5S, FI and FdI, did not participate in the vote.[79] Consequently, Draghi tendered his final resignation to President Mattarella, who dissolved the houses of Parliament, leading to a snap election.[80][81]
In the2022 general election, the League, which was part of the winning centre-right coalition, won 8.8% of the vote, compared to 26.0% gained by theBrothers of Italy (FdI) and 8.1% by FI. As a result,Giorgia Meloni, leader of FdI, accepted the task of forming a new government and announced theMeloni government, which assumed official functions after each ministers were sworn in on 22 October.[82][83] The League joined the new government with five ministers: Giorgetti minister of Economy and Finance, Salvini deputy prime minister and minister of Infrastructure and Transport,Giuseppe Valditara (a former aide toGianfranco Miglio[84] and co-author of the party's liberal-conservative manifesto)[85] minister of Education, Calderoli minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies, andAlessandra Locatelli minister for Disabilities.[86] Prior to that,Lorenzo Fontana, from the conservative wing of the League, had been elected President of theChamber of Deputies.[87][88][89]
Internal debates and 2023 Lombard regional election
In the wake of the disappointing result in the 2022 general election and the run-up to the2023 Lombard regional election, some leading members of the party's traditional wing, rooted in Padanian nationalism, formedComitato Nord (English:Northern Committee, CN).[90] The Committee was inspired by Umberto Bossi and, under the leadership ofPaolo Grimoldi, a former leader of Lega Lombarda, andAngelo Ciocca, a member of the European Parliament, it attracted more than one thousand members in a couple of months.[91] The inaugural event of the Committee, held in early December, was attended by some 600 people, including former ministersRoberto Castelli andFrancesco Speroni.[92][93][94][95] Contextually, provincial congresses were held in some of the party's strongholds: critics of Salvini affiliated with the CN narrowly won inBergamo andBrescia, while the pro-Salvini wing retainedVarese for a handful of votes[96][97] andRoberto Marcato, a regional minister loyal to Zaia, was leading the challenge in Veneto.[98][99] Also, four regional councillors affiliated with the CN formed a separate group in theRegional Council of Lombardy and were subsequently ejected from the party.[100][101][102][103] In the meantime, another group of dissidents, led byGianni Fava, who lost to Salvini in the2017 Lega Nord leadership election and never joined the new party, formed the "Lombard Autonomist Movement" and supportedLetizia Moratti for president, along with the separatists ofGreat North, in the regional election.[104][105][106][107]
In the election, held in February 2023,Attilio Fontana was re-elected president with 54.7% of the vote, 20pp more than his closest opponent (while Moratti was a distant third and would return to FI one year later),[108] as well as improving the 2018's tally. While FdI became the region's largest party with 25.2%, the combined score of the Lombard League and Fontana's personal list was 22.7%.[109] Also the CN, whose members might have voted Fontana's list in protest according to some sources, rejoiced, while being worried by FdI's largest party status.[110][111][112] Contextually, the centre-right coalition won also in the2023 Lazio regional election, in which the League obtained 8.5% of the vote.
In June 2023, the LV held its congress: Marcato retired from the race whenFranco Manzato emerged as an alternative opposition candidate.[113][114] At the congress, outgoing federal commissionerAlberto Stefani, a loyalist of Salvini, was thus elected secretary with 64.3% of the vote against Manzato's 35.7%,[115] possibly with Zaia's silent support.[116] The congress' result stabilised the regional party, but did not silence internal critics and several minor figures left the party, some of them joining FI, which had been led in Veneto by former LV leaderFlavio Tosi since June 2022.[117] and had become that party's regional coordinator in March 2023,[118] In Lombardy, Castelli started his ownPeople's Party of the North in November.[119]
The party's share of the vote was 9.0%, with Vannacci (500,000+ preference votes) being one of the most voted candidates in the election.[137] The party improved its tally in the South, also thanks to candidates like Patriciello[138] andRaffaele Stancanelli,[139] but suffered in its traditional northern strongholds, where the party fared even worse than in the 2022 general election.[140][141][142] Contextually, in the2024 Piedmontese regional election the party won a mere 9.4% of the vote, while being part of the winning centre-right coalition led by incumbent presidentAlberto Cirio. Right after, long-time internal critic Grimoldi was ejected from the party.[143] In October Grimoldi launched thePact for the North, which was joined byRoberto Bernardelli (Padanian Union–Great North),Mario Borghezio,Giuseppe Leoni,Giancarlo Pagliarini and other dissidents of Lega Nord and Lega,[144] while Bossi was appointed honorary president.[145]
In December 2024Massimiliano Romeo was elected secretary of Lega Lombarda unopposed, after thatLuca Toccalini, Salvini's candidate, had withdrawn from the race due to lack of support.[146][147] In his victory speech, Romeo reclaimed the party's northern identity, while president of Lombardy Fontana spoke of "free Padania".[148][149][150]
In April 2025 the party held its long-awaited federal congress in Florence. Salvini was re-elected secretary unopposed.[151] Of the 22 elective members of the federal council, the party's governing board, six (plus one representing Lazio) were Lombards, four Venetians, four from other northern regions, three from central Italy and four from the South.[152] During the congress, which was presided over by minister Giorgetti, Vannacci formally became a member of the party.[153] International speakers includedElon Musk.[154] In May Salvini appointed four deputy secretaries: Alberto Stefani, also leader of the party in Veneto, andClaudio Durigon, who were confirmed in their roles, as well asSilvia Sardone and Roberto Vannacci, two new entries.[155]
During 2025 a string of2025 regional elections took place. The League has so far had generally disappointing results. InAosta Valley the party, whose dissidents had set up theValdostan Rally or joinedFuture Aosta Valley, won 8.4% of the vote (–15.5 pp), inMarche 7.4% (–15.0 pp), inCalabria 9.4% (+1.1 pp) andTuscany 4.4% (–17.4 pp). The latter defeat was almost universally ascribed to Vannacci, who had led the campaign, sidelining some leading members, and was accused of denaturalising the party's message with his excessively right-wing rhetoric.[156][157][158]
All eyes and party hopes were thus directed toward the upcoming election inVeneto, the party's ultimate stronghold and one of the last three regions to vote in 2025, along withCampania andApulia. The League long tried to change the law in order to allow term-limited Zaia to run again, as well as fielding Zaia's personal list, under which most of the party's regional councillors had been elected in 2020, but FdI and FI did not agree. However, the party was successful in obtaining the nomination ofAlberto Stefani, regional secretary of the LV, as the coalition's joint candidate for President of Veneto.[159] Unable to run again for the top job, Zaia announced that he would lead the party in all seven provinces.[160] In the run-up of the election, Zaia also floated the idea of restructuring the federal party under theCDU/CSU model, with the current League and a northern regionalist party centred around the LV.[161]
While continuing to supportautonomism,regionalism andfederalism, under Salvini the League has gradually but decidedly set asidePadanian nationalism andseparatism, which were long pursued byLega Nord. Through "sovereigntism",[187][188][189] the party has also been making inroads insouthern Italy.[190] It is actually a matter of debate whether the League has embracedItalian nationalism[191] and abandoned regionalism, or whether it combines nationalism and regionalism, similarly to theTicino League inSwitzerland.[192] According to Daniele Albertazzi, Arianna Giovannini and Antonella Seddone, "regionalism has been replaced by an empty form of nativist nationalism, which fails to address socio-economic issues related to the North–South divide", while "populism remains central to the party's strategic communication, but the EU has taken Rome's place as the people's 'enemy'".[193] However, locally, the regional parties forming the League continue to be supportive of regional identities, such asVenetian nationalism in Veneto andLombard nationalism in Lombardy.
The League supports the implementation of article 116 of theConstitution, the so-called "differentiated" or "asymmetrical" regionalism,[194] i.e. the attribution of "particular forms and conditions of autonomy" also to ordinary-statute regions (with the consequent possibility for some regions to have further powers than others, but still less than the five special-statute regions).[195]
The party's 2022 political manifesto, penned byAlessandro Amadori andGiuseppe Valditara in 2022, was described by theCorriere della Sera asliberal-conservative. More specifically, its authors designed a "country that should be liberal in its economy and society, wisely conservative on values, profoundly republican in its collective culture".[85]
In home affairs, the League strongly opposesillegal immigration, especially migratory flows from the sea. It is highly critical ofnon-governmental organisations transporting migrants to European cross-border countries, as they believe them to be complicit in "human trafficking".[211] Within Italy's borders, the League is sceptical of asylum requests and related reception centers and hopes for the deportation of irregular immigrants. It has tried to regulate some of the immigration issues through the so-called "security decrees".[212]
Until 2018, the League expressed a strong opposition to theEuro currency; in the2018 general election, Eurosceptic professorsAlberto Bagnai andClaudio Borghi were elected in Parliament for the party. Following PresidentSergio Mattarella's rejection of the appointment ofPaolo Savona (who had expressed himself on a "plan B" for Italy's exit from the Eurozone)[220] as minister of the Economy inGiuseppe Conte'sfirst government, the League reviewed its opposition to the single currency.[221]
Onwelfare, the League is one of the major critics of the increase in the retirement age envisaged byElsa Fornero's 2011 pension reform and during Conte's first government got the approval of the so-called "Quota 100" (retirement with 62 years of age and 38 of contributions).[232] Furthermore, the party opposes thecitizens' income and regrets having voted for it in 2018.[233]
Onsocial issues, the League generally holdsconservative positions, with some exceptions. For instance, the party has been a long proponent of thedecriminalization of sex work.[234] Additionally, a majority of the party's regional councillors in Veneto was supportive of a bill that would have regulatedassisted suicide for terminally ill patients, under particular conditions.[235][236][237][238][239]
Since 2014, the political communication and propaganda of Salvini and the League have been entrusted to an external communication company, namedSistema Intranet, owned by Luca Morisi and Andrea Paganella. This company has used a software known as "the Beast" which, through a series of algorithms (based on monitoring the sentiments of the network), according to many commentators, has contributed to Salvini's success on social networks.[240] According to the various reconstructions it would be through this software that political messages, slogans, successful hashtags and scenes from Salvini's daily life would be selected. The communication strategy of the Beast was analysed in a study by the Department of Political Sciences of theUniversity of Padua, according to which Salvini "opened the page in 2010 ... with a strategy that is still considered effective today ... able to be in tune with the prevailing moods of a substantial part of users on the network". Morisi's ability consists in "positioning himself on the right and majority side of public opinion" and being "able to analyse in real time the orientation of comments and reactions to a post and suggesting which topics to focus on in the next post".[241] Morisi also invented the nickname "the Captain", with which Salvini is called by his supporters.[242] In September 2021 Morisi resigned for "personal and family problems" and, right after, he was investigated following an accusation of cocaine transfer by two Romanian boys,[243] a case that was archived in November.[244] Also Paganella is no longer involved since he was elected senator in the2022 general election.[245]
The League participates in 14 out of 21 sub-national governments (Italy has 20 regions, one of which,Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, is composed of two autonomous provinces with dinstict autonony and a seat each in theConference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces:Trentino andSouth Tyrol). The following is a list of the most relevant local institutions led by party members.
^Pettrachin, Andrea; Paxton, Fred (2021). "How do populists make decisions? The Five Star Movement and the Lega in local government during the 'refugee crisis'".Contemporary Italian Politics.14 (1):24–48.doi:10.1080/23248823.2021.2005338.S2CID245297067.
^"Il governo Meloni giura oggi al Quirinale" [The Meloni government swears today at the Quirinale] (in Italian). RAI. 21 October 2022.Archived from the original on 21 October 2022. Retrieved22 October 2022. Updated as of 22 October 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Kondor, Katherine; Littler, Mark, eds. (2024).The Routledge handbook of far-right extremism in Europe. Routledge international handbooks (First ed.). London; New York: Routledge.ISBN978-1-032-18797-6.
^Buhari-Gulmez, Didem; Kaunert, Christian; Gulmez, Seçkin Baris, eds. (2023).Transforming Europe through crises: thin, thick, parochial and global dynamics. London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.ISBN978-1-003-28938-8.
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