Northern League Lega Nord | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Federal Secretary | Igor Iezzi (commissioner) |
| Federal President | Umberto Bossi |
| Founded |
|
| Merger of | |
| Headquarters | Via Bellerio, 41 20161Milan |
| Newspaper | la Padania (1997–2014) |
| Youth wing | Young Padanians Movement |
| Membership(2013) | 122,000[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing[16] tofar-right[17] |
| National affiliation | Centre-right coalition (1994 and 2000–present) Lega (since 2020) |
| European affiliation | |
| European Parliament group | |
| Associate party | Lega per Salvini Premier |
| Colours | Green |
| Anthem | "Va, pensiero"[22] |
| Website | |
| leganord.org | |
Lega Nord (LN; English:Northern League), whose complete name isLega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (English:Northern League for the Independence of Padania), is aright-wing,federalist,populist andconservativepolitical party in Italy. In the run-up to the2018 general election, the party was rebranded asLega (English:League), without changing its official name. The party was nonetheless frequently referred to only as "Lega" even before the rebranding, and informally as theCarroccio (lit. 'big chariot'). The party's latest elected leader wasMatteo Salvini.[23]
In 1989, the LN was established as a federation of six regional parties fromnorthern and north-central Italy (Liga Veneta,Lega Lombarda,Piemont Autonomista,Uniun Ligure,Lega Emiliano-Romagnola andAlleanza Toscana), which became the party's founding "national" sections in 1991. The party's founder and long-time federal secretary wasUmberto Bossi, now federal president. The LN has advocated the transformation of Italy from aunitary to afederal state,fiscal federalism,regionalism and greater regionalautonomy, especially for northernregions. At times, the party has advocated thesecession of northern Italy, which the party has referred to as "Padania", and, thus,Padanian nationalism. The party has always opposedillegal immigration and often adoptedEurosceptic stances.
Since 31 January 2020, through a mandate given by the federal council, the party has been managed by commissionerIgor Iezzi. The LN was thus eclipsed by theLega per Salvini Premier (LSP), until that moment active as thecentral andsouthern Italian branch of the party established by Salvini himself in the 2010s, and since 2020 throughout all of Italy.[24] Following the emergence of LSP, the original LN is practically inactive and its former "national" sections (Lega Lombarda, Liga Veneta, etc.) have become "regional" sections of the LSP.
At the1983 general election,Liga Veneta ("Venetian League", based inVeneto) elected adeputy,Achille Tramarin; and asenator,Graziano Girardi. At the1987 general election, another regional party,Lega Lombarda ("Lombard League", based inLombardy) gained national prominence when its leaderUmberto Bossi was elected to the Italian Senate. The two parties, along with other regionalist outfits, ran asAlleanza Nord ("Northern Alliance") during the1989 European Parliament election, gaining 1.8% of the vote.
Lega Nord, which was first launched as a reform of Alleanza Nord in December 1989, was officially established as a party in February 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. These continue to exist as "national sections" of the main party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as "Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord", "Liga Veneta–Lega Nord", "Lega Nord–Piemont" and so on.[25][26][27]
The foundational inspiration for the original regional parties and the unified party was themedieval political alliance of northern Italy known as theLombard League (1167–1250), the consciousness that the northern ethnicities of the Italian peninsula are descendants ofGaulish andLombardic populations—historically, northern Italians were called "Lombards" and the entire northern portion of the peninsula was called "Lombardy"—and that they are ethnically different from the Greco-Roman population of the central-southern half of the peninsula ("Italy" proper).[28][29] The Lega Nord party conveyed resentment againstRome'scentralism and the Italian government (epitomised by the popular sloganRoma Ladrona, meaning "Rome the Big Thief"), common in northern Italy as many northerners felt that the government wasted resources collected mostly from northerners' taxes, especially for sustaining the economies of Rome and southern Italy.[30] Resentment againstillegal immigrants was also exploited. The party's electoral successes began approximately at a time when public disillusionment with the established political parties was at its height: theTangentopoli corruption scandals, which involved most of the established parties, broke out from 1992 onwards.[26][27] Contrary to what many pundits predicted at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable force in the Italian political scene.
Lega Nord's first electoral breakthrough was at the 1990 regional elections, but it was with the1992 general election that the party emerged as a leading political actor. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators,[31] it became the fourth largest party of the country and within the Italian Parliament. In 1993,Marco Formentini (aleft-wing member of the party) was elected mayor ofMilan, the party won 49.3% in the provincial election ofVarese[32] and by the end of the year—beforeSilvio Berlusconi launched his own political career and party—it was estimated around 16–18% in electoral surveys (half of that support was later siphoned by Berlusconi).[33]
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In early 1994, some days before the announcement of the Bossi–Berlusconi pact which led to the formation of thePole of Freedoms,Roberto Maroni, Bossi's number two, signed an agreement withMario Segni's centristPact for Italy, which was later cancelled.[34][35]
The party thus fought the1994 general election in alliance with Berlusconi'sForza Italia (FI) 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.[36] The position of President Chamber of Deputies was thus given to a LN member,Irene Pivetti, a young woman hailing from the Catholic faction of the party.
After the election, the League joined FI,National Alliance (AN) and theChristian Democratic Centre (CCD) to form a coalition government under Berlusconi and the party obtained five ministries inBerlusconi's first cabinet: Interior for Roberto Maroni (who was also Deputy Prime Minister), Budget forGiancarlo Pagliarini, Industry forVito Gnutti, European affairs forDomenico Comino and Institutional Reforms forFrancesco Speroni. However, the alliance with Berlusconi and the government itself were both short-lived: the latter collapsed before the end of the year, with the League being instrumental in its demise.
The last straw was a proposed pension reform, which would have hurt some of the key constituencies of the LN, but the government was never a cohesive one and relations among coalition partners, especially those between the LN and the centralist AN, were quite tense all the time. When Bossi finally decided to withdraw from the government in December, Maroni vocally disagreed and walked out.
In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the newly formedcabinet led byLamberto Dini, along with theItalian People's Party and theDemocratic Party of the Left. This caused several splinter groups to leave the party, including theFederalist Party (which was actually founded in June 1994) ofGianfranco Miglio, theFederalists and Liberal Democrats ofFranco Rocchetta,Lucio Malan andFurio Gubetti[37] and theFederalist Italian League ofLuigi Negri andSergio Cappelli. All these groups later merged into FI while a few other MPs, includingPierluigi Petrini, floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies, joined the centre-left. By 1996, a total of 40 deputies and 17 senators had left the party while Maroni had instead returned to the party's fold after months of coldness with Bossi.[38][39]
Between 1995 and 1998, Lega Nord joined centre-left governing coalitions in many local contexts, notably including theProvince of Padua to the city ofUdine.
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After a big success at the1996 general election, its best result so far (10.1%, 59 deputies and 27 senators),[40] Lega Nord announced that it wanted the secession ofnorthern Italy under the name ofPadania. On 13 September 1996, Bossi took an ampoule of water from the springs of thePo River (calledPadus inLatin, whence "Padania"), which was poured into the sea ofVenice two days later as a symbolic act of birth of the new nation. The Po River was deified by the party (Dio Po, "Po God") and the "Ampoule Rite" was conducted as a yearly Pagan rite by the party's leaders until the 2010s; in its early phase, the party supported aCeltic Druidic form of religion against Roman Catholicism and some party leaders married with Druidic rites. The party gave "Padania", previously referring to thePo Valley, a broader meaning covering entire Northern Italy that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers. The party even organised a referendum on independence and elections for aPadanian Parliament.
The years between 1996 and 1998 were particularly good for the League, which was the largest party in many provinces of northern Italy and was able to prevail in single-seat constituencies and provincial elections by running alone against both the centre-right and the centre-left. The party also tried to expand its reach through a number of Padanian-styled associations and media endeavours (under the supervision ofDavide Caparini), notably includingLa Padania daily,Il Sole delle Alpi weekly, theLega Nord Flash periodical, the TelePadania TV channel, the Radio Padania Libera and the Bruno Salvadori publishing house.
However, after the 1996 election, which Lega Nord had fought outside the two big coalitions, the differences between those who supported a new alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino,Fabrizio Comencini and more) and those who preferred to enterRomano Prodi'sOlive Tree (Marco Formentini, Irene Pivetti and others) re-emerged. A total of 15 deputies and 9 senators left the party to join either centre-right or centre-left parties.[41] Pivetti left a few months after the election.[42] Comencini left in 1998 to launchLiga Veneta Repubblica[43] with the mid-term goal of joining forces with FI in Veneto.[44] Gnutti and Comino were expelled in 1999 after they had formed local alliances with the centre-right.[45][46] Formentini also left in 1999 in order to join Prodi'sDemocrats.[47][48]
As a result, the party suffered a huge setback at the1999 European Parliament election in which it garnered a mere 4.5% of the vote. Since then, the League de-emphasised demands for independence in order to rather focus ondevolution and federal reform, paving the way for a return to coalition politics.
After the defeat at the 1999 European Parliament election, senior members of the party thought it was not possible to achieve anything if the party continued to stay outside the two big coalitions. Some, including Maroni, who despite 1994–1995 row with Bossi had always been left-leaning in the heart, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. Bossi asked Maroni to negotiate an agreement withMassimo D'Alema, who had described Lega Nord as "a rib of the left". These talks were successful and Maroni was indicated as the joint candidate forPresident of Lombardy for the2000 regional election. Despite this, Bossi decided instead to approach Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming2001 general election.[49][50] The centre-right coalition won the 2000 regional elections and the League entered the regional governments of Lombardy, Veneto,Piedmont andLiguria.
One year later, Lega Nord was part of Berlusconi'sHouse of Freedoms in the 2001 general election. According to its leader, the alliance was a "broad democratic arch, composed of the democratic right, namely AN, the great democratic centre, namely Forza Italia, CCD andCDU, and the democratic left represented by the League, the New PSI, the PRI and, at least I hope so,Cossiga".[51][52]
The coalition won handily the election, but the LN was further reduced to 3.9% while being returned in Parliament thanks to the victories scored by the League members in single-seat constituencies. In 2001–2006, although severely reduced in its parliamentary representation, the party controlled three key ministries: Justice withRoberto Castelli, Labour and Social affairs with Roberto Maroni and Institutional Reforms and Devolution with Umberto Bossi (replaced byRoberto 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 due to a very organised structure and a cohesive set of leaders.[citation needed]
In government, the LN was widely considered the staunchest ally of Berlusconi and formed the so-called "axis of the North" along with FI (whose strongholds included Lombardy and Veneto as well asSicily) through the special relationship between Bossi, Berlusconi andGiulio Tremonti while AN and theUnion of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), the party emerged from the merger of the CCD and the CDU in late 2002, became the natural representatives of Southern interests.[53][54][55][56][57]
During the five years in government with the centre-right, the Parliament passed an important constitutional reform, which includedfederalism and more powers for the Prime Minister. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with theMovement for Autonomy (MpA) and theSardinian Action Party (PSd'Az) for the2006 general election was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected in the2006 constitutional referendum.[58]
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In the aftermath of the fall ofRomano Prodi's government in January 2008, which ledPresidentGiorgio Napolitano to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organised by Berlusconi asThe People of Freedom (PdL), now without the support of the UDC. Lega Nord ran the election in coalition with the PdL and the MpA, gaining a stunning 8.3% of the vote (+4.2pp) and obtaining 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13).
Following this result, since May 2008 the party was represented inBerlusconi's fourth cabinet by four ministers (Roberto Maroni, Interior;Luca Zaia, Agriculture; Umberto Bossi, Reforms and Federalism; and Roberto Calderoli, Legislative simplification) and five under-secretaries (Roberto Castelli, Infrastructures;Michelino Davico, Interior;Daniele Molgora, Economy and Finances;Francesca Martini, Health; andMaurizio Balocchi, Legislative simplification).
In April 2009, a bill introducing a path towardsfiscal federalism was approved by the Senate after having passed by the Chamber. The bill gained bipartisan support byItaly of Values, which voted in favour of the measure; and theDemocratic Party (PD), which chose not to oppose the measure.[59] As of late March 2011, all the most important decrees of the reform were approved by the Parliament and Bossi publicly praised the Democrats' leaderPier Luigi Bersani for not having opposed the decisive decree on regional and provincial fiscality.[60][61] Lega Nord influenced the government also on illegal immigration, especially when dealing with immigrants coming from the sea. While theUNCHR andCatholic bishops expressed some concerns over the handling of asylum seekers,[62] Maroni's decision to send back toLibya the boats full of illegal immigrants was praised also by some leading Democrats, notably includingPiero Fassino;[63][64] and it was backed by some 76% of Italians according to a poll.[65]
In agreement with the PdL,[66]Luca Zaia was candidate forPresident inVeneto[67] andRoberto Cota inPiedmont[68] in the2010 regional elections while in the other Northern regions, includingLombardy, 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.
In November 2011, Berlusconi resigned and was replaced byMario Monti. The League was the only major party to oppose Monti'stechnocraticgovernment.
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Throughout 2011, the party was riven in internal disputes, which Bossi's weak-as-ever leadership was not able to stop. Roberto Maroni, a moderate figure who had been the party's number two since the start, was clearly Bossi's most likely successor. The rise of Maroni and his fellowmaroniani was obstacled by a group of Bossi's loyalists, whom journalists called the "magic circle". The leaders of this group wereMarco Reguzzoni (floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies) andRosi Mauro.
After being temporarily forbidden from speaking at the party's public meetings,[69] Maroni gained the upper hand in January 2012.[70] During a factional rally inVarese, he launched direct attacks on Reguzzoni and Mauro in the presence of a puzzled Bossi. On that occasion, Maroni called for the celebration of party congresses and closed his speech paraphrasingScipio Slataper andChe Guevara (the latter being one of his youth's heroes): "We are barbarians, dreaming barbarians. We are realistic, we dream the impossible".[71] On 20 January, Bossi replaced Reguzzoni as leader in the Chamber withGianpaolo Dozzo.[72] Two days later, the federal council of the party scheduled provincial congresses by April and national (regional) congresses by June.[73] Maroni, whose flock included people as diverse asFlavio Tosi, a conservative liberal; andMatteo Salvini, then a left-winger,[74][75] strengthened his grip on the party.
On 3 April, a corruption scandal hit the magic circle and consequently the entire party. The party's treasurerFrancesco Belsito was charged with money-laundering, embezzlement and fraud of the LN's expenses. Among other things, he was accused of having taken money away from the party's chest and paid it out to Bossi's family and other members of the magic circle, notably including Mauro.[76] Maroni, who had already called for Belsito's resignation as early as in January, asked for his immediate replacement. Belsito resigned a few hours later and was replaced byStefano Stefani.[77][78]
More shockingly, on 5 April, Bossi resigned as the federal secretary. The party's federal council then appointed a triumvirate composed of Maroni, Calderoli andManuela Dal Lago, who would lead the party until a new federal congress was held. Bossi, however, was then elected the federal president.[78] On 12 April, the federal council expelled both Belsito and Mauro and decided that a federal congress would be held at the end of June.[79] In the 6–7 May local elections, the League was crushed almost everywhere[80] while retaining the city of Verona, where Tosi, the incumbent mayor, was re-elected by a landslide;[81] and a few other strongholds.
The Bossi–Belsito scandal finally resulted, on 7 August 2019, in a sentence byItaly's highest court, according to which the LN was to pay back 49 million euros.[82]
At the beginning of June, after having secured the leadership of several national sections of the party, Maroni and his followers scored two big victories at the congresses of the two largest "nations", Lombardy and Veneto: Matteo Salvini was elected secretary of Lega Lombarda with 74% of the votes[83] while Flavio Tosi fended off a challenge by theVenetists' and Bossi's loyalists' standard-bearerMassimo Bitonci, defeating him 57%–43%.[84]
On 1 July, Maroni was virtually unanimously elected federal secretary. The party's constitution was changed in order to make Bossi federal president for life, to restructure the federal organisation and to give more autonomy to the national sections, in fact transforming the federation into a confederation.[85][86]
At the2013 general election, which saw the rise of theFive Star Movement (M5S), the League won a mere 4.1% of the vote (−4.2pp).[87] However, in the simultaneous2013 regional election in Lombardy the party won the big prize: Maroni was elected President by defeating his Democratic opponent 42.8% to 38.2%. The League, which retrieved 12.9% in Lombardy in the general election, garnered 23.2% (combined result of party list, 13.0% and Maroni's personal list, 10.2%) in the regional election.[88] All three big regions of the North were thus governed by the League.
In September 2013, Maroni announced he would soon leave the party's leadership.[89][90] A congress was scheduled for mid December and in accordance to the new rules set for theleadership election five candidates filed their bid to become secretary: Umberto Bossi, Matteo Salvini,Giacomo Stucchi,Manes Bernardini andRoberto Stefanazzi.[91] Of these, only Bossi and Salvini gathered the 1,000 necessary signatures by party members to take part to the internal "primary" and Salvini collected four times the signatures gathered by Bossi.[92]
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On 7 December, Salvini, endorsed by Maroni and most leading members (including Tosi, who had renounced a bid of his own), trounced Bossi with 82% of the vote in the "primary".[93] His election was ratified a week later by the party's federal congress inTurin.[94] Under Salvini, the party embraced a very critical view of theEuropean Union,[95] especially of theeuro, which he described a "crime against mankind".[96] Ahead of the2014 European Parliament election, Salvini started to cooperate withMarine Le Pen, leader of the FrenchNational Front; andGeert Wilders, leader of the DutchParty for Freedom.[97][98][99] All this was criticised by Bossi, who re-called his left-wing roots;[100][101] and Tosi, who represented the party's centrist wing and defended the Euro.[102]
In the European election, the party, which ran on a "Stop the Euro" ticket, emphasisedEuroscepticism and welcomed candidates from other anti-Euro and/or autonomist movements, notably includingSouth Tyrol'sFreiheitlichen,[103][104][105] obtained 6.2% of the vote and fiveMEPs.[106] The result was far worse than that of the previousEuropean election in 2009 (−4.0pp), but better than that of 2013 general election (+2.1pp). The LN came third with 15.2% in Veneto (where Tosi obtained many more votes than Salvini, showing his popular support once for all and proving how the party was far from united on the anti-Euro stance),[107] ahead of the newForza Italia (FI) and the other PdL's spin-offs; and fourth in Lombardy with 14.6%. Salvini was triumphant, despite the party hadlost Piedmont to the Democrats after Cota had been forced to resign due to irregularities committed by one of its supporting lists in filing the slates for the 2010 election and had decided not to stand. Moreover, Bitonci was elected mayor ofPadua, a centre-left stronghold.
The party's federal congress, summoned in Padua in July 2014, approved Salvini's political line, especially a plan for the introduction of aflat tax and the creation of a sister party incentral-southern Italy and theIsles.[108] In November, theEmilia-Romagna regional election represented a major step for Salvini's "national project": the LN, which won 19.4% of the vote, was theregion's second-largest and resulted far ahead of FI, paving the way for a bid for the leadership of thecentre-right.[109] In December,Us with Salvini (NcS) was launched. The party's growing popularity among voters was reflected also by a constant rise inopinion polls.
In March 2015, after a long struggle between Tosi and Zaia, who was backed by Salvini, over the party's candidates in the upcomingregional election in Veneto, Tosi was removed from national secretary of Liga Veneta and ejected from the federal party altogether.[110] However, the2015 regional elections were another success for the LN, especially in Veneto, where Zaia was handily re-elected with 50.1% of the vote (Tosi got 11.9%) and the combined score of party's and Zaia's personal lists was 40.9%. The party also came second inLiguria (22.3%) andTuscany (16.2%), third inMarche (13.0%) andUmbria (14.0%).
After the2016 local elections in which the party ran below expectations in Lombardy (while doing well in Veneto—thanks to Zaia, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany) and the NcS performed badly,[111][112][113][114] Salvini's political line came under pressure from Bossi, Maroni andPaolo Grimoldi, the new leader of Lega Lombarda. In the2017 leadership election, Salvini, who was focused on becoming the leader of the centre-right[115][116] and possibly changing the LN's name by ditching the word "North",[117][118][119] was re-elected leader of the party with 82.7% of the vote against his opponentGianni Fava's 17.3%.[120] Consequently, Salvini launched his campaign to becomePrime Minister.
In the meantime, the LN campaigned heavily forVeneto's andLombardy's autonomy referendums, which took place on 22 October. In Veneto, the turnout was 57.2% and those who voted "yes" reached 98.1% whereas in Lombardy the figures were 38.3% and 95.3%.[121][122][123] When the referendums were over, with strong opposition by Bossi, Salvini persuaded the party's federal council to style the party simply as "Lega", including NcS, in the upcoming general election.[124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131] Additionally, Salvini toned down his stances against the European Union and the Euro in order to make an alliance with FI possible.[132][133]
Despite misgivings by Bossi and the Padanist old guard, the party still had a strongautonomist outlook in the northern regions,[134] especially in Veneto whereVenetian nationalism was stronger than ever before.[135][136][137] Additionally, the League maintained its power base in the North, where it continued to get most of its support.
The League ran in the2018 general election within the four-partycentre-right coalition, also composed of FI,Brothers of Italy (FdI) andUs with Italy (NcI), which formed a joint list with theUnion of the Centre (UdC). In a further effort to broaden its base, the League welcomed in its electoral slates several independents, notably includingGiulia Bongiorno[138] andAlberto Bagnai,[139] as well as a wide range of minor parties, including theSardinian Action Party (PSd'Az),[140] theItalian Liberal Party (PLI)[141] and theNational Movement for Sovereignty (MNS).[142] The League obtained a resounding success, becoming the third largest party in Italy with 17.4% of the vote (+13.3pp). The ticket won most of its votes in the North (including 32.2% in Veneto, 28.0% in Lombardy, 26.7% in Trentino, 25.8% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and 22.6% in Piedmont) while making inroads elsewhere, especially in central Italy (notably 20.2% in Umbria), the upper part of the South (13.8% inAbruzzo) andSardinia (10.8%).
In the simultaneousregional election in Lombardy, LN'sAttilio Fontana ran for President after Maroni, increasingly critical of Salvini,[143][144] chose not to run for a second term and step aside from politics.[145] Fontana was elected with 49.8% of the vote and the party scored 29.4%. In late April in theregional election in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, LN'sMassimiliano Fedriga was elected with 57.1% of the vote and the party scored 34.9%.
As neither of the three main groupings (the centre-right, the PD-ledcentre-left and the M5S) obtained a majority of seats in Parliament, the League entered in coalition talks with the M5S which was the most voted party with 32.7% of the vote. The talks resulted in the proposal of the so-called "government of change" under the leadership ofGiuseppe Conte, a law professor close to the M5S.[146] After some bickering with PresidentSergio Mattarella,[147][148] Conte'sgovernment, which was dubbed by the media as Western European "first all-populist government", was sworn in on 1 June. The cabinet featured Salvini as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior,Giancarlo Giorgetti as Secretary of the Council and four other League members (plus an independent close to the party) as ministers.[149]
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,[150] practically supplanting NcS. It was a sign that the LSP, whose party constitution had been published in theGazzetta Ufficiale in December 2017[151] and had been described as a "parallel party",[152][153] might eventually replace both the LN and NcS. In the meantime, the parties' joint parliamentary groups were named "League–Salvini Premier" in the Chamber[154] and "League–Salvini Premier–Sardinian Action Party" in the Senate.[155] According to some news sources, Salvini wanted to launch a brand-new party and absorb most of the centre-right parties into it.[156][157][158]
Since the government's formation, the party was regularly the country's largest party inopinion polls, at around or over 30%. The party's strength was confirmed in October by theTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections: inTrentino LN'sMaurizio Fugatti was elected President with 46.7% of the vote and the party scored 27.1% (despite competition from several autonomist parties), while inSouth Tyrol it came third with 11.1% (being the most voted inBolzano and, more generally, among Italian-speakers), leading it to replace the PD as junior partner of theSouth Tyrolean People's Party in the provincial government coalition.[159]
In the2019 European Parliament election in Italy, 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%.[160][161][162][163] The election thus weakened the M5S and strengthened Salvini's position within the government.[164][165][166] At the European level, Salvini worked to create a pan-European alliance of nationalist political parties, theEuropean Alliance of Peoples and Nations,[167][168][169][170][171] and he continued these efforts after the election through theIdentity and Democracy Party.[172][173][174][175] In the election the party performed strongly in its northern strongholds, especially Veneto (49.9%) and Lombardy (43.4%), obtaining as usual most of its votes in small towns, as well as increasing its share of vote all around the country. The party also obtained notable results in some of the places associated with theEuropean migrant crisis, from north to south, such asBardonecchia,Ventimiglia,Riace andLampedusa.[176][177][178]
In July 2019, a case of attempted Russia-linked corruption by the League was made public by voice recordings acquired byBuzzFeed. The recordings showed Gianluca Savoini, a LN member, meeting with unspecified Russian agents inMoscow, at the same time when Salvini was also in Moscow on an official trip. The meeting centered around providing the party with $65 million of illegal funding by Russia. The matter was made part of a larger investigation by Italian authorities into the League's finances.[179][180] In February 2019 the Italian magazineL'Espresso had already published an investigation revealing another 3 million euro funding scheme,[181] paid for by Kremlin-linked entities and disguised as a diesel sale. That scheme involved the Russian state-owned oil companyRosneft selling 3 million dollars' worth of diesel to an Italian company. Allegedly, the money was to be transferred from Rosneft to the League through a Russian subsidy of the Italian bankIntesa Sanpaolo, in which LN's federal council member Andrea Mascetti was a board member. The money was supposed to fund the comingEuropean election campaign. Italian authorities are currently investigating the matter.[179] The League was also an official cooperation partner of the Russian governing partyUnited Russia.[182]
On 8 August 2019, Salvini announced his intention to leave the coalition with the Five Stars and called for a snap general election.[183] However, after successful talks between the M5S, and the PD, anew government led by Conte was formed. The League thus returned to opposition, together with its electoral allies of the centre-right coalition.
The first election after the formation of Conte's second government was the2019 Umbrian regional election. In a traditional stronghold of the centre-left, the League won 37.0% of the vote and its candidateDonatella Tesei was elected President with 57.6% of the vote and a 20% lead over Vincenzo Bianconi, who was the candidate of a joint list of centre-left and M5S.[184]
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 movements.[185] With the end of its membership drive in August 2020, the LSP, until then present only in central-southern Italy, 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.[186][187]
The party's ideology is a combination ofpolitical federalism,fiscal federalism,regionalism and defense ofnorthern Italian traditions. The historical goal of the party is to transformItaly into afederated state, lettingPadania keep more tax revenues collected there under a regime of fiscal federalism. Through Lega Nord, federalism has become a major issue in the country. This is also the main difference between the Lega Nord and most European regionalist parties (South Tyrolean People's Party,[188]Basque Nationalist Party,Republican Left of Catalonia,Scottish National Party,Vlaams Belang and the like), which focus on special rights for their own regions.[189][190][191]
The original programme of the party identified "federalist libertarianism" as ideology.[192] In fact, the party has often varied its tone and policies, replacing its originallibertarianism andsocial liberalism with a moresocially conservative approach, alternatinganti-clericalism[193] with a pro-Catholic Church stance andEuropeanism with a markedEuroscepticism[194][195] and ultimately abandoning much of its originalpacifism and uncompromisingenvironmentalism.[196] Lega Nord is now often regarded as aright-wing populist party.[197] Party leaders generally reject the "right-wing" label,[198][199][200] though not the "populist" label.[201] In 2008,Umberto Bossi explained in an interview that Lega Nord is "libertarian, but also socialist" and that the right-wing ideology he prefers is an anti-statist one 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 saidGiacomo Matteotti, aSocialist MP who was killed byFascist squads in 1925 and remembered his anti-fascist and left-wing roots.[202]
Lega Nord's political culture was a mix of northern Italian pride or evenPadanian nationalism, often with claims of a proudCeltic heritage; resentment of perceivedsouthern Italian habits andRoman authorities; distrust of the Republic of Italy and especially itsflag; and some support for thefree market, anti-statism, anti-globalism andseparatism orsecessionism. The party boasts historical references to the anti-imperialistLombard League andAlberto da Giussano (stylised in the party's symbol), the hero of the wars againstFrederick I Barbarossa.[203] These historical references are the base for the party's anti-monopolism and anti-centralism.
Lega Nord has long maintained an anti-southern Italian stance. Party members have been known to oppose large-scale southern Italian migration to northern Italian cities, stereotyping southern Italians as welfare abusers, criminals and detrimental to Northern society. Party members have often attributed Italy's economic stagnation and the disparity of theNorth-South divide in the Italian economy to supposed negative characteristics of the southern Italians, such as lack of education, laziness, or criminality.[204][205][206][207] Some LN members have been known to publicly deploy the offensive slurterrone ("earthling", "mulatto"), a common pejorative term for southern Italians.[204][205][208]
At times, it has seemed possible that the League might unite with similar leagues incentral andsouthern Italy, but it has not succeeded in doing so. The party continues dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, notably theSouth Tyrolean People's Party, theValdostan Union, theTrentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, theMovement for the Autonomies and theSardinian Action Party; and it has some figures from the South in its parliamentary ranks. Notably,Angela Maraventano, former deputy mayor ofLampedusa, was a senator of Lega Nord. Although it is no longer a member of theEuropean Free Alliance, the party has ties with many regionalist parties around Europe, including left-wing parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia.[209] Lega Nord has some ties also with theTicino League fromSwitzerland.
Lega Nord aims at uniting all those northern Italians who support autonomy and federalism for their land. For this reason, it has tended to be a multi-ideologicalcatch-all party, especially at its beginnings,[210][211] following what 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".[212] Roberto Biorcio, a political scientist, wrote: "The political commitment of Umberto Bossi was influenced by his encounter withBruno Salvadori, leader of theValdostan 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".[213]
Since the beginning the electorate of the party has been very diverse on aleft-right scale. At the1992 general election, for instance, 25.4% of the party supporters were formerChristian Democratic voters, 18.5%Communists, 12.5%Socialists and 6.6% former voters of the post-fascistItalian Social Movement.[214] According to a 1996 Abacus poll, 28.7% of LN voters identified ascentrist, 26.3% asright-wingers and 22.1% asleft-wingers.[215]
It is quite 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 asderegulation andsocial-democratic positions 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 bothliberal-conservative and social-democratic factions.[216][citation needed] As Lega Nord, the party could be seen as a cross-class entity uniting northern Italians, whether working class or petit bourgeois, around a sense of opposition to both the powerful forces of capital and a centralising state based in Rome which redistributes resources towards southern Italy.[217]
Generally speaking, the party supports thesocial market economy and other typical issues ofChristian-democratic parties[218] and has been described as a "neo-labour party" by some commentators[219] and also by some of its members.[220][221] Lega Nord ispopulist 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 permitfreemasons to join), fighting against the "vested interests", once identified by Bossi in "Agnelli, thePope and theMafia". The party is also libertarian populist in its promotion of small ownership, small and medium-sized enterprise,small government as opposed to governmentalbureaucracy, waste of public funds,pork barrel spending and corruption.[222] 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.[223] According to a number of scholars, Lega Nord is an example of aright-wing populist,[224][225]radical right,[224][226][227][228] orfar-right party[229] while some see significant differences to typical European radical right-wing populist parties,[230] or reject the label of radical right as inadequate to describe the party's ideology.[231]
According to many observers, underMatteo Salvini the party lurched to the right, but both Salvini, a former communist; andLuca Zaia insist the party is "neither right nor left"[232][233] whileRoberto Maroni, another former leftist, stated that "we are a big political movement which has in its platform issues and people of right and left".[234]
The party usually takes asocially conservative stance on social issues, such as abortion,euthanasia, medical embryonicstem cell research,artificial insemination,same-sex marriage (although there is an association calledLos Padania, where "Los" stands for "free sexual orientation", linked to the party and Lega Nord was once in favour of same-sex marriage)[235] and drug use (although it did once support the legalization ofmarijuana along withMarco Pannella'sRadicals).[citation needed] Despite this, the party has been home to somesocial liberals, namelyGiancarlo Pagliarini,Rossana Boldi,Giovanna Bianchi Clerici[236] and to some extentRoberto Castelli.
The party has often espousedcriticism of Islam[237] and has styled itself as a defender of "Judeo-Christian values". In 2018 the party made a proposal to make it mandatory forcrucifixes to be displayed in all public spaces, including ports, schools, embassies and prisons, with fines of up to €1,000 for failing to comply.[238][239][240]
Lega Nord has long opposedstatism[191] and supports lower taxes, especially for families and small entrepreneurs,[241] most recently in the form of a 15%flat tax for all.[242][243] In earlier times, the party campaigned for a stop of the flow of public money in help to big businesses facing crisis as forFIAT[244] andAlitalia.[245][246] Other key policies include the legalisation, regulation and taxation ofprostitution inbrothels,[247] the direct election of prosecutors[248] and a regionalised judiciary andConstitutional Court.
In its political programme, the party is committed to theenvironment, 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.[249][250] Lega Nord, which has a strong agricultural wing, also supports the protection of traditional food, opposesGMOs and has campaigned for a revision of the quota system of theCommon Agricultural Policy.[244][249]
In foreign policy, the League has never had a particularly pro-United States stance, although it admires theAmerican federal political system. The party's MPs opposed both theGulf War in 1991 and theNATO intervention inKosovo in 1999 in the name ofpacifism and Bossi personally metSlobodan Milošević during that war.[251][252] However, after theSeptember 11 attacks and the emergence ofIslamic terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in thewar on terror,[253][254][255][256] while expressing several reservations about theIraq War and the American policy in its aftermath.[257][258][259] The League is also a staunch supporter ofIsrael.[260] In 2011, the party was severely opposed to the Italian participation in thewar in Libya[261][262][263] while in 2014 it opposed the sanctions onRussia, a key economic partner of Lombard and Venetian entrepreneurs and a likely ally in the fight against Islamic terrorism and theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[264][265] At times, the party has adoptedanti-globalist[266] views.
Through theAssociazione Umanitaria Padana, Lega Nord participates in humanitarian projects which are intended to respect local cultures, traditions and identities. The campaigns are carried out in poor countries or in those that have suffered from war or natural catastrophes. Locations of missions includeDarfur,Iraq,Afghanistan andIvory Coast.[267] The association is led bySara Fumagalli, wife of Roberto Castelli and born-again Catholic after a pilgrimage inMedjugorje.[268][269]
The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years as some opponents claimed it wanted secession ofPadania while at other times it appeared to be requesting only autonomy for Northern regions. The League eventually settled onfederalism, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties.[270][271]
By 1996, the party switched to openseparatism, calling for the independence of Padania. The party's constitution was reformed accordingly and still proclaims at article 1 that the LN's fundamental goal is "the achievement of the independence of Padania, through democratic means, and its international recognition as independent and sovereign federal republic".[272] A voluntary group of militants, the "Green Volunteers", often referred as "green shirts" (green being the colour of Padania), was also established, but it has since been active mainly incivil defense andemergency management. In September 1996 in Venice, the party unilaterally proclaimed the independence of Padania at which time while reading thePadanian Declaration of Independence Bossi announced:
We the peoples of Padania solemnly declare that Padania is an independent and sovereign federal republic. We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honour.[272][273][274]
The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down its separatism and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", based on the ideas of Miglio: the establishment an Italian federal republic, divided into three "macro-regions" ("Padania", "Etruria" and the "South") and some autonomous regions.[190][191] A new buzzword,devolution (often used in English), was also introduced, but with less success than "federalism". This evolution caused some criticism within party ranks and led to the formation of some minor breakaway groups.[275] Moreover, the peculiarity of the LN among European regionalist parties is that its main goal has long been the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions.[188][189][190][191] Despite this, the party's constitution continues to declare that the independence of Padania is one of the party's final goal.[272]
Lega Nord often criticises theEuropean Union (it was the only party in the Italian Parliament, along with theCommunist Refoundation Party, to vote against theTreaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, but it voted in favour of theTreaty of Lisbon)[276] and opposes what it calls the "European superstate", favoring instead a "Europe of the Regions".[277][278][279] Especially under the leadership ofMatteo Salvini and the influence of professorClaudio Borghi, the party has proposed the abandonment of theEuro by Italy, although this has been opposed by some party heavyweights, notably includingFlavio Tosi.[280][281] In an October 2012 interview, Salvini said that "I in Milan want [the euro], because here we are in Europe. The South, however, is like Greece and needs another currency, the euro can't afford it."[282]
However, according toRoberto Maroni the party is not Eurosceptic and stands for a "new Europeanism". In a public speech in 2012, he said to party activists: "We should start looking at Padania in a Northern, European perspective. [...] The project of Padania is not anti-European, this is a new Europeanism which looks at the future: a Europe of the regions, a Europe of the peoples, a truly federal Europe".[71] Moreover, under Maroni the party has supported the direct election of thePresident of the European Commission, more powers for theEuropean Parliament, acceleration of the four unions (political, economic, banking and fiscal),Eurobonds and project bonds, theEuropean Central Bank aslender of last resort and the "centrality of Italy in European politics".[283]
The party takes a tough stance on crime,illegal immigration,[284] 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".[244][249] The party has been labeled as "nationalist",[285] "xenophobic"[286][287] and "anti-immigration".[288][289][290][291][292][293] In 1992, the League was compared byLe Nouvel Observateur to some national populist parties of the European far-right, including France'sNational Front, theFreedom Party of Austria and theVlaams Blok, claiming that "the League rejects any association with neo-fascists but plays on themes of xenophobia regionalism and trivial racism".[294]
In 2002, theEuropean Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) denounced the party, saying that "exponents of the Lega Nord [...] have been particularly active in resorting to racist and xenophobic propaganda, although members of other parties have also made use of xenophobic or otherwise intolerant political discourse".[295] In 2006 the ECRI noticed that "some members of the Northern League have intensified the use of racist and xenophobic discourse". While noting that those expressing themselves this way were mostly local representatives, according to the ECRI "representatives exercising important political functions at national level have also resorted to racist and xenophobic discourse. Such discourse has continued to target essentially non-EU immigrants, but also other members of minority groups, such asRoma andSinti". The ECRI also recalled that "in December 2004, the first instance court ofVerona found six local representatives of Lega Nord guilty ofincitement to racial hatred in connection with a campaign organised in order to send a group of Sinti away from a local temporary settlement".[296] However, theCourt of Cassation cancelled the sentence in 2007.[297]
Although several LN members speak strongly against illegal immigrants (Bossi suggested in 2003 opening fire on the boats of illegal immigrants from Africa, whom he described asbingo-bongos;[298] andGiancarlo Gentilini labeled foreigners as "immigrant slackers", saying that "we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang"),[299] the party's official line is more moderate. In a 2010 interview after some riots in Milan between South American and North African immigrants, Maroni, then Minister of the Interior, stated that "the police state is not the solution" to integration problems and calling for a "new model of integration" 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".[300] Bossi endorsed the position.[301]
Lega Nord rejects all charges of xenophobia, instead claiming that the North is the victim of discrimination and racism.[302][303] After more than fifteen years of government by Lega Nord, theProvince of Treviso was widely considered the place in Italy where immigrants are best integrated.[304][305] Similar things can be said about the city ofVerona,[306] governed byFlavio Tosi, who evolved from being a hardliner to be one of the most popular mayors of Italy.[307][308] Moreover, the first and so far onlyblack mayor in Italy belongs to the League:Sandy Cane (whose mother is Italian and father is anAfrican American)[309] was elected mayor inViggiù in 2009. In an interview withThe Independent, Cane said that the League does not include racist or xenophobic members.[310] She eventually left the League in 2014.[311] More recently,Hajer Fezzani, aTunisian-born lapsed Muslim, was appointed local coordinator inMalnate;[312]Souad Sbai, president of the association "Moroccan women in Italy" and former deputy ofThe People of Freedom, joined the party;[313] and most notablyToni Iwobi, aNigerian-born long-time party member, was appointed at the head of the party's department on immigration ("Tony will do more for legal immigrants in a month than what Kyenge has done in an entire life", Salvini said during the press conference)[314] and became the firstperson of colour to be elected a senator of Italy after 2018 general election.[315]
Lega Nord was originally a member of theEuropean Free Alliance (EFA) and its first two MEPs,Francesco Speroni andLuigi Moretti, joined theRainbow Group in theEuropean Parliament during the fourth parliamentary term (1989–1994). Between 1994 and 1997, it was a member of the group of theEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR)[316][317] 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 theTechnical Group of Independents (TGI) along withItalian Radicals and then returned to theNon-Inscrits.[318][319][320][321]
Following the2004 European Parliament election, Lega Nord joined theIndependence/Democracy (I/D) group and later theUnion for Europe of the Nations (UEN), a seemingly awkward affiliation for a party proposing a "Europe of the Regions"—but in the Lega Nord's view a state's "regions" are populated by "nations" such as the Catalans or the Lombards. The party was affiliated to theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe until 2006, when its members joined theEuropean Democrat Group (EDG), a diverse group stretching from theBritish Conservative Party toUnited Russia.[322]
Following the2009 European Parliament election, Lega Nord joined the newly formed theEurope of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group. One year after the2014 European Parliament election, the party was a founding member of theEurope of Nations and Freedom (ENL) group. After the2019 European Parliament election, Lega Nord co-founded theIdentity and Democracy (ID) group, alongside the FrenchNational Rally, theDanish People's Party, theFreedom Party of Austria, theConservative People's Party of Estonia, theFinns Party, the BelgianVlaams Belang, the CzechFreedom and Direct Democracy party, andAlternative for Germany. Outside of its European parliamentary group, Lega also has contacts with the SpanishVox,[323] the DutchForum for Democracy, theSweden Democrats, the HungarianFidesz,[324] and the PolishLaw and Justice party.[325] In March 2017 the LN signed a cooperation protocol withUnited Russia.[182]
The party has also been active incounter-jihad networks, and in 2016 signed the "Prague Declaration" as part of the Fortress Europe group alongside thePegida movement and other groups against the "Islamic conquest of Europe".[326][327]
Although there are almost no official factions within the party, it is possible to distinguish several tendencies or wings.
The wing from theprovince of Varese and more broadly the bulk of the originalLega Lombarda (includingUmberto Bossi,Roberto Maroni andMarco Formentini) has tended to be the left-wing of the party while that from theprovince of Bergamo (notablyRoberto Calderoli) has tended to be more conservative. In fact, both Bossi and Maroni hailed from thefar-left of the political spectrum, having been active in theItalian Communist Party,[328][329]il manifesto movement, theParty of Proletarian Unity,Proletarian Democracy and theGreens before starting Lega Lombarda;[330][331] and conceived Lega Nord as a centre-left (and to some extentsocial-democratic) political force.[38][332] From the left came also Marco Formentini, a long-time member of the left-wing of theItalian Socialist Party;[333] andRosi Mauro, a trade unionist of the metal workers' section of theItalian Labour Union and later leader of the Padanian Trade Union (SinPa).[334]
Since its foundation,Liga Veneta was instead characterised as a liberal,centrist and economicallylibertarian outfit due to the political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base. In the early 1990s, the League took votes especially from the Communists and the Socialists in western and centralLombardy, while the party electorally replacedChristian Democracy in eastern Lombardy andVeneto.[335][336]
Lega Lombarda also includedliberal-conservative figures such asGianfranco Miglio andVito Gnutti, both formerChristian Democrats, whileGiovanni Meo Zilio, aSocialist partisan during theItalian Resistance, was one of the founding fathers of Liga Veneta.
InEmilia-Romagna, a left-wing heartland, the party has many former Communists in its ranks and many others have Communist upbringings.[337][338][339] However, with the passing of time the party underwent a process of homogenisation.
Between Maroni and Calderoli, there has been a liberal centrist wing includingRoberto Castelli, a conspicuous group of formerLiberals (Manuela Dal Lago,Daniele Molgora,Francesco Speroni and more) and a new generation ofleghisti (Roberto Cota,Giancarlo Giorgetti,Marco Reguzzoni,Luca Zaia and others).
The League is home also to some issue-oriented groups. First, there is a group ofChristian democrats, most of whom are affiliated to the Padanian Catholics, founded by lateRoberto Ronchi and currently led byGiuseppe Leoni. Another leading Catholic isMassimo Polledri.[340] Manyleghisti are committed toCatholic social teaching and thesocial market economy[218] and several party members are former members or voters of Christian Democracy.[214]
There is aright-wing which is represented mainly byMario Borghezio, a formerMonarchist andOrdine Nuovo member who is the leader of Christian Padania, which is a key advocate ofsocial conservatism within party ranks and has some links with the traditionalistSociety of St. Pius X.[citation needed]
Third and fourth, the party has always included also a group oflibertarians, whose leading membersLeonardo Facco,Gilberto Oneto andGiancarlo Pagliarini have since left the party; and an Independentist Unit.[341] The independentist wing crosses all the other factions and tendencies and in fact includes Borghezio andFrancesco Speroni, among others. Oneto, father ofPadanian nationalism; and Pagliarini were also close to this group.[342][343]
Finally, the party is home to an agricultural wing, which is particularly strong in southernLombardy,Emilia-Romagna andVeneto and is represented by theCobas del latte, a farmers' trade union; the Land Movement, whose leader wasGiovanni Robusti;[344] and politicians such asLuca Zaia, a former Minister of Agriculture,Fabio Rainieri, one of the leader ofLega Nord Emilia; andErminio Boso, a historic and now marginal figure fromTrentino.
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:[344][345][346][347][348][349]
During the years in government in Rome (2001–2006), in the party there were different viewpoints on coalitions: some, led by Calderoli and Castelli (with the backing of Bossi), vigorously supported the alliance with the centre-right while others, represented by Maroni and Giorgetti, were less warm about it.[351][352][353] Some of them spoke about joining the centre-left some time after the2006 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.[354]
Similar differences emerged during (and within) Berlusconi's fourth government (2008–2011). While Calderoli was again a keen supporter of the arrangement, Maroni was far less warm on Berlusconi and at times evoked an alliance with the centre-leftDemocratic Party. Calderoli's line had the backing ofFederico Bricolo, Cota, Reguzzoni and chiefly Bossi while Maroni was backed by Giorgetti, Speroni, Zaia and Tosi.[355][356] However, the alliance with the centre-right continued at the regional/local level (Veneto, Piedmont, Lombardy and others municipalities) after 2011 and has become a virtually permanent feature of Lega Nord's electoral politics.
Since 2008, besides the traditional regional divides, the party was increasingly divided among three groups. The first was the so-called "magic circle", that was to say Bossi's inner circle, notably includingMarco Reguzzoni,Rosi Mauro andFederico Bricolo. The second was formed aroundRoberto Calderoli, who was the powerful coordinator of Lega Nord's national secretariats and had among his closest supportersGiacomo Stucchi andDavide Boni. The third one was led byRoberto Maroni, who tended to be more independent from Bossi and was somewhat critical of the centre-right affiliation of the party; and it includedGiancarlo Giorgetti,Attilio Fontana,Matteo Salvini andFlavio Tosi.[357][358][359]Gian Paolo Gobbo andLuca Zaia, leaders of the party in Veneto, although very loyal to Bossi, tended to be independent from "federal" factions and were engaged in a long power struggle with Flavio Tosi (seeLiga Veneta#Factions).[360] Indeed,Corriere della Sera identified four main groups: the magic circle,maroniani,calderoliani and "Venetians" (or, better,Venetists),[361] leaving aside the core independentists (seeLega Nord#Issue-oriented groups).Roberto Cota, leader ofLega Nord Piemont, the third largest national section of Lega Nord, was very close to Bossi and was part of the magic circle, but since his election as President ofPiedmont became more independent.[362] Equidistant from the main factions were alsoRoberto Castelli andFrancesco Speroni.[358]
By 2011,maroniani clearly became the strongest faction within the party and Maroni, who was acclaimed at the traditional rally inPontida in June, became Bossi's obvious successor.[363][364][365]Maroniani commanded wide support among rank-and-file members and were well represented in all regions,[366][367][368] notably including Veneto, where Tosi was loyal to Maroni despite being aconservative-liberal.[369] Maroni and Calderoli, who had been on opposite sides for years, joined forces against the magic circle and its influence on Bossi.[370] 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.[371][372][373] 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 theChamber of Deputies with Stucchi, but Bossi imposed thestatus quo.[374][375][376][377]
After earning resounding victories in the provincial congresses ofVerona,Belluno and eastern Veneto during the first half of 2011,maroniani (with the support ofcalderoliani) prevailed also inBrescia andVal Camonica, defeating the candidates of the magic circle by landslides.[378][379] In October, fearing a remake inVarese, his homeprovince, Bossi imposed his candidate, who was declared elected without a vote. In the event, Bossi was openly contested by many delegates at the congress and there had been an open vote,maroniani would have won.[380] These party infightings ended with Bossi's demise in February 2012 (seeLega Nord#From Bossi to Maroni).
Since Salvini's rise to leadership in 2013, the party sported the usual regional and ideological divides and especially that between Salvini and Tosi as the former displayed a more populist attitude, strongly opposed theEuro and nominally supported separatism while the latter presented himself as a more centrist figure, supported European integration, was soft on independence and unveiled a liberal program[381] for his intended run in a putative "centre-right prime-ministerialprimary election".[382][383] As leader of Liga Veneta, Tosi, who was ejected from Lega Nord in March 2015, was confronted by theVenetist and separatist wings of the regional party,[384] having in Zaia andMassimo Bitonci their leading members (seeLiga Veneta#Factions). Curiously enough, those Venetists did not oppose Salvini's "Italian nationalist" turn.
Since 2014, Salvini started to build a network of supporters incentral-southern Italy and theIsles with the creation ofUs with Salvini, a sister party to Lega Nord. This was broadly accepted by Venetians, but it was increasingly opposed by key Lombard figures, including Bossi, Maroni andPaolo Grimoldi (leader of Lega Lombarda), who criticised the LN's right-wing turn and its focus on the South while reclaiming the federalist and autonomist identity of the LN.[385][386][387][388]
In the2017 leadership election, Salvini easily fended off the challenge posed byGianni Fava, Lombard minister of Agriculture in the old social-democratic tradition, representing the federalist/autonomist/separatist wing of the party. Fava, who was anti-prohibition of drugs, pro-civil unions forsame-sex couples, pro-Atlanticism, and anti-National Front ("[it] is one of the most centralist and conservative blocs in Europe, what has it to do with us?"), recalled an old activist saying "let's hurry up in making Padania, that I want to return voting for the left" and added "this was the League and it has to be like this anew".[389][390][391] AfterMarine Le Pen's defeat byEmmanuel Macron in the second round of theFrench presidential election, Maroni declared that the "tactical and not strategic" alliance with Le Pen, "who wants to go back to national states", was over and that "we should return to our origins of post-ideological movement, neither right nor left".[392] Maroni added that "the League is not right-wing, we have done things in Lombardy that the red regions would dream of, from the baby bonus to the welfare. Typically left-wing policies. For us there are the Lombards, not those of right or left". Finally, reminding Salvini's left-wing roots, he remarked that "those are the origins" and that also Salvini would eventually share his views.[393] More worryingly for party's unity, Bossi threatened to leave the party and form an alternative movement withRoberto Bernardelli'sPadanian Union.[394][395]
The tensions between Salvini and Maroni culminated in latter's decision not to run for a second term as President of Lombardy in 2018. On that occasion, Maroni was very critical of Salvini in an interview withIl Foglio.[143][144] As a result, very fewmaroniani were selected as candidates for the2018 general election[396] and Fava was also excluded.[397] Bossi, who had not left the party, was selected by Salvini to lead the LN's list for the Senate inVarese,[398] but he was challenged also byGianluigi Paragone, a former LN member who had switched to theFive Star Movement;[399] andGreat North, a party launched by Bernardelli andMarco Reguzzoni.
Support for Lega Nord is diverse even withinPadania and has varied over time, reaching an early maximum of 10.1% of the vote at the1996 general election (around 25% north of thePo River). That year, the League scored 29.3% of the vote inVeneto, 25.5% inLombardy, 23.2% inFriuli-Venezia Giulia, 18.2% inPiedmont, 13.2% inTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% inLiguria, 7.2% inEmilia-Romagna, 1.8% inTuscany, 1.5% in theMarche and 1.0% inUmbria. The party got 59 deputies and 27 senators (39 and 19, respectively, in single-seat constituencies), helping the centre-left to win due to its victories in some Northern constituencies characterised by three-way races. The League won barely all the seats in theprovinces of the so-calledPedemontana, the area at the feet of thePrealps, fromUdine toCuneo, encompassing Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont.[400][401][402] Lega Nord is stronger in the areas of the lateRepublic of Venice and among Catholics.[403]
At the2008 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.[404][405]
At the2009 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 and 3.6% in Umbria.[406] At the2014 European Parliament election, the party scored 15.2% in Veneto and 14.6% in Lombardy.[407]
At the2010 regional elections, the party 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.[408] At the2014–2015 regional elections, it obtained 40.9% in Veneto, 20.3% in Liguria, 19.4% in Emilia-Romagna, 16.2% in Tuscany, 14.0% in Umbria and 13.0% in Marche, marking its best results so far in those six regions.
The2013 general election was not a good moment for the party, which gained meagre results, e.g. 12.9% in Lombardy and 10.5% in Veneto.
Five years later, the party obtained its best results so far in the2018 general election: 17.4% in Italy, 32.2% in Veneto, 28.0% in Lombardy, 26.7% in Trentino, 25.8% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 22.6% in Piedmont, 20.2% in Umbria, 19.9% in Liguria, 19.2% in Emilia-Romagna, as well as significant results in the South (5–10%).
In the2019 European Parliament election the party again increased its share of the vote: 34.3% in Italy, 49.9% in Veneto, 43.4% in Lombardy, 42.6% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 37.7% in Trentino, 38.2% in Umbria, 38% in Marche, 37.1% in Piedmont, 33.9% in Liguria, 33.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 31.5% in Tuscany, as well as 15-25% in the South.
The electoral results of the LN in general (Chamber of Deputies) andEuropean Parliament elections since 1989 are shown in the chart below.
| Chamber of Deputies | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 3,395,384 (4th) | 8.6 | 55 / 630 | – | |
| 1994 | 3,235,248 (5th) | 8.4 | 117 / 630 |  62 | |
| 1996 | 3,776,354 (4th) | 10.8 | 59 / 630 |  58 | |
| 2001 | 1,464,301 (6th) | 3.9 | 30 / 630 | 28 | |
| 2006 | 1,749,632 (6th) | 4.6 | 28 / 630 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 3,024,758 (3rd) | 8.3 | 60 / 630 | 32 | |
| 2013 | 1,390,156 (5th) | 4.1 | 20 / 630 | 42 | |
| 2018 | 5,698,687 (3rd) | 17.4 | 124 / 630 | 104 | |
| Senate of the Republic | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 2,732,461 (4th) | 8.2 | 25 / 315 | – | |
| 1994 | withPdL | – | 60 / 315 | 35 | |
| 1996 | 3,394,733 (4th) | 10.4 | 27 / 315 | 33 | |
| 2001 | withCdL | – | 17 / 315 | 10 | |
| 2006 | 1,530,667 (6th) | 4.5 | 13 / 315 | 4 | |
| 2008 | 2,644,248 (3rd) | 7.9 | 26 / 315 | 13 | |
| 2013 | 1,328,555 (5th) | 4.3 | 18 / 315 | 8 | |
| 2018 | 5,321,537 (3rd) | 17.6 | 58 / 315 | 40 | |
| European Parliament | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 636,242 (9th) | 1.8 | 2 / 81 | – | |
| 1994 | 2,162,586 (5th) | 6.5 | 6 / 87 | 4 | |
| 1999 | 1,395,547 (6th) | 4.5 | 4 / 87 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1,613,506 (7th) | 5.0 | 4 / 78 | – | |
| 2009 | 3,126,915 (3rd) | 10.2 | 9 / 72 | 5 | |
| 2014 | 1,688,197 (4th) | 6.2 | 5 / 73 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 9,175,208 (1st) | 34.3 | 29 / 76 | 24 | |
The electoral results of Lega Nord (and its predecessors) innorthern and north-central regions are shown in the table below.[409][410][411]
| Year | Aosta V. | Piedmont | Lombardy | Trentino-ST | Veneto | Friuli-VG | Emilia-R. | Liguria | Tuscany | Marche | Umbria | ITALY |
| 1992 | – | 16.3 | 23.0 | 8.9 | 17.8 | 15.3 | 9.6 | 14.3 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 8.7 |
| 1994 | 17.2[a] | 11.4 | 15.7 | 7.6 | 22.1 | 21.6 | 16.9 | 6.4 | 2.2 | – | – | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 8.1 | 18.2 | 25.5 | 13.2 | 29.3 | 23.2 | 7.2 | 10.2 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 10.1 |
| 2001 | w.FI | 3.9 | 12.1 | 3.7 | 10.2 | 8.2 | 3.3 | 5.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | – | 3.9 |
| 2006 | 2.0 | 6.3 | 11.7 | 4.5 | 11.1 | 7.2 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 4.1 |
| 2008 | 3.1 | 12.6 | 21.6 | 9.4 | 27.1 | 13.0 | 7.8 | 6.8 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 8.3 |
| 2013 | 3.3 | 4.8 | 12.9 | 4.2 | 10.5 | 6.7 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 4.1 |
| 2018 | 17.5 | 22.6 | 28.0 | 19.2 | 32.2 | 25.8 | 19.2 | 19.9 | 17.4 | 17.3 | 20.2 | 17.4 |
| Year | Aosta V. | Piedmont | Lombardy | Trentino-ST | Veneto | Friuli-VG | Emilia-R. | Liguria | Tuscany | Marche | Umbria | ITALY |
| 1989 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 8.1 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.8 |
| 1994 | 5.7 | 11.5 | 17.7 | 4.8 | 15.7 | 11.2 | 6.4 | 8.0 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 6.6 |
| 1999 | 2.0 | 7.8 | 13.1 | 2.4 | 10.7 | 10.1 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 4.5 |
| 2004 | 3.0 | 8.2 | 13.8 | 3.5 | 14.1 | 8.5 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 5.0 |
| 2009 | 4.4 | 15.7 | 22.7 | 9.9 | 28.4 | 17.5 | 11.1 | 9.9 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 3.6 | 10.2 |
| 2014 | 6.8 | 7.6 | 14.6 | 7.6 | 15.6 | 9.3 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 6.2 |
| 2019 | 37.2 | 37.1 | 43.4 | 27.8 | 49.9 | 42.6 | 33.8 | 33.9 | 31.5 | 38.0 | 38.2 | 34.3 |
| Year | Aosta V. | Piedmont | Lombardy | S. Tyrol | Trentino | Veneto | Friuli-VG | Emilia-R. | Liguria | Tuscany | Marche | Umbria |
| 1985 | – | 1.1 | 0.5 | – | – | 3.7 | – | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| 1990 | – | 5.1 | 18.9 | – | – | 7.2 | – | 2.9 | 6.1 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| 1993 | 7.6 | – | – | 3.0 | 16.2 | – | 26.7 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1995 | – | 9.9 | 17.7 | – | – | 16.7 | – | 3.4 | 6.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | – |
| 1998 | 3.4 | – | – | 0.9 | 8.8 | – | 17.3 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2000 | – | 7.6 | 15.5 | – | – | 12.0 | – | 2.6 | 4.3 | 0.6 | – | 0.3 |
| 2003 | – | – | – | 9.3 | 0.5 | – | 6.2 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2005 | – | 8.5 | 15.8 | – | – | 14.7 | – | 4.8 | 4.7 | 1.3 | 0.9 | – |
| 2008 | – | – | – | 2.1 | 19.0 | – | 12.9 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2010 | – | 16.7 | 26.2 | – | – | 35.2 | – | 13.6 | 10.2 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 4.3 |
| 2013 | w.SA | – | 23.2[b] | 2.5 | 6.2 | – | 8.3 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2014 | – | 7.3 | – | – | – | – | – | 19.4 | – | – | – | – |
| 2015 | – | – | – | – | – | 40.9[c] | – | – | 20.3 | 16.2 | 13.0 | 14.0 |
| 2018 | 17.1 | 37.1 | 29.4[d] | 11.1 | 27.1 | – | 34.9 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2019 | 37.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 40.9[e] |
| 2020 | 23.9 | – | – | – | – | 61.5[f] | – | 34.0[g] | 17.1 | 21.8 | 22.4 | - |
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Thanks to its use of the figure ofAlberto da Giussano—legendary warrior of theLombard League during theBattle of Legnano—in his iconography and campaigns, the LN has been nicknamed "il Carroccio" by the Italian media, a reference to a four-wheeled war altar used during the battle.[412] Later on, the "sun of the Alps" was chosen as a symbol ofPadanian nationalism.[413] The party also madeVa, pensiero byGiuseppe VerdiPadania's "national" anthem.[414]
Piemont Autonomista/Lega Nord Piemont
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