Lega Toscana | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Secretary | Luca Baroncini |
| President | vacant |
| Founded | 1987(as MpT) 1988(as AT) 1991(as LNT) 2020(as LT) |
| Ideology | Regionalism Federalism Populism |
| National affiliation | Lega Nord (1991–2020) Lega per Salvini Premier (2020–present) |
| Regional Council of Tuscany | 9 / 41 |
| Chamber of Deputies (Tuscany seats) | 6 / 38 |
| Senate (Tuscany seats) | 3 / 18 |
| Website | |
| https://www.legatoscana.it | |
Lega Toscana (English:League Tuscany), whose complete name isLega Toscana per Salvini Premier (English:League Tuscany for Salvini Premier), is aregionalistpolitical party active inTuscany. Established in 1987, it was one of the founding "national" sections ofLega Nord (LN) in 1991 and became the regional section ofLega per Salvini Premier (LSP) in Tuscany since 2020.[1]
The party is currently led byLuca Baroncini.
The party was founded in 1987 as theMovement for Tuscany (Movimento per la Toscana, MpT) and its first leader wasMario Forconi. In 1988, under the leadership ofTommaso Fragassi, the party changed name toTuscan Alliance (Alleanza Toscana, AT).[2][3]
AT participated to the1989 European Parliament election within the coalitionLega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord. In 1989–1990 it took part in the process of federating the northern regionalist parties, ahead of the1990 regional elections. In February 1991 the AT was merged intoLega Nord (LN), taking the current name, and since then it has been the regional section of that party in Tuscany.[2][3]
In the1992 and1994 general electionRiccardo Fragassi was elected to theChamber of Deputies (in 1992 along withGianmarco Mancini),[4] while his father Tommaso resigned from secretary because he rejected the alliance between the LN and the centre-rightPole of Freedoms. In 1995, when the alliance was dissolved, Riccardo Fragassi left the party in opposition to that break-up and formed theTuscan Federalist Alliance (AFT) instead.[5] He would return into the fold ten years later.[6] The leader of the AFT were Riccardo Fragassi (secretary) andRenzo Del Carrìa (president), a former president of the LNT (1992–1994). Riccardo Fragassi eventually re-joined the LNT and spoke at the Lega Nord's federal congress June–July 2012.[7]
The party's new secretary,Simone Gnaga, was elected to the Chamber in the1996 general election. A right-winger, he would too leave in 1998 in order to joinNational Alliance.[3][8] Between 1998 and 2006 the party was led byVincenzo Soldati, a member of the party'slibertarian wing.[9] The party was then led by commissionerLuca Rodolfo Paolini, national secretary ofLega Nord Marche, from 2006 to 2008, whenClaudio Morganti was elected national secretary. In the2008 general election the party elected a deputy, Paolini himself, after almost ten years of no representation in theItalian Parliament. In the2009 European Parliament election Morganti was electedMEP.[10] In the2010 regional election the party won 6.5% of the vote, its best result so far, and entered the Regional Council for the first time, with four councillors.[11]
Despite these electoral results, Morganti's leadership was openly contested by many party members. In April 2011Dario Locci, a regional councillor, left in protest.[12][13] In September 2011 Morganti resigned from secretary and was replaced by commissionerGiovanni Fava.[14][15] The move was not enough for Locci, who made no return, and another group of disgruntled members, including regional councillorMarina Staccioli, who left the party to formTuscan Identity in December.[16][17][18] The splinter party was led by presidentGiovanni Iadicicco and three coordinators (Andrea Asciutti,Federico Meanti and Marina Staccioli); Staccioli would later defect to theBrothers of Italy).[19][20] In October 2012 the two remaining regional councillors of the party,Antonio Gambetta Vianna andGian Luca Lazzeri, responded to the emphasis posed by the new federal secretaryRoberto Maroni on theNorth and the establishment of aPadanianeuroregion by changing the denomination of their group from "Lega Nord Toscana" to "More Tuscany".[21][22] Vianna and Lazzeri were soon expelled from the party, which was left without regional councillors.[23][24] In April 2013 also Morganti was expelled from the party.[25] These internal clashes resulted in a dismal result in the2013 general election, during which the LNT garnered a mere 0.7% of the vote.[26] In April 2013, after a long transition under the supervision of Fava, a new national congress was held andManuel Vescovi was elected new national secretary.[27]
In the2015 regional election the LNT obtained its best result so far in a regionwide election by jumping from 6.5% of 2010 to 16.2%, while its candidate for president, anti-Euro economistClaudio Borghi, who was endorsed also byBrothers of Italy, came second with 20.0% of the vote.[28] In the2016 local elections the party wonCascina (Pisa), its first large municipality in the region:Susanna Ceccardi obtained 28.4% in the first round and 50.3% in the run-off, while the party got 21.3%.[29][30]
In the2018 general election the party won 17.4% of the vote in Tuscany. In the subsequent2018 local elections the party ran well in several races, especially inPisa andMassa where two of its members,Michele Conti andFrancesco Persiani. respectively, were elected mayors.[31][32] In the2019 European Parliament election the party reached a record 31.5% of the vote, while in the2020 regional election, with Ceccardi as the centre-right candidate for president, it stopped at 21.8% (Ceccardi won 40.5%).
Following the formation ofLega per Salvini Premier and the 2019 federal congress of the LN, after which the latter became practically inactive, in February 2020 the LNT was re-established asLega Toscana per Salvini Premier in order to become the regional section of the new party. The founding members of the new LR were Ceccardi,Tiziana Nisini,Elisa Montemagni,Jacopo Alberti andElena Vizzotto.[33][34][35] After that, the party was successively led byMario Lolini[36] and, since 2023,Luca Baroncini.[37]
In the 2023 regional congress, Baroncini was elected secretary by obtaining around 60% of the vote, while his opponentLuca Tacchi won around 35%.[38][39][40]
Lega Nord Toscana has been one of the weakest national sections of the federal party and had received only low digits until the2015 regional election, in which it obtained its best result so far (16.2%). The party was particularly strong in the provinces ofLucca (20.2%),Pisa (19.1%) andGrosseto (18.9%).
The electoral results of Lega Nord Toscana in the region are shown in the tables below.
| 1990 regional | 1992 general | 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | 2008 general | 2009 European | 2010 regional |
| 0.8 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 4.3 | 6.5 |
| 2013 general | 2014 European | 2015 regional | 2018 general | 2019 European | 2020 regional | 2022 general | 2024 European |
| 0.7 | 2.6 | 16.2 | 17.4 | 31.5 | 21.8 | 6.6 | 6.2 |
