Lega Nord

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Lega Nord
Party_name_italian Lega Nord
Party_logo
Lega nord.png
Party_status Regional Party of Northern Italy
Leader Umberto Bossi
Coalition House of Freedoms
Newspaper La Padania
Ideology Regionalism, Federalism, Populism
International affiliation none
European affiliation none
European parliament group Union for Europe of the Nations
Membership 131,423 (2003, [1])
Website http://www.leganord.org
Colorcode green
Foundation February 15, 1991
Headquarters Via Bellerio, 41
20161 Milan


The Lega Nord (Italian for "Northern League," LN) is an Italian political party founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties in northern Italy, most of which had arisen, and all of which had expanded their share of the electorate in the 1980s.

Its political program advocates greater regional autonomy, especially for the Northern Italian region, which they call Padania; at times it has advocated secession. Prior to the party's adoption of the term, Padania was a relatively obscure geographers' designation for the Po River basin.

The League is led by Umberto Bossi.

History

Precursors and foundation

One of its principal precursors (and, later, sections), the Lega Lombarda (Lombard League), attained national significance in 1987 when its leader, Bossi, was elected to the Senate. Since then he has commonly been referred to as the Senatur, the word for "senator" in a number of northern minority local languages—a nickname maintained even when he was no longer a senator.

In 1983, the Liga Veneta, based in Veneto, elected one MP, Achille Tramarin, and a Senator, Graziano Girardi.

The party was formed in 1991 as a merger of the various regional movements (often named lega), including the Lega Lombarda and the Liga Veneta. These regional parties continue to exist as "national sections" of the federal party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as Lega Lombarda-Lega Nord, Liga Veneta-Lega Nord and so on. Support for the party skyrocketed in the early 1990s because of the huge political corruption scandal known as Tangentopoli and the Mani pulite investigations.

Playing a role in the national stage

In 1994 the Lega Nord, along with the post-fascist National Alliance, joined Forza Italia to form a coalition under Silvio Berlusconi. This government (in which the League controlled 5 ministries, Interior with Roberto Maroni, Budget with Giancarlo Pagliarini, Industry with Vito Gnutti, European Affairs with Domenico Comino and Institutional Reforms with Francesco Speroni) was short-lived and the League was instrumental in its demise which occurred before the end of the year.

At the beginning of 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the new formed cabinet of Lamberto Dini, alongside with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left. Between 1995 and 1998 the party entered in alliance with these and other parties of the centre-left in many local contexts, from Padua to Udine

The independentist years

After the success at the elections in 1996, the movement announced that its aim was the independence of Northern Italy under the name Padania, a name previously referring to the Po River valley, but which the Lega Nord gave a geographically broader usage that has been steadily gaining currency, at least among its followers. The capital of Padania would be Mantua, and elections were organized by the party for a "northern parliament" (with no international recognition).

Return in the centre-right and participation to the national government

In 2000 the party re-joined forces with Berlusconi's coalition, previous disagreements notwithstanding, leading the centre-right to the huge victory in that year regional elections and to the triumph in the 2001 general election.

In that period they held 30 of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, 17 of the 325 Senate seats, and three ministers: Roberto Maroni at Labour and Social Affairs, Roberto Castelli at Justice and Umberto Bossi himself at Institutional Reforms and Devolution (replaced by Roberto Calderoli in June 2004, who in turn had to resign after the "Calderoli crisis" in mid-February 2006).

In later years the League have deemphasised demands for independence, and focused rather on devolution, while remaining within the framework of Italy, as it was its original goal: not to secede from Italy but to transform the whole country in a federal State. This is the big difference between the League and the other European autonomist parties, which demand special rights only for their regions (see the Basque Nationalist Party, the Republican Left of Catalonia, the Plaid Cymru, the Scottish National Party, or the Vlaams Belang).

Allegations of "selling out" to Berlusconi

The League was the most loyal party to Berlusconi's government 2001–2006, except of course Berlusconi's own Forza Italia party. The League became so loyal to Berlusconi, in fact, that it was alleged that Berlusconi had "bought them out": in 2007, elements from investigations into illegal wiretapping practices in Telecom Italia seemed to indicate the possibility that 70 billion lire (about € 35 million) were paid by Berlusconi before the 2001 elections to buy the League's "total fealty" . Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolò Ghedini, Umberto Bossi himself and Roberto Castelli immediately denied that this had happened.

Logo of the joint list Lega Nord-MPA

2006 general election and constitutional referendum

In February 2006, the Lega Nord announced that it had reached an agreement with the Movement for Autonomy, a brand-new centrist party of Southern Italy led by MEP and President of the Province of Catania Raffaele Lombardo. Thus, the two parties formed the Pact for the Autonomies (to which also the Sardinian Action Party took part) and presented a joint list for the Italian general election, 2006 in the whole country. Together, they elected 26 deputies and 13 senators, a decrease of four in each house from the previous legislature.

In an interview that sparked considerable controversy, Umberto Bossi said he feared that, if the 2006 constitutional referendum did not succeed (as, indeed it did not), maybe someone would pursue non-democratic means to obtain autonomy for the North. Although Bossi never said that his own party would pursue non-democratic means, because of the ambiguity of his words, criticism was unanimous from the opposition Union coalition, but also by the more moderate components of the House of Freedoms coalition, to which the League belongs.

Party's new strategy

Some months later, Bossi delivered a speech at a meeting of the independentist faction of the League, led by Mario Borghezio, saying that the movement will pursue its goals only through legal and institutional means. Two days later Roberto Castelli, Senate floor leader of the League, remarked that "secession is dead", referring to any possibility of secession at that time, though independence for Padania remains the final and long-term goal of the party.

Although the relationship between Umberto Bossi and Silvio Berlusconi remains strong and the North is upset by the moves of the government led by Romano Prodi (whose campaigning against constitutional reform is not to be forgotten in regions as Veneto and Lombardy in the short time), there are crescent rumors about the possibility of an alliance between the League and the centre-left.

Anyway, Umberto Bossi might lead the party into a federation of centre-right parties, composed of Forza Italia, National Alliance and some other minor formations, as Berlusconi wants in order to enforce the House of Freedoms coalition.

Ideology

The party's ideology is a combination of political federalism, fiscal federalism and regionalism. In Veneto it supports Venetism, in Lombardy the defense of Lombard culture and language, in Piedmont the defense of Piedmontese culture and language and so on. We can say that the League is based on a collection of different regionalisms, put together in the name of federalism. Sometimes it seemed possible that the League should unite also with similar leagues of the Centre-South, but this did not succeed, notwithstanding the presence of the Lega Libertà Lazio, the Lega Sud Ausonia, the Federalist Alliance and the newly formed Lega Abruzzo Marsica. Anyway the party continues to dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, including the Valdotanian Union, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, the Movement for Autonomy and the Sardinian Action Party.

The League's culture is a mix of pride in the heritage of northern Italy (particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial Lega Lombarda, the warrior figure on the party emblems belong to Alberto da Giussano, a mythical figure of wars against Barbarossa, from which they inherited anti-monopolism and anti-centralism), distrust of southern Italians and especially of Roman authorities, sometimes bordering on some kind of xenophobia, including some support for free market economics, and independentism, hate for Italy and especially its flag, and claims of a Celtic heritage.

Despite having its reason of life in federalism, so that the party's constitution says that the party will end its political activity when federalism is obtained, the League is no longer a single-issue party. It is anyway difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is conservative, centrist and leftish in relation to different issues. It has been said that the League is populist in the European sense (i.e. demagogic, xenophobic...), but this assumption does not fit well. It would be probably more accurate to define the party as populist in the U.S. sense, referring to the experience of the United States Populist Party, a short-lived third party grown in the final years of the 19th Century.

The League is populist in the sense that it is an anti-monopolist and anti-elitist popular and participative party (it is one of the few Italian political parties to not permit free-masons to join), which "fights against the big powers". This is the reason why the party is strong in the North, despite being obscured and badly-presented by national media, television and newspapers. The party is also libertarian-populist for its promoting of small-ownership, small and medium-sized industries and, in general, small government against governmental bureaucracy, public money's waste, pork barrel spending and corruption.

Policies

The party takes a social-conservative stance on social issues, as abortion, euthanasia, medical embryonic stem-cell research, artificial insemination, gay rights (even if there is an association called "Padanian Gays" linked to the party) and drug use (even if it once supported the legalization of marijuana), despite some notable exceptions: Giancarlo Pagliarini, Rossana Boldi and, at some extent, Roberto Castelli represent the social-liberal wing within party ranks.

The League supports the case for lower taxes, especially for families and small enterprises, and an end to public money to help big businesses facing crisis, as it has happened for FIAT and for Alitalia.

The party has also a stronger commitment to the environment than all the other parties of the House of Freedoms have and, when in power at the local level, it supports strongly public green areas, the constitution of natural parks, the recycling of waste and the stop (or a regulation) of the construction of sheds in country areas. The League supports also the protection of traditional foods and, in general, represents many farmers who are upset about the Common Agricultural Policy. It is not to forget that the first affiliation of the League's MEPs during IV parliamentary term was to the Rainbow Group formed basically by the European Greens, while from the beginning of the V term in 1994 to 1997 they were affiliated to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party group.

The League has a tough, and often harsh, stance on crime, illegal immigration, especially those from Muslim countries, and terrorism. In particular the Leghisti support the encouragement of immigration from non-Muslim countries in order to protect the "Christian identity" of Italy and Europe (which they want to be based on the so-called "Judeo-Christian heritage").

In foreign policy the League criticizes often the European Union (it was the only party, alongside with the Communist Refoundation Party in Italian Parliament to vote against the European Constitution) and opposes what it calls the idea of an "European Super-State", while it favors a "Europe of Regions", as the Christian Social Union and the European Free Alliance. The party has never had a particularly pro-U.S. stance, although it admires the American federal political system, and indeed its MPs opposed both the Gulf War in 1991 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 in the name of pacifism, and Umberto Bossi supported and personally met Slobodan Milosević during that war. However, after September 11, 2001 attacks and the emergence of Islamist terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in War on terror, while putting several reservations about its policy over Iraq. The League also supported Jörg Haider, with whose movement they formed a single parliamentary group in the European Parliament in 1999.


Publicity Car of the Italian Lega Nord Party for the regional Elections in the Tuscany on 3. April 2005 on the "Piazza della Repubblica" in Florence

Reasons for the initial success

Especially in the early years, the League exploited resentment against Rome (famous the slogan "Roma ladrona" , Italian for Rome big thief) and the Italian government, common in northern Italy, because some northern Italians felt that the governments in Rome wasted resources collected mostly from northern Italians' taxes.

Discrimination against southern Italians, often dubbed terroni, and resentment against illegal immigrants were also exploited. The Lega Nord's successes began roughly when large numbers of illegal immigrants from eastern Europe and northern Africa began to spike in northern Italian cities.

Another key factor was public disillusionment with old political parties, as the scandals of Tangentopoli were unveiled from 1992 on. However, the League's secretary himself, Umberto Bossi, was convicted for receiving a 200-million lire illegal contribution.

Federalism or secession

The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years: some opponents claimed it wanted secession in Yugoslav style, other times it appeared they simply requested more autonomy for northern regions. The League eventually settled on federalism, which became rapidly a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties, with the exception of fascists and communists. The former opposed it for breaking up the fatherland, the latter for undermining cross-regional solidarity, especially important in Italy because of the wide economic divide between the rich north and the poorer south.

FIAV 100000.svg Flag Ratio: 1:2
Padania's flag, the Sun of the Alps, proposed by the Lega Nord

The party later moved on, in 1995, to open secessionism, declaring the splitting of Italy in three entities, named by Lega Nord ideologist and famous political scientist Gianfranco Miglio: Padania, Etruria and the South. The South was only later given the name Ausonia. As a symbolic act of birth of the new nation, Bossi took a bottle of water from the springs of River Po (which in Latin is Padus, hence Padania), which was poured in the sea of Venice by a little girl a few days later.

A voluntary group of militants, the green shirts (green being the colour of Padania), was also established. Opponents saw in this an echo of the black shirts of the fascist movement, but the green shirts have declared themselves non-violent, and have not been found to possess any weapons.

The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down, and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", for which the League asks some degree of autonomy. The new buzzword devolution (often used in English) was also introduced, but with less success than federalism.

The choice to tone down and settle just for devolution instead of secession caused criticism by part of his party's base, which led to the formation of some minor breakaway factions.

Controversies

A political poster of the League for regional elections in Piedmont, 2005. It reads "Guess who is last?", and pictures (from right) Chinese, Gypsies, Blacks, and Arabs (armed with a scimitar) coming before Piedmonteses in social service lines.

While the League leadership dismiss charges of racism and declares itself nonviolent, there have been instances of speeches, interviews and banners pointing to that. Umberto Bossi himself said that African immigrants, whom he called Bingo-bongos, should not receive popular housing paid for with Lombard money. Erminio Boso proposed to segregate immigrants in different train cars from native Italians. Umberto Bossi, in an interview, suggested opening fire on the boats of immigrants who would disembark in Italy, but after widespread criticism he declared he meant the empty boats. The former mayor of Treviso, Giancarlo Gentilini, talking about those he called immigrant slackers, said that "We should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang". In June 2005, at a festival organised by the League, a banner was displayed saying "Rape Pecoraro", (referring to Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, the openly bisexual secretary of the Federation of the Greens); the banner caused outcry in national politics (there had recently been a wave of rapes reported in the media), and was condemned by the League's leadership, that also denied the banner was theirs.

In 2005, Mario Borghezio, MP for the League at the European Parliament, was found guilty of arson, for having set on fire the belongings of some immigrants sleeping under a bridge in Turin in 2000.

Through the Associazione Umanitaria Padana Onlus ("Onlus" Padanian Humanitarian Association), the Lega Nord participates in social and economic humanitarian projects which are intended to respect local cultures, traditions, and identities. The campaigns are carried out in underdeveloped nations or in those that have suffered from war or from natural catastrophes. Locations of recent missions have included Darfur, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Factions

Lega Nord wants to unite all those Northern Italians who support autonomy and federalism for their land. For this reason it tends to be a de-ideologized party. Although there are no organized factions, it is possible to different tendencies or wings:

1997 Padanian elections

In 1997 Lega Nord organized what it called "the first elections to the Padanian Parliament". In that occasion roughly 4 million of Northern Italians (the party indeed spoke of 6 millions) went to the "polls" and they were able to chose between a lot of Padanian parties [2]:

This is to explain how there are many ideological varieties within Lega Nord, even if the party is strongly united by the of autonomy and federalism, which is neither left-wing nor right-wing.

Alliances

It has been said that in the Lega Nord, there have always been different perspectives about the national alliances to forge. In 1994, some days before the announcement of the Bossi-Berlusconi pact which led to the formation of the Polo delle Libertà, Roberto Maroni, a moderate, signed a pact with Mario Segni's Pact for Italy, which was later canceled. When Bossi decided to stop supporting the first Berlusconi's government at the end of the same year, Maroni, who was minister of Interior, and many others members of the League distanced from their leader. Many were expelled (40 deputies out of 117 and 17 senators out of 60) and some switched to Forza Italia (between them Lucio Malan), while Maroni, after some months of cold in his relationship with Bossi, returned to be an active member of the League.

After the 1996 general election, in which the League went to the polls out of the big two coalitions, those who supported an alliance with Berlusconi (as Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino and Fabrizio Comencini) and those who preferred to enter into Romano Prodi's lot did not disappear. Some of them (15 deputies out of 59 and 9 senators out of 27) and left the party to switch both to the centre-right and to the centre-left (as Irene Pivetti). The group of Gnutti and Comino was expelled in 1999, after that they made alliances at the local level with the centre-right, while Comencini had left the party the year before to form the Liga Veneta Repubblica with the mid-term objective of entering in coalition with Forza Italia in Veneto.

Anyway, after the decline of the League in the 1999 European Parliament election, senior members of it understood that it was not possible to reach the party's goals if the party continued to go all alone. Some as Maroni, whose heart, despite his defense of Berlusconi in 1994, has always been left-leaning, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. Again he forged an alliance with a coalition, this time the centre-left, only to be refuted by Bossi, who had previously invited him to pursue direct talks with Massimo D'Alema, as in 1994 with Segni. These talks were successful, so that in Lombardy the centre-left candidate in 2000 regional elections would have been Maroni himself, but Bossi decided to go back in alliance with Berlusconi, who was the front-runner for 2001 general election. Indeed the League, within with the other House of Freedoms parties, won both 2005 regional elections and 2001 general election, after which it returned in government.

During the years passed in government in Rome (2001-06), the party saw the emergence of two different political lines about alliances: some, led by Roberto Calderoli and Roberto Castelli (with the backing of an ill Umberto Bossi), supported vigorously the participation to the centre-right, while others, represented by Roberto Maroni and Giancarlo Giorgetti, were less warm about it. Some of them spoke even of thinking about joining the centre-left some time after the 2006 general election, which they were sure to lose. This idea was explained by the evidence that, without any support from the left, it seemed even more difficult to win in the constitutional referendum, which would have turned Italy in a federal country. Indeed the centre-left did not change its position and the referendum was lost for the League and for the centre-right, making the North angry with the new Prodi's government and the Leghisti less keen to make an alliance with those who opposed constitutional reform.

Popular support

Support for the Lega Nord is diverse even inside Padania. The party has its strongest electoral base in Veneto and Lombardy. Indeed, the League originated in Lombardy, in Bossi's native Varese province, while in Veneto emerged the Liga Veneta, and its original name was Lega Lombarda, echoing a 12th-century alliance of Northern Italian city-states that rose against the Germanic Holy Roman Emperor and defeated him). The party has considerably less popular outside these regions.

Support for the Lega Nord has varied over the time, reaching a maximum of 10.1% in 1996 (when with about 20% it was the most voted single party north of and including left-leaning Emilia-Romagna). In that magic election year for the League, it scored 29.3 in Veneto, 25.5% in Lombardy, 23.2% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 18.2% in Piedmont, 13.2 in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% in Liguria, 7.2% in Emilia-Romagna, 1.8% in Tuscany, 1.5% in the Marche and 1.0% in Umbria. The Leghisti, out of the two national coalitions and so damaged by going alone in 3/4 first-past-the-post electoral system, were able to elect 59 deputies and 27 senators, helping the centre-left to win, due to its successes in some northern three-contested districts. The League won barely all the seats in the so-called pedemontane Provinces, those at the foot of the Alps, from Udine to Cuneo, passing through Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont.

However the Leghisti still control 5 of over 100 Italian provinces, namely Sondrio, Varese and Como in Lombardy and Treviso and Vicenza in Veneto, and they are the first party also in the Province of Bergamo, one of the most popolous in Italy, reason why Forza Italia, the dominant party of the right, wants to maintain its hold on that administration.

In the 2005 regional elections they scored 10% of total popular votes in Northern Italy (15.8% in Lombardy, 14.7% in Veneto, 8.5% in Piedmont, 4.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 4.7% in Liguria), 1.3% in Tuscany and 0.9% in the Marche. The League remains particularly strong in pedemontane and mountain zones.

In the 9-10 April 2006 general election the party was part of the defeated House of Freedoms and won together with the Movement for Autonomy 4.6% of the votes, electing 14 out of 315 senators and 26 out of 630 deputies. Since then the two parties loosened their alliance and they take part to different parliamentary groups. That of the Lega Nord is formed by 23 members in the Chamber and 13 in the Senate.

Electoral results

1990 regional 1992 general 1994 general 1995 regional 1996 general 1999 European 2000 regional 2001 general 2004 European 2005 regional 2006 general
Liguria 6.1 14.3 11.4 6.6 10.2 3.7 4.3 3.9 4.1 4.7 3.7
Piedmont 5.1 16.3 15.7 9.9 18.2 7.8 7.6 5.9 8.2 8.5 6.3
Lombardy 18.9 23.0 22.1 17.7 25.5 13.1 15.5 12.1 13.8 15.8 11.7
Veneto 7.8 17.3 21.6 16.7 29.5 10.7 12.0 10.2 14.1 14.7 11.1
Trentino-AA - 8.9 7.6 9.6 (1993) 13.2 2.4 4.7 (1998) 3.7 3.5 3.2 (2003) 4.5
Friuli-VG - 15.3 16.9 26.7 (1993) 23.2 10.1 17.3 (1998) 8.2 8.5 9.3 (2003) 7.2
Emilia-Romagna 2.9 9.6 6.4 3.4 7.2 3.0 2.6 3.3 3.4 4.8 3.9
Tuscany 0.8 3.1 2.2 0.7 1.8 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.8 1.3 1.1
Marche 0.2 1.3 - 0.5 1.5 0.4 - 0.3 0.9 0.9 1.0
ITALY - 8.7 8.4 - 10.1 4.5 - 3.9 5.0 - 4.6

Leadership

Federal level

National level

Liga Veneta

Lega Lombarda

Union Piemòntèisa / Piemònt Autonomista / Lega Nord Piemònt

Lega Nord Friuli / Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Lega Emiliano-Romagnola / Lega Nord Emilia

Union Ligure / Lega Nord Liguria

Movimento per la Toscana / Alleanza Toscana / Lega Nord Toscana

Lega Nord Trentino

Lega Nord Alto Adige

Lega Nord Val d'Aosta

Lega Nord Romagna

Lega Nord Marche

Lega Nord Umbria

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^  Article by Teresa Küchler for the EU Observer, reprinted by The Muslim News, about the expulsion of the League from the Independence and Democracy group at the EU parliament.

External links


Political parties in Italy (complete version, historical parties)
The Union Olive Tree (Democrats of the Left – Democracy is Freedom – Daisy) – Communist Refoundation Party – Democratic Left
Minor: Rose in the Fist (Democratic Socialists – Italian Radicals) – Party of Italian Communists – Italy of Values – Federation of the Greens – Popular–UDEUR
Micro: European Republican Movement – Democratic Republicans – Italian Democratic Socialist Party – United Consumers – Middle-of-the-Road Italy
Regional: South Tyrolean People's Party – Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party – Valdotanian Renewal – Southern Democratic Party – Sardinia Project
House of
Freedoms 		Forza Italia – National Alliance – Union of Christian and Centre Democrats – Lega Nord
Minor: Christian Democracy for the Autonomies – Movement for Autonomy – Pensioners' Party – Tricolour Flame – Social Action
Micro: New Italian Socialist Party – Italian Republican Party – Liberal Reformers
Regional: Veneto for the European People's Party – Sardinian Reformers – Sardinian People's Party – Sardinian Democratic Union – New Sicily
Others Micro: Italian Associations in South America – Italians in the World
Regional: Valdotanian Union – Edelweiss Aosta Valley – Autonomist Federation – Union for South Tyrol – The Libertarians – North-East Project
Complete list

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  • having a minister or a deputy-minister;
  • having a President of Region or a President of Province or a Mayor of a big town/city;
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