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Lega Nord

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Lega Nord
Federal SecretaryUmberto Bossi
Federal PresidentAngelo Alessandri
Founded8 January 1991
Merger ofLega Lombarda, Liga Veneta, Lega Piemont plus other regional parties
Headquartersvia Bellerio, 41
20161 Milan
NewspaperLa Padania
Membership (2008)150,000[1]
IdeologyFederalism, Regionalism,
Padanian nationalism
Populism
Political positionRight-wing
European affiliationEFA (1989–1994)
ELDR (1994–1997)
none (1997–...)
European Parliament groupRainbow (1989–1994)
ELDR (1994–1997)
TGI (1999–2001)
I/D (2004–2006)
UEN (2007–2009)
EFD (2009–...)
International affiliationnone
Website
http://www.leganord.org

Lega Nord (North League, LN), whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (North League for the Independence of Padania), often referred as Northern League by English language media, is a political party in Italy founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern and Central Italy, most of which had arisen and expanded their share of the electorate over the 1980s.

Its political program advocates the transformation of Italy into a federal State, fiscal federalism and greater regional autonomy, especially for the Northern regions, which they call Padania; at times it has advocated secession. Prior to the party's adoption of the term, Padania was infrequently used to name the Padan-Venetian Plain and was promoted since 1963 by well-known Italian sport journalist Gianni Brera as a modern name for Cisalpine Gaul.

The founding parties of Lega Nord were Lega Lombarda, Liga Veneta, Piemont Autonomista, Uniun Ligure, Lega Emiliano-Romagnola, Alleanza Toscana, plus the newly formed regional/provincial parties in Friuli, Province of Trieste, Province of Trento, Province of Bolzano, Aosta Valley, Marche and Umbria.

The long-standing leader of the party is Umberto Bossi.

History

Precursors and foundation

Umberto Bossi

In the 1983 general election one of Lega Nord's main precursors (and, later, sections), Liga Veneta, based in Veneto, elected a deputy, Achille Tramarin, and a senator, Graziano Girardi. In the 1987 general election another regional party, Lega Lombarda, based in Lombardy, gained national prominence when its leader Umberto Bossi was elected to the Senate. Since then he has commonly been referred to as the Senatür, the word for "senator" in an issue of Northern Italian languages – a nickname maintained even when he was no longer a senator.

The party was formed in 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. These parties continue to exist as "national sections" of the federal party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord, Liga Veneta–Lega Nord, Lega Nord–Piemont, and so on. Support for the party skyrocketed in the early 1990s because of the huge political corruption scandal known as Tangentopoli and the subsequent Mani pulite investigations.[2][3][4]

Lega Nord first came to electoral success in the 1990 regional elections, but it was with the 1992 general election that the party became a stable political force in Italian politics. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators[5], it became the fourth largest party in country and Parliament. In 1993 Marco Formentini, a left-wing leghista, was elected Mayor of Milan, the party won 49.3% in the provincial election of Varese[6] and, by the end of the year, before Silvio Berlusconi launched his own political party and career, was polled around 16-18% in opinion polls.[7]

First government participation

After the 1994 general election, to which the party took part within the Pole of Freedoms coalition, Lega Nord, along with National Alliance and the Christian Democratic Centre, joined Berlusconi's Forza Italia to form a coalition government under the leadership of Berlusconi himself. Lega Nord actually lost many votes to Forza Italia in the election, stopping at 8.3%, 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.[8]

The post of President Chamber of Deputies was thus given to a leghista, Irene Pivetti, a young woman hailing from the Catholic faction of the party, and Lega Nord obtained five ministries in the government led by Berlusconi: Interior with Roberto Maroni (who was also Deputy Prime Minister), Budget with Giancarlo Pagliarini, Industry with Vito Gnutti, European Affairs with Domenico Comino and Institutional Reforms with Francesco Speroni). However the alliance with Berlusconi, and the government itself, was short-lived: it collapsed before the end of the year, with the League being instrumental in its demise.

In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the new formed cabinet of Lamberto Dini, alongside with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left. This caused many splinter groups to leave the party, including the Federalist Party (which was actually founded in June 1994) of Gianfranco Miglio, the Federalists and Liberal Democrats of Franco Rocchetta, Lucio Malan and Furio Gubetti and the Federalist Italian League of Luigi Negri and Sergio Cappelli. All these groups later merged into Forza Italia. Also Roberto Maroni opposed the new course of the party, but after some months of coldness with Bossi, he returned to active politics in June. Between 1995 and 1998 the party joined centre-left governing coalitions in many local contexts, from the Province of Padua to the city of Udine.

The independentist years

After a huge success in the 1996 general election, its best result ever (10.1%, 59 deputies and 27 senators[9]), Lega Nord announced that its aim was the secession of Northern Italy under the name Padania, an expression previously referring to the Po Valley, but to which Lega Nord gave a geographically broader usage that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers. The party even organized a referendum on independence as well as elections for a "Padanian Parliament" (with no international recognition) and government.

The years between 1996 and 1998 can be considered the golden age of the party, that was the largest political force in many provinces of Northern Italy and able to win single-seat constituencies and provincial governments by running alone aganist both centre-right and centre-left. However since 1998 Lega Nord's electoral fortunes were reduced, primarily because of many splits, and especially that of Liga Veneta Repubblica in Veneto. By 1999 several leading members of the party, notably Fabrizio Comencini (head of Liga Veneta and until then a key ally of Bossi), Marco Formentini (leader of the left-wing faction and former mayor of Milan) and Domenico Comino (leader of a pro-Berlusconi faction), left the party.

In 1998 La Padania, Lega Nord's official newspaper, published several articles attacking Silvio Berlusconi, with whome the party would have joined forces again since 2000. The articles went as far as accusing Berlusconi of having links with the Mafia. [10]

In later years, at least since the Varese congress of 1999, the League de-emphasised demands for independence in order to rather focus on devolution, while remaining within the framework of Italy, as in its original goal: not to secede from Italy but to transform it into a federal state in order to let Padania keep more tax revenues collected there (fiscal federalism). Moreover, after all these splits had severely damaged the party, Lega Nord lost most of its electoral strength, being reduced to 3.9% in the 2001 general election.

The House of Freedoms

After a huge setback in the 1999 European Parliament election (4.5%, –5.6% in three years), Bossi understood that Lega Nord was no more a viable third force between centre-right and centre-left, that its autonomy was not more a strength and that it needed to join one of the two main political coalitions in order to survive. In 2000 the party re-joined forces with Berlusconi's coalition, previous disagreements notwithstanding, leading the centre-right to a landslide victory in that year regional elections in Northern regions and to the triumph in the 2001 general election.

In 2001–2006 Lega Nord, although being severy reduced in its parliamentary representation, controlled three ministries: Justice with Roberto Castelli, Labour and Social Affairs with Roberto Maroni, and Institutional Reforms and Devolution with Umberto Bossi (replaced by Roberto Calderoli in June 2004). In March 2004 Bossi suffered a stroke that led many to question over the party's survival, but that ultimately confirmed Lega Nord's strength and the solidity of its leadership. The party was widely considered the staunchest ally in Berlusconi's coalition and formed the so-called "axis of the North"[11] along with Berlusconi's Forza Italia, opposed to the axis formed by National Alliance and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats.

During the five years in government with the centre-right, the Parliament passed an important constitutional reform, which included federalism and more powers for the Prime Minister. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy and the Sardinian Action Party for the 2006 general election was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected by voters in the 2006 constitutional referendum.

Fourth Berlusconi government

In the aftermath of the fall of Romano Prodi's government on 24 January 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organized by Berlusconi as The People of Freedom (PdL), without the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC). Lega Nord ran in the election in coalition with PdL and the Movement for Autonomy, gaining a stunning 8.3% of the national vote. This result (a gain of 4.2% in two years) showed renewed popularity for the party with the election of 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13).

Following this result, since May Lega Nord has been represented in Berlusconi IV Cabinet by four ministers (Roberto Maroni, Interior; Luca Zaia, Agriculture; Umberto Bossi, Reforms and Federalism; Roberto Calderoli, Legislative simplification) and five under-secretaries (Roberto Castelli, Infrastructures; Michelino Davico, Interior; Daniele Molgora, Economy and Finances; Francesca Martini, Health; Maurizio Balocchi, Legislative simplification).

In April 2009 one of Lega Nord's pet projects, a bill introducing a path towards fiscal federalism, was approved by the Senate, after having passed also in the Chamber. The bill gained bipartisan support by Italy of Values, that voted in favour, and by the Democratic Party, that chose not to oppose the measure.[12] Lega Nord influenced the government led by Berlusconi also on illegal immigration, especially when dealing with immigrants coming from the sea. While the UNCHR and the Italian Catholic bishops expressed some concerns over the handling of asylum seekers[13], the decision of Maroni to send back to Libya the boats full of illegal immigrants was praised also by some leading Democrats, notably including Piero Fassino[14][15], and was backed by some 76% of Italians according to one opinion poll.[16]

In June 2009 the League was successfully engaged against the electoral law referendum. The referendum wanted to turn the Italian electoral system into a pure plurinominal block voting. The League threatened a political crisis if its coalition partner, the PdL, did not bend.[17] The referendum, that could have been scheduled to be alongside with the European Parliament election on 7 June, would have cost taxpayers an extra 300-400 million euros if held on 14 June[18] (173 million according to Lega Nord minister Roberto Maroni),[19] but the League said that there was no price to defend Italian democracy, gaining support from third parties.[20] Finally there was an agreement between PdL, PD, Lega Nord and UDC on 21 June, when the second rounds of provincial and municipal elections will be held where necessary.[21] After Berlusconi announced his support for the referendum (thus causing outcry by Lega Nord leaders), Rocco Buttiglione (UDC) even proposed an alliance against the referedum and "for electoral reform" between PD, UDC and Lega Nord, an alliance that could even coalesce against Berlusconi if the referendum was to pass.[22]

In agreement with the PdL[23], in the 2010 regional elections, Luca Zaia will be the coalition candidate in Veneto[24] and Roberto Cota in Piedmont[25], while in the other Northern regions, including Lombardy, the League will support candidates of the PdL.

Ideology

The party's ideology is a combination of political federalism, fiscal federalism and regionalism, supporting the traditional culture of Northern Italy. The historical goal of the party is to transform Italy into a federal State, letting Padania to keep more tax revenues collected there under a regime of fiscal federalism. Thus, through Lega Nord, federalism has become an important political issue in the country since the 1990s. This is the main difference between the League and other European regionalist parties, which focus on special rights for their own regions[26][27][28] (see the Basque Nationalist Party, the Republican Left of Catalonia, Plaid Cymru, the Scottish National Party, the Vlaams Belang, or the South Tyrolean People's Party[29]).

Sometimes it seemed possible that the League might also unite with similar leagues in Central and Southern Italy, but this did not succeed, notwithstanding the presence of the Federalist Alliance. The party continues to dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, including the Valdotanian Union, the South Tyrolean People's Party, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, the Movement for Autonomy and the Sardinian Action Party, and it always had some figures from the South in its parliamentary ranks. Notably, Angela Maraventano, Deputy-Mayor of Lampedusa, is a senator of Lega Nord. Although it is no more a member of the European Free Alliance, the parties has ties with many regionalist parties around Europe, including left-wing parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia.[30]

The political culture of Lega Nord is a mix of pride in the heritage of Northern Italy (particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial Lega Lombarda; the warrior on the party emblems represents Alberto da Giussano, a mythical figure of wars against Barbarossa[31], from which they inherited anti-monopolism and anti-centralism), distrust of some Southern Italian habits and Roman authorities, distrust of Italy and especially its flag, some support for free market, anti-statism, independentism, and claims of a Celtic heritage.

Despite being officially founded on federalism – the party's constitution says that the party will end its political activity when federalism is obtained – Lega Nord is no longer a single-issue party. It is difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is variously conservative, centrist and left-wing with regard to different issues. For example, the party supports both liberal ideas, such as deregulation, and social-democratic ones, such as the defense of wages and pensions. This is because Lega Nord, as a "people's party" representing the North as a whole, includes both liberal-conservative and social-democratic factions. In general, it supports the social market economy and many others goals typical of Christian-democratic parties, and has been described as a "neo-labour party" by some commentators[32] and also by some of its members.[33]

In fact the party has often varied its tone and its policies, replacing its original libertarianism and social liberalism with a more socially conservative approach, alterning anti-clericalism with a pro-Catholic Church stance, Europeanism with a marked Euroscepticism[34][35], and abandoning its original pacifism and uncompromising ecologism.[36]

Umberto Bossi recently explained in an interview that Lega Nord is "libertarian, but also socialist" and that the right-wing he likes is anti-statist and with a "libertarian idea of a State which does not weigh on citizens". When asked to tell his most preferred politician of the 20th Century he said Giacomo Matteotti, a Socialist MP who was killed by Fascists in 1925, and remembered his anti-fascist and left-wing roots. He also praised the "courage" of Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party and did not exclude a future alliance with him, as also the possibility that Lega Nord could be dissolved when Italy would have become a federal State.[37] Regarding this, Affari Italiani, a well-known online newspaper, hinted that by 2013 Lega Nord would merge into The People of Freedom and that Lega Nord's leading members would obtain important roles in the party and, maybe, one of them (Roberto Maroni, Giancarlo Giorgetti or Marco Reguzzoni) would be the candidate for Prime Minister in 2018.[38]

Lega Nord is populist in the sense that it is an anti-monopolist and anti-elitist popular and participative party (it is one of the few Italian political parties to not permit free-masons to join), fighting against the "vested interests", once identified by Bossi as "Agnelli, the Pope and the Mafia". The party is also libertarian-populist in its promotion of small ownership, small and medium-sized enterprise, small government as opposed to governmental bureaucracy, waste of public funds, pork barrel spending and corruption.[39] 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.[40]

Federalism or secession?

The Sun of the Alps, the proposed flag for Padania by Lega Nord

The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years: some opponents claimed it wanted secession of Padania, while at other times they appeared to be simply requesting more autonomy for Northern regions. The League eventually settled on federalism, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties.[41][42]

In 1996, the party switched to open separatism, calling for the division of Italy in three entities, named by Lega Nord "ideologue" and well-known political scientist Gianfranco Miglio: "Padania", "Etruria" and the "South".[27][28] As a symbolic act of birth of the new nation, on 13-15 September Umberto Bossi took a bottle of water from the springs of Po River (Template:Lang-la, hence Padania), which was poured in the sea of Venice by a little girl a few days later. A voluntary group of militants, the so-called "green shirts" (green being the colour of Padania), was also established.

The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down, and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", going back to the original idea of Gianfranco Miglio: an Italian federal republic, divided into three "macro-regions". 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 separatism caused criticism from the party base and led to the formation of some minor breakaway factions.[43]

As observed above, the peculiarity of Lega Nord among European regionalist parties is that its main goal is the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions.[26][27][28][29]

Campervan of Lega Nord for the 2005 Tuscan regional election in Florence

Platform and policies

The party takes a social-conservative stance on social issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, medical embryonic stem-cell research, artificial insemination, same-sex marriage (though there is an association called Los Padania, where "Los" stands for "free sexual orientation", linked to the party and Lega Nord was once in favour of same-sex marriage[44]) and drug use (though it did once support the legalization of marijuana), despite some notable exceptions: Giancarlo Pagliarini, Rossana Boldi, Giovanna Bianchi Clerici[45] and, to some extent, Roberto Castelli has represented the social-liberal wing within the party ranks.

Lega Nord opposes statism[28], supports lower taxes, especially for families and small enterprises[46], and an end to public money to help big businesses facing crisis, as for FIAT[47] and for Alitalia.[48][49]

One of the League's war horses is the American-styled election of prosecutors[50], along with the regionalization of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court. The party has a tough stance on crime, illegal immigration, especially from Muslim countries, and terrorism. It supports the promotion of immigration from non-Muslim countries in order to protect the "Christian identity" of Italy and Europe, which, according to party officials, should be based on "Judeo-Christian heritage").[47][51]

The party, in its political program, is committed to the environment, supporting public green areas, the establishment of natural parks, recycling, and the end (or regulation) of the construction of sheds in country areas, especially in Veneto.[51][52] Lega Nord also supports the protection of traditional foods and also called for a revision of the quota system of the Common Agricultural Policy.[47][51]

In foreign policy, the League often criticizes the European Union (it was the only party other than the Communist Refoundation Party in the Italian Parliament to vote against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, but voted in favour of the Treaty of Lisbon[53] and opposes what it calls the idea of an "European Super-State", favoring instead a "Europe of Regions"[54][55][56], as the Christian Social Union of Bavaria and the European Free Alliance do. The party has never had a particularly pro-United States stance, although it admires the American federal political system. Its MPs opposed both the Gulf War in 1991 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 in the name of pacifism, and Umberto Bossi personally met Slobodan Milosević during that war.[57][58] However, after the September 11 attacks and the emergence of Islamist terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in the War on terror[59][60][61][62], while expressing several reservations about American policy on Iraq.[63][64][65]

Reasons for initial success

Especially in the early years, the League exploited resentment against Rome (with the famous 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.[66]

Unpopularity of Southern Italians and resentment against illegal immigrants were also exploited. The electoral successes of the party began roughly at a time when public disillusionment with old political parties was high. The scandals of Tangentopoli were unveiled from 1992 on.[3][4] However, contrary to what many pundits observed at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable political force in Italian politics.

The party was labeled as "anti-Southern" (anti-meridionale) by other political actprs and was seen as a dangerous political force by its competitors. In 1988, commenting the results of 29 May local elections, Gianfranco Fini, then leader of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, accused Lega Lombarda of "racist propaganda".[67] In 1992 Rino Formica, a leading member of the Italian Socialist Party, argued that "the League equals Fascism"[68]

International affiliation

Lega Nord was originally a member of the European Free Alliance and its first two MEPs, Francesco Speroni and Luigi Moretti, joined the Rainbow Group in the European Parliament during the IV parliamentary term (1989–1994). Between 1994 and 1997 it was a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, altghough one MEP, Raimondo Fassa, continued to sit in that group until 1999. During the VI parliamentary term (1999–2004), it was briefly a component of the Technical Group of Independents along with Italian Radicals and then returned to the Non-Inscrits.[69][70][71][72]

Following the 2004 European election Lega Nord joined the Independence/Democracy group and later the Union for Europe of the Nations, a somewhat awkward affiliation for a party which proposes a "Europe of Regions". The party was affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe until 2006, when its members joined the European Democrat Group.[73]

Following the 2009 European election Lega Nord joined the newly formed Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.

Factions

Lega Nord has aimed to unite all those Northern Italians who support autonomy and federalism for their land. For this reason it tends to be a multi-ideological catch-all party, following what Umberto Bossi stated in 1982 to his early followers: "It does not matter how old are you, what your job is and what your political tendency: what matters is that you and we are all Lombard. [...] It is as Lombards that, indeed, that we have a fundamental common goal in that face of which our division in parties should fall behind".[74] The electorate of the party is very diverse on a left-right scale: in the 1992 general election, for instance, the party's support was composed of a 25.4% of former Christian Democrats, 18.5% Communists, 12.5% Socialists and 6.6% Missini.[75] Although there are almost no organized factions within the party, it is possible to distinguish several tendencies or wings.

The wing from Varese and generally the bulk of original Lega Lombarda (including Umberto Bossi, Roberto Maroni and until his exit Marco Formentini) tend to be the left-wing of the party, while that from Bergamo (notably Roberto Calderoli) tends to be more conservative. In fact both Bossi and Maroni come from the far left of the political spectrum, having been active in the Italian Communist Party, Proletarian Democracy and the Greens before starting Lega Lombarda[76], and conceived Lega Nord as a centre-left (and, to some extent, social-democratic) political force.[77][78] On the left of the party there is also Rosi Mauro, leader of the "Padanian Trade Union" (SinPa). Since its foundation Liga Veneta was characterized more as liberal and centrist party and has always proposed a more libertarian political line. Between Maroni and Calderoli, there is a liberal-centrist wing composed of people like Roberto Castelli, a conspicuous group of former Liberals (including Manuela Dal Lago, Daniele Molgora and Francesco Speroni) and a new generation of politicians (including Roberto Cota, Giancarlo Giorgetti, Marco Reguzzoni, Luca Zaia and Angelo Alessandri). The followers of Calderoli are the most keen supporters of the alliance with The People of Freedom and Silvio Berlusconi, while Maroni (who is anyway a moderate, despite his far left roots), Giorgetti, Reguzzoni and others tend to be more critical and "movimentist".[79][80][81]

The differences in the regional composition of the party reflected also the positions in the different regional contexts: for instance, in the early 1990s, while in Eastern and Central Lombardy the League stole votes especially from the Communists and the Italian Socialist Party, in Eastern Lombardy and Veneto the party basically replaced Christian Democracy as dominant political force.[82][83] In fact also Lega Lombarda included moderate-conservative figures, such as Gianfranco Miglio and Vito Gnutti, both former Christian Democrats, while Giovanni Meo Zilio, a Socialist partisan during the Italian Resistance, was one of the founding fathers of Liga Veneta.

Besides these main groups there are some smallers groups, which tend to be better organized. First, there is a strong group of Christian-democrats, most of whom are affiliated by "Padanian Catholics", founded by late Roberto Ronchi and currently led by Giuseppe Leoni. In fact many Leghisti are committed Catholic social teaching and the social market economy, and several party members were originally members or voters of Christian Democracy. Then there is a right-wing which is represented mainly by Mario Borghezio, a former Monarchist who is leader of "Christian Padania", whose members are linked to the Society of St. Pius X and are characherized by a strong social conservatism.

The party has always included also a group of libertarians, whose leading members were Gilberto Oneto and Giancarlo Pagliarini, who recently left the party, and the "Independentist Unit"[84], which gathers the more secessionist figures of the party. This group crosses all the other factions and tendencies and in fact includes, among others Borghezio and Speroni. Also Oneto and Pagliarini were considered to be part of this group.[85][86] In fact many libertarians and independentists left the party during the years. Finally, within the party there is an agricultural wing, which is particularly strong in Southern Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna and is represented by such groups as the Cobas del latte, a farmers' trade union, and the "Land Movement", whose leader is Giovanni Robusti, and politicians such as Luca Zaia, Minister of Agriculture.[87][88]

1997 Padanian elections

In 1997, Lega Nord organized 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:

Alliances and coalitions

In Lega Nord there have always been different perspectives about national alliances. In 1994, some days before the announcement of the Bossi-Berlusconi pact which led to the formation of the Pole of Freedoms, Roberto Maroni, a moderate, signed a pact with Mario Segni's Pact for Italy, which was later cancelled.[91][92] When Bossi decided to stop supporting the first Berlusconi government at the end of the same year, Maroni, who was the Minister of the Interior, and many other members of the League distanced themselves from their leader. Many left the party (40 deputies out of 117 and 17 senators out of 60) and some, including Luigi Negri and Lucio Malan, switched to Forza Italia.[93] Others, including the floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies Pierluigi Petrini, joined the centre-left. Maroni, after some months of coldness with Bossi, returned to be an active member of the League.[78][94]

After the 1996 general election, which Lega Nord fought outside the big two coalitions, those who supported an alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini and others) and those who preferred to enter into Romano Prodi's alliance (Marco Formentini, Irene Pivetti and others) did not disappear. Some of them (15 deputies out of 59 and 9 senators out of 27) left the party to switch to the centre-right or the centre-left. The group of Gnutti and Comino was expelled in 1999, after which they formed an alliance with the centre-right at the local level, while Comencini had left the party in 1998 to launch his Liga Veneta Repubblica with the mid-term objective of entering in coalition with Forza Italia in Veneto.[95][96][97][98][99][100]

After the decline of Lega Nord in the 1999 European Parliament election, senior members of the party decided that it was not possible to attain the party's goals if they continued to refuse an alliance with one of the two coalitions. Some, including Maroni, who had always been left-leaning at heart, despite his defense of Berlusconi in 1994, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. He reached an agreement, this time the centre-left, only to be refuted by Bossi, who had previously invited him to pursue direct talks with Massimo D'Alema, who once described Lega Nord as "a rib of the left", similarly to what happened with Segni in 1994. These talks were successful, so that in Lombardy the centre-left candidate in the 2000 regional elections would have been Maroni himself, but Bossi decided to return to the alliance with Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming general election.[101][102] Lega Nord, within with the other House of Freedoms parties, won both the 2000 regional elections and the 2001 general election, and returned to national office.

During the years in government in Rome (2001–2006), the party saw the emergence of two different political viewpoints about alliances: some, led by Roberto Calderoli and Roberto Castelli (with the backing of Umberto Bossi), vigorously supported participation with the centre-right, while others, represented by Roberto Maroni and Giancarlo Giorgetti, were less warm about it. Some of them spoke of possibly joining the centre-left some time after the 2006 general election, which they were certain to lose. This idea was ascribed to the fact that, without any support from the left, it seemed even more difficult to win the constitutional referendum, which would have turned Italy in a federal state.[103] The centre-left did not change its position and the referendum was lost, making the North angry with the new Prodi government and the Leghisti less keen on making an alliance with those who opposed constitutional reform.

Controversies

Violent rhetoric

In a 2003 interview, party leader Umberto Bossi suggested opening fire on the boats of illegal immigrants from Africa, whom he described as bingo-bongos who would disembark in Italy.[104]

In 2003 the former Mayor of Treviso, Giancarlo Gentilini, while in office, spoke about those he called "immigrant slackers", saying "we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang".[105]

Allegations of xenophobia

File:Lega poster.jpg
A political poster of the League for regional elections in Piedmont, 2005. It reads "Guess who is last in line for housing, employment and health care?", and pictures (from right) a Chinese, Roma, African, and Arab person all in front of a Piedmontese in a social services queue.

The party is often described as "xenophobic"[106][107][108][109][110][111] and "anti-immigrant".[112][113]

In 1992 the League was approached by Le Nouvel Observateur to some far right parties, including the Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front, Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria and the Vlaams Blok: "the League rejects any association with neo-fascists but plays on themes of xenophobia regionalism and trivial racism".[114]

In 2002 Erminio Boso, a Lega Nord politician from the Province of Trento who no longer holds public office, proposed a separate train for immigrants and Italians.[115]

Following the 2009 European Parliament election, Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the British Conservative Party MEPs, refuted allegation that Lega Nord would be allowed in the newly formed group of European Conservatives and Reformists, according to The Times because of their "openly xenophobic" views.[116]

Allegations of racism

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, in two consecutive reports on the situation in Italy in 2002 and 2006, has denounced the party: "leaders of the Northern League have made a particularly intense racist and xenophobic propaganda, although it should be noted that even members of other parties have used a political language xenophobic or otherwise intolerant. [...] Therefore, ECRI is concerned about the participation in governmental coalitions of political parties whose members have had recourse to the intolerant and xenophobic propaganda".[117]

Four years after, the ECRI noticed "with regret that, since then, some members of the Northern League have stepped up the use of racist and xenophobic discourse in politics. While noting that you are in this respect especially the local elected representatives of this party, including some important political leaders at national level have issued statements racist and xenophobic. These talks have continued to target mainly the immigrants, but also other members of minority groups such as Gipsy or Southern Italians." ECRI also recalls that "in December 2004, the court of first instance of Verona has judged guilty of incitement to racial hatred six local representatives of the Northern League, in connection with an organized campaign to oust a group of Sinti from a temporary camp in the local territory. The six people were sentenced to six months in prison and to pay 45,000 euros for moral damages, prohibiting participation in any electioneering activities for three years and to report to local and national elections".[118] However in 2007 the Court of Cassation cancelled the sentence.[119]

Other controversies

Florian Abrahamowicz, a priest of the Society of St. Pius X, was seen as unofficial chaplain of the party.[120] In 2007 Umberto Bossi attended to his celebration of a Tridentine Mass and said there were affinities between his party and the followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.[121] In 2009, after he had denied the Holocaust, Abrahamowicz was immediately expelled from the Society[122] and also Lega Nord distanced from him: notably Flavio Tosi described the priest's words as "unconceivable, unacceptable and monstrous"[123], while Luca Zaia told the press that "no revisionism is possible".[124] However, Abrahamowicz had already been a longtime defender of the Italian Social Republic [125] and supported Erich Priebke, a German SS officer convicted of war crimes for a 1944 massacre in Rome.[126]

Counter-criticism

Lega Nord rejects all these charges of xenophobia, instead claiming that North Italy is the victim of discrimination and racism.[127][128]

The first black mayor in Italy belongs to the League: Sandy Cane was elected mayor of the small town of Viggiù, near Varese, in 2009. In an interview with The Independent, Ms. Cane said that the League does not include racist or xenophobic members.[129]

Through the Associazione Umanitaria Padana (Padanian Humanitarian Association), 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 countries or in those that have suffered from war or from natural catastrophes. Locations of recent missions include Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan[130] and Côte d'Ivoire.[131] The association is led by Sara Fumagalli, wife of Roberto Castelli and born-again Catholic after a piligrimage in Međugorje.[132][133]

After more than 15 years of government by Lega Nord, the Province of Treviso is widely considered the place in Italy where immigrants are best integrated.[134][135]

Electoral performance in the 2009 European election

Support for Lega Nord is diverse even inside Padania and has varied over time, reaching a maximum of 10.1% of the vote in the 1996 general election (around 25% north of the Po River). In that year, the League scored 29.3% of the vote in Veneto, 25.5% in Lombardy, 23.2% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 18.2% in Piedmont, 13.2% in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% in Liguria, 7.2% in Emilia-Romagna, 1.8% in Tuscany, 1.5% in the Marche, and 1.0% in Umbria. The Leghisti were able to elect 59 deputies and 27 senators (of which 39 and 19 respectively were from single-seat constituencies), helping the centre-left to win, due to its successes in some Northern constituencies characterized by three-way races. The League won barely all the seats in the provinces of the so-called Pedemontana, the area at the feet of the Prealps, from Udine to Cuneo, passing through Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont.[136][137][138]

In the 2008 general election Lega Nord scored 8.3% at the national level, slightly below the result of 1996: 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy, 13.0% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 12.6% in Piedmont, 9.4% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 7.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 6.8% in Liguria, 2.2% in the Marche, 2.0% in Tuscany and 1.7% in Umbria. Despite a slight decline in term of votes, the party remains particularly strong in the Pedemontana, especially in Lombardy and Veneto, and in mountain zones of Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont.[139][140]

In the 2009 European Parliament election won 10.2% of the vote: 28.4% in Veneto, 22.7% in Lombardy, 17.5% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 15.7% in Piedmont, 9.9% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 11.1% in Emilia-Romagna, 9.9% in Liguria, 5.5% in the Marche, 4.3% in Tuscany, 3.6% in Umbria and other surprising results, such as 24.6% in Lampedusa, 5.1% in Ogliastra, Sardinia and 1.2% in the Province of Reggio Calabria.[141]

Mayors of Lega Nord govern more than 370 comuni, including some important cities such as Verona, Treviso, Lecco, Monza, Varese and Novara. In addition Lega Nord currently controls 13 of the 110 Italian Provinces, including some of the most populous ones, namely Brescia, Bergamo, Varese, Como, Lodi and Sondrio in Lombardy, Treviso, Vicenza, Venice and Belluno in Veneto, Cuneo and Biella in Piedmont and Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.[142] Yet Lega Nord is the largest party also in the Province of Verona.[140]

According to an opinion poll released in January 2010 45% of Northeners (52% of Lombards and Venetians) support the independence of Padania.[143]

Electoral results

The electoral results of Lega Nord in Northern and North-Central regions are shown in the table below.[144][145][146]

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
Liguria 6.1 14.3 11.4 6.6 10.2 3.7 4.3 3.9 4.1 4.7 3.7 6.8 9.9
Piedmont 5.1 16.3 15.7 9.9 18.2 7.8 7.6 5.9 8.2 8.5 6.3 12.6 15.7
Lombardy 18.9 23.0 22.1 17.7 25.5 13.1 15.5 12.1 13.8 15.8 11.7 21.6 22.7
Veneto 7.2 17.3 21.6 16.7 29.3 10.7 12.0 10.2 14.1 14.7 11.1 27.1 28.4
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 9.4 9.9
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 13.0 17.5
Emilia-Romagna 2.9 9.6 6.4 3.4 7.2 3.0 2.6 3.3 3.4 4.8 3.9 7.8 11.1
Tuscany 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
Marche 0.2 1.3 - 0.5 1.5 0.4 - 0.3 0.9 0.9 1.0 2.2 5.5
Umbria 0.2 1.1 - - 1.1 0.3 0.3 - 0.6 - 0.8 1.7 3.6
ITALY - 8.7 8.4 - 10.1 4.5 - 3.9 5.0 - 4.1 8.3 10.2

Local government

Presidents of Province:

Mayors (cities over 50,000 inhab.):

Leadership

Federal level

National level

Liga Veneta


Lega Lombarda


Piemont Autonomista / Lega Nord Piemont


Lega Nord Friuli / Lega Nord Friuli-Venezia Giulia


Lega Emiliano-Romagnola / Lega Nord Emilia


Uniun Ligure / Lega Nord Liguria


Alleanza Toscana / Lega Nord Toscana


Lega Nord Trentino


Lega Nord Sud Tirolo


Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta


Lega Nord Romagna


Lega Nord Marche


Lega Nord Umbria


Lega Nord Trieste


See also

References

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