[141] The League obtained a resounding success, becoming the third largest party in Italy with 17.4% of the vote (+13.3pp). Il gran manifesto anti populista di Maroni", "Maroni: "Con me Salvini si è comportato da stalinista, "Maroni rinuncia alla Lombardia, Fontana in pole per la successione", "Conte says to be Italians' defence lawyer in govt of change", "Mattarella meets Conte, 'vetoed' Savona", "Governo Conte, la lista di tutti i ministri: Salvini all’Interno e Di Maio al Welfare. Calderoli contro Maroni. [107] In November, the Emilia-Romagna regional election represented a major step for Salvini's "national project": the LN, which won 19.4% of the vote, was the region's second-largest and resulted far ahead of FI, paving the way for a bid for the leadership of the centre-right. On 3 April, a corruption scandal hit the magic circle and consequently the entire party. [246][247] However, after the September 11 attacks and the emergence of Islamic terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in the War on Terror[248][249][250][251] while expressing several reservations about the Iraq War and the American policy in its aftermath. [120][121][122] 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. Combined result of party list (29.4%) and Attilio Fontana's personal list (1.5%). During the sixth parliamentary term (1999–2004), it was briefly a component of the Technical Group of Independents (TGI) along with Italian Radicals and then returned to the Non-Inscrits. The party's strength was confirmed in October by the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections: in Trentino LN's Maurizio Fugatti was elected President with 46.7% of the vote and the party scored 27.1% (despite competition from several autonomist parties), while in South Tyrol it came third with 11.1% (being the most voted in Bolzano and, more generally, among Italian-speakers), leading it to replace the PD as junior partner of the South Tyrolean People's Party in the provincial government coalition. [280] In 1992, the League was compared by Le Nouvel Observateur to some national populist parties of the European far-right, including France's National Front, the Freedom Party of Austria and the Vlaams Blok, claiming that "the League rejects any association with neo-fascists but plays on themes of xenophobia regionalism and trivial racism". [92] His election was ratified a week later by the party's federal congress in Turin. Moreover, Bitonci was elected mayor of Padua, a Democratic stronghold. In a further effort to broaden its base, the League welcomed in its electoral slates several independents, notably including Giulia Bongiorno[137] and Alberto Bagnai,[138] as well as a wide range of minor parties, including the Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az),[139] the Italian Liberal Party (PLI)[140] and the National Movement for Sovereignty (MNS). The party also tried to expand its reach through a number of Padanian-styled associations and media endeavours (under the supervision of Davide Caparini), notably including La Padania daily, Il Sole delle Alpi weekly, the Lega Nord Flash periodical, the TelePadania TV channel, the Radio Padania Libera and the Bruno Salvadori publishing house. [239][244] The party has been labeled as "xenophobic"[278][279] and "anti-immigrant". [182] However, after successful talks between the League's former coalition partner, the M5S, and the Democratic Party, the incumbent government was eventually replaced by a new government led by Conte. While the UNCHR and Catholic bishops expressed some concerns over the handling of asylum seekers,[61] Maroni's decision to send back to Libya the boats full of illegal immigrants was praised also by some leading Democrats, notably including Piero Fassino;[62][63] and it was backed by some 76% of Italians according to a poll.[64]. Voglio un congresso vero, "Lega, spunta l'anti-Salvini. Despite this, Bossi decided instead to approach Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming 2001 general election. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy (MpA) and the Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az) for the 2006 general election was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected in the 2006 constitutional referendum.[57]. LN) is a right-wing populist political party in Italy.In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as Lega (League), without changing its official name in the party's statute.The party was nonetheless frequently referred to only as "Lega" even before … The historical goal of the party is to transform Italy into a federal state, letting Padania keep more tax revenues collected there under a regime of fiscal federalism. [201][202][203][204] Certain Lega Nord members have been known to publicly deploy the offensive slur terrone, a common pejorative term for southern Italians.[201][202][205]. [274][275], However, according to Roberto Maroni the party is not Eurosceptic and stands for a "new Europeanism". The party even organised a referendum on independence and elections for a Padanian Parliament. The party also came second in Liguria (22.3%) and Tuscany (16.2%), third in Marche (13.0%) and Umbria (14.0%). [391] At the 2014–2015 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. Former leading members include Gianfranco Miglio (the political scientist who developed the concept of "Padania"), Franco Rocchetta (founder of Liga Veneta), Irene Pivetti (former president of the Chamber of Deputies), Gipo Farassino (founder of Piemont Autonomista) and Roberto Cota (former President of Piedmont). [294][295] Moreover, the first and so far only black mayor in Italy belongs to the League: Sandy Cane (whose mother is Italian and father is an African American)[296] was elected mayor in Viggiù in 2009. [341], By 2011, maroniani clearly became the strongest faction within the party and Maroni, who was acclaimed at the traditional rally in Pontida in June, became Bossi's obvious successor. [289][290] After more than fifteen years of government by Lega Nord, the Province of Treviso is widely considered the place in Italy where immigrants are best integrated. 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. 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. Bossi, however, was then elected the federal president. In the 2020 Venetian regional election Zaia was re-elected for a third consecutive term with 76.8% of the vote, and Liga Veneta fielded three lists, including the League's official one, Zaia's personal list, and Venetian Autonomy List (comprising also Liga Veneta Repubblica),[185] which obtained 16.9%, 44.6% and 2.4% respectively. Despite misgivings by Bossi and the Padanist old guard, the party still had a strong autonomist outlook in the northern regions,[133] especially in Veneto where Venetian nationalism was stronger than ever before. [266] 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 in civil defense and emergency management. On 4 March, the centre-right alliance, in which Matteo Salvini's League emerged as the main political force, won a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, while the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio became the … La Lega di Salvini lascia sul campo uno 0,2% e scende dal 23,5% al 23,3%: si tratta di un calo in definitiva contenuto considerato che il Carroccio era in crescita nelle ultime settimane. [240][241] Other key policies include the legalisation, regulation and taxation of prostitution in brothels,[242] the direct election of prosecutors[243] and a regionalised judiciary and Constitutional Court. Combined result of party list (13.0%) and Roberto Maroni's personal list (10.2%). [32], In early 1994, some days before the announcement of the Bossi–Berlusconi pact which led to the formation of the Pole of Freedoms, Roberto Maroni, Bossi's number two, signed an agreement with Mario Segni's centrist Pact for Italy, which was later cancelled.[33][34]. In March 2015, after a long struggle between Tosi and Zaia, who was backed by Salvini, over the party's candidates in the upcoming regional election in Veneto, Tosi was removed from national secretary of Liga Veneta and ejected from the federal party altogether. This is also the main difference between the League and most European regionalist parties (South Tyrolean People's Party,[186] Basque Nationalist Party, Republican Left of Catalonia, Scottish National Party, Vlaams Belang and the like), which focus on special rights for their own regions. The party has always opposed illegal immigration and has often adopted Eurosceptic stances, lately joining the Identity and Democracy Party at the European level. [353] 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. [291][292] Similar things can be said about the city of Verona,[293] governed by Flavio Tosi, who evolved from being a hardliner to be one of the most popular mayors of Italy. The party's federal congress, summoned in Padua in July 2014, approved Salvini's political line, especially a plan for the introduction of a flat tax and the creation of a sister party in central-southern Italy and the Isles. In October 1997, Lega Nord organised what it called "the first elections to the Padanian Parliament". [266], Lega Nord often criticises the European Union (it was the only party in the Italian Parliament, along with the Communist Refoundation Party, to vote against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, but it voted in favour of the Treaty of Lisbon)[270] and opposes what it calls the "European superstate", favoring instead a "Europe of the Regions". The 2013 general election was not a good moment for the party, which gained meagre results, e.g. [375] 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. Si tratta di un’oscillazione davvero importante, segnale della grande confusione che stiamo vivendo. This is because Lega Nord, as a "people's party" representing the North as a whole, includes both liberal-conservative and social democratic factions. The League was the only major party to oppose Monti's technocratic government. Although there are almost no official factions within the party, it is possible to distinguish several tendencies or wings. In a public speech in 2012, he said to party activists: "We should start looking at Padania in a Northern, European perspective. In the 2018 general election, the League was the third-largest party behind the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD), while in the 2019 European Parliament election it became the largest. [380] Bossi, who had not left the party, was selected by Salvini to lead the LN's list for the Senate in Varese,[381] but he was challenged also by Gianluigi Paragone, a former leghista who had switched to the Five Star Movement;[382] and Great North, a party launched by Bernardelli and Marco Reguzzoni. [37][315] From the left came also Marco Formentini, a long-time member of the left-wing of the Italian Socialist Party;[316] and Rosi Mauro, a trade unionist of the metal workers' section of the Italian Labour Union and later leader of the Padanian Trade Union (SinPa). Sa che governo M5s è calamità naturale" – Il Fatto Quotidiano", "Elezioni politiche 2018, i candidati a Varese: la Lega punta su Bossi al Senato – Il Giorno", "Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: House of Deputies 1996", "Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: Senate 1996", "Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: Chamber of Deputies 2008", "Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: European Parliament 2009", "::: Ministero dell'Interno ::: Archivio Storico delle Elezioni – Europee del 25 Maggio 2014", "Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: Regional elections 2010", "Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections", "Genova, esponenti di lega e fdi – Centrodestra, ecco l'accordo: Bucci candidato sindaco, ma è giallo su Balleari vice", Early 20th-century Italian political parties, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lega_Nord&oldid=1005778082, Member parties of the Identity and Democracy Party, Parties represented in the European Parliament, Articles with dead external links from December 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from July 2020, Articles containing explicitly cited English-language text, Articles needing additional references from August 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Chiudono +Europa e Verdi con il 2,1% e il computo delle altre liste con il 3,9). Bobo parla da leader. The matter was made part of a larger investigation by Italian authorities into the League's finances. [209] Roberto Biorcio, a political scientist, wrote: "The political commitment of Umberto Bossi was influenced by his encounter with Bruno Salvadori, leader of the Valdostan Union [...]. [27][28] However, contrary to what many pundits observed at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable political force. Bossi asked Maroni to negotiate an agreement with Massimo D'Alema, who had described Lega Nord as "a rib of the left". [324] The independentist wing crosses all the other factions and tendencies and in fact includes Borghezio and Francesco Speroni, among others. 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. [320][321][322] However, with the passing of time the party underwent a process of homogenisation. On that occasion, Maroni was very critical of Salvini in an interview with Il Foglio. 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. This is a short resume of the affiliations of leading party members:[327][328][329][330][331][332], 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. [109] However, the 2015 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%. [187][188][189], The original program of the party identified "federalist libertarianism" as ideology. In the aftermath of the fall of Romano Prodi's government in January 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organised by Berlusconi as The People of Freedom (PdL), now without the support of the UDC. Lega Nord's political culture is a mix of northern Italian pride or even Padanian nationalism, often with claims of a proud Celtic heritage; resentment of perceived southern Italian habits and Roman authorities; distrust of the Republic of Italy and especially its flag; and some support for the free market, anti-statism, anti-globalism and separatism or secessionism. The leaders of this group were Marco Reguzzoni (floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies) and Rosi Mauro. [297] She eventually left the League in 2014. [75] Maroni, who had already called for Belsito's resignation as early as in January, asked for his immediate replacement. In the 2018 Italian general election, no political group or party won an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament. [239][244], In foreign policy, the League has never had a particularly pro-United States stance, although it admires the American federal political system. In Emilia-Romagna, a left-wing heartland, the party has many former Communists in its ranks and many others have Communist upbringings. [340][341][342] Gian Paolo Gobbo and Luca 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 (see Liga Veneta#Factions). The combined result of party list (32.0%), Lucia Borgonzoni's personal list (1.7%) and "Youth for the Environment" formed by young. Lega Nord, which was first launched as an upgrade of Alleanza Nord in December 1989, was officially transformed into a party in February 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. [citation needed]. [269] 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. [95] Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election, Salvini started to cooperate with Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front; and Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom. On 13 September 1996, Bossi took a bottle of water from the springs of Po River (Latin: Padus, hence Padania), which was poured in the sea of Venice two days later as a symbolic act of birth of the new nation. [365][366] As leader of Liga Veneta, Tosi, who was ejected from Lega Nord in March 2015, was confronted by the Venetist and separatist wings of the regional party,[367] having in Zaia and Massimo Bitonci their leading members (see Liga Veneta#Factions). Boso: la Lega non è di destra | L'Indipendenza Nuova", "Tosi: non si può uscire dall'euro. First, there is a group of Christian democrats, most of whom are affiliated to the Padanian Catholics, founded by late Roberto Ronchi and currently led by Giuseppe Leoni. Leading members include Attilio Fontana (President of Lombardy), Luca Zaia (President of Veneto), Massimiliano Fedriga (President of Friuli-Venezia Giulia), Maurizio Fugatti (President of Trentino) and Donatella Tesei (President of Umbria). The League eventually settled on federalism, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties. [252][253][254] The League is also a staunch supporter of Israel. The party was affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe until 2006, when its members joined the European Democrat Group (EDG), a diverse group stretching from the British Conservative Party to United Russia. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators,[30] it became the fourth largest party of the country and within Parliament. [...] It is as Lombards, indeed, that we have a fundamental common goal in face of which our division in parties should fall behind". In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the newly formed cabinet led by Lamberto Dini, along with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left. 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". Despite this, the party has been home to some social liberals, namely Giancarlo Pagliarini, Rossana Boldi, Giovanna Bianchi Clerici[232] and to some extent Roberto Castelli. [186][187][188][189] Despite this, the party's constitution continues to declare that the independence of Padania is one of the party's final goal. As a result, the party suffered a huge setback at the 1999 European Parliament election in which it garnered a mere 4.5% of the vote. [211] According to a 1996 Abacus poll, 28.7% of LN voters identified as centrist, 26.3% as right-wingers and 22.1% as left-wingers. [287] Bossi endorsed the position. [312] In March 2017 the LN signed a cooperation protocol with United Russia.[181]. The party boasts historical references to the anti-imperialist Lombard League and Alberto da Giussano (stylised in the party's symbol), the hero of the wars against Frederick I Barbarossa. The LSP, whose statute had been published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale in December 2017[150] and had been described as a "parallel party",[151][152] might eventually replace both the LN and NcS, which would be merged into one. Five years later, the party obtained its best results so far in the 2018 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%). 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". In September 1996 in Venice, the party unilaterally proclaimed the independence of Padania at which time while reading the Padanian Declaration of Independence Bossi announced: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, We the peoples of Padania solemnly declare that Padania is an independent and sovereign federal republic. In agreement with the PdL,[65] Luca Zaia was candidate for President in Veneto[66] and Roberto Cota in Piedmont[67] in the 2010 regional elections while in the other Northern regions, including Lombardy, the League supported candidates of the PdL. The party's ideology is a combination of political federalism, fiscal federalism, regionalism and defense of northern Italian traditions. [142][143] As a result, very few maroniani were selected as candidates for the 2018 general election[379] and Fava was also excluded. The tensions between Salvini and Maroni culminated in latter's decision not to run for a second term as President of Lombardy in 2018. This evolution caused some criticism within party ranks and led to the formation of some minor breakaway groups. [361][362] In October, fearing a remake in Varese, his homeprovince, Bossi imposed his candidate, who was declared elected without a vote. Although it is no longer a member of the European Free Alliance, the party has ties with many regionalist parties around Europe, including left-wing parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia. The party thus fought the 1994 general election in alliance with Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) within the Pole of Freedoms coalition. 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. An additional member the LN was elected from Attilio Fontana's personal list, so the number of councilors actually decreased by 2. Gianni Fava (giunta Maroni) sfida il segretario al congresso", "Sfida Salvini-Fava su alleanze e Ue, la Lega elegge il suo segretario", "Maroni: "Fase lepenista conclusa, sbagliato disprezzare FI La Lega torni alle origini, "Maroni: "La Lega non-può stare a destra. © Investireoggi.it - Testata giornalistica registrata presso il Tribunale di Roma - Proprietario Investireoggi SRLs - Via Monte Cervialto 82 - 00139 Roma, Società iscritta al registro delle imprese di Roma – C.F./P.IVA 13240231004, Sondaggi politici SWG oggi 2 febbraio: la sinistra supera la destra, crollano Lega, FdI e Forza Italia, tutte le forze che hanno appoggiato il governo Conte bis, Sondaggi politici al 10 febbraio, tra i partiti domina la Lega, ma agli italiani piace Draghi, Sondaggi politici oggi 9 febbraio: con Draghi crollo delle sinistre e piace il nuovo Salvini europeista, Sondaggi politici all'8 febbraio: Lega sotto il 23%, Pd vicino, Sondaggi politici al 28 gennaio: Italia Viva in leggero rialzo, stabili Lega e Pd, Sondaggi politici al 21 gennaio: Italia Viva affonda, Pd e M5S in recupero, Sondaggi politici al 26 novembre: Lega e Pd ancora in flessione, Italia Viva subisce un doppio sorpasso, Sondaggi politici al 29 ottobre: Lega Nord stabile, cedono Pd e M5S, Sondaggi politici al 22 ottobre: balzo Pd che si avvicina alla Lega, male il M5S, Sondaggi politici al 12 ottobre: un’ipotetica Lista Conte sarebbe molto vicina a M5S e Pd, Sondaggi politici sulle elezioni regionali in Liguria: Toti verso la riconferma.