Northern League (Italy)
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The Northern League (Italian: Lega Nord) is an Italian political party which advocates autonomy for that part of Northern Italy which they call Padania. (See the article for usage of this geo-political term). It is a personality-driven party led by Umberto Bossi.
History
One of its principal precursors, the Lombard League, attained national significance in 1987 when its leader, Bossi, was elected to the Senate. Since then on he has commonly been referred to as the Senatur, the word for ‘senator’ in a number of northern dialects—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 Walter Girardi.
The party was formed in 1991 as a merger of the various regional movements (often named "league"), including the Lombard League (Lega lombarda) and the Liga Veneta. Support for the party skyrocketed in the early nineties because of the huge political corruption scandal known as Tangentopoli and the Mani pulite investigations.
In 1994 the Northern League, along with the post-fascist National Alliance, joined Forza Italia to form a coalition under Silvio Berlusconi. However this government was short-lived and the League was instrumental in its demise which occurred before the end of the year.
Having forced Berlusconi to resign, the Northern League attacked him vehemently and Umberto Bossi stated in a television interview that Berlusconi's fortune came from mafia sources[#endnote_mafia]. In 1996 the movement announced that its aim was the independence of Northern Italy under the name Padania, a name referring to the Po River valley, but which the Northern League 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).
In 2001 they re-joined forces with Berlusconi's coalition, previous disagreements notwithstanding. The league is currently the most loyal party to Berlusconi's government, except of course Berlusconi's own. Today, they hold 30 of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 of the 325 Senate seats.
In later years the League have deemphasised demands for independence, and focused rather on devolution, while remaining within the framework of Italy.
In February 2006, the Northern League 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 will present a joint list for the Italian general election, 2006 in the whole country.
In the European Parliament, its MEPs are part of the grouping Independence and Democracy.
Ideology
The league's culture is a mix of pride in the heritage of northern Italy (particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial Lombard League, the warrior figure on the party emblems belong to Alberto da Giussano, a mythical figure of wars against Barbarossa), distrust of southern Italians and especially of Roman authorities, often bordering on racism, xenophobia, including some support for free market economics, and independentism, hate for Italy and especially its flag, and claims of a Celtic heritage. The league has been often criticised, in Italy and abroad, for being too similar to a fascist party, having also organised a paramilitary group of "green shirts" (which carry no weapons).The Northern League has supported Slobodan Milošević[#endnote_slobo] and Jörg Haider[#endnote_haider].
Reasons for the Initial Success
Especially in the early years, it exploited resentment against Rome and the Italian government, common in northern Italy, because some northern Italians felt that the governments in Rome wasted resources collected with northern Italians' taxes.Discrimination against southern Italians, often dubbed terroni, and racism against immigrants were also exploited. The Lega Nord's successes began roughly when large numbers of dark-skinned immigrants began to be spotted 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 the federalism, that became rapidly a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties, with the exception of fascists and communists, which opposed it for respectively breaking up the fatherland (in the case of the former) and undermining cross-regional solidarity (in the case of the latter), especially important in Italy because of the wide economic divide between the rich north and the poorer south.
The party later moved on, in 1995, to open secessionism, declaring the splitting of Italy in three entities, named by Lega-Nord ideologist 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 Po (which in Latin is padus, giving background for the name 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.
Accusations of Racism
While the League leadership dismiss charges of racism, 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.[#endnote_bingo] Erminio Boso proposed to segregate immigrants in different train cars from native Italians.[#endnote_train] Umberto Bossi, in an interview, suggested opening fire on the boats of immigrants who would disembark in Italy [#endnote_boats], 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"[#endnote_slackers]. In June 2005, at a festival organised by the League, a banner inciting to "rape Pecoraro", (Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, secretary of the Federation of the Greens and openly bisexual) was exposed; the banner caused outcry, and was condemned by the League's leadership[#endnote_pecoraro].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[#endnote_arson].
Through the association Associazione Umanitaria Padana Onlus ("Onlus" Padanian Humanitarian Association), the Northern League 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. [#endnote_humanitarian].
Calderoli's T-shirt
In February 2006, great controversy surrounded the role of the League's Minister for Institutional Reforms, Roberto Calderoli. In the wake of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, vociferously defending the notion of freedom of press, Calderoli decided to defy the aggressive posture of anti-Danish Islamic fundamentalist groups by repeatedly wearing a T-shirt reproducing the controversial cartoons. Calderoli's uncompromising behaviour led to more international tension: protesting against his stance, and seeing it as part of official policy of the Italian government, Islamist rioters took to the streets of Bengasi, Libya, and assaulted the Italian consulate. Eleven people were killed by Libyan riot police attempting to fend off the assault. Calderoli, considered responsible for inflaming the tension, was forced to resign from Silvio Berlusconi's government.
Non-democratic means
In an interview that sparked considerable controversy, Umberto Bossi suggested the idea of pursuing non-democratic means in case a constitutional referendum, which would have granted a devolution, did not succeed. Criticism was unanimous from the Union, but also by the more moderate components of the House of Freedoms. [#endnote_nondem]Leading members
- Umberto Bossi
- Roberto Maroni, former minister of Labour
- Roberto Castelli, former minister of Justice
- Roberto Calderoli, former minister for Institutional Reforms and Devolution
2006 elections
In the 9-10 April 2006 general elections, the party was member of the defeated House of Freedoms and won together with the Movement for Autonomy 13 out of 315 senators and 26 out of 630 deputies.See also
Notes and references
- ↑ [Collection] of various insults from Umberto Bossi directed to Silvio Berlusconi, collected by Marco Travaglio. ()
- ↑ [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.
- ↑ [Collection of quotes] in support of Slobodan Milošević by various League leaders. ()
- ↑ [Bossi: the EU intervention is a grave error], from La Repubblica, February 3, 2000. ()
- ↑ [Milano, Bossi contro il prefetto "Niente case ai bingo bongo"]. La Repubblica, 4 December 2003, accessed 15 Aug 2005. ()
- ↑ Paolo Rumiz, [Sul "treno degli africani" Vagoni separati? No, grazie]. La Repubblica, 19 January 2003, accessed 15 Aug 2005. ()
- ↑ Giovanna Pajetta, [Bossi prende il cannone], accessed 15 Aug 2005 on a Geocities site that says it is reprinted from Il Manifesto, 17 June 2003. ()
- ↑ Emilio Marrese [Ramadan, sindaco nega lo spazio Benetton concede il palazzetto]. La Repubblica, 3 December 2002, accessed 15 Aug 2005.
- ↑ [Invitation to 'rape' Pecoraro on a banner at a League festival], article by La Repubblica. ()
- ↑ [Borghezio, the fire was willful], article by Il Gazzettino, September 6 2005. ()
- ↑ [Umanitaria Padana: in Darfur missione compiuta] ("Umanitaria Padana: in Darfur, mission completed"), article in La Padania, October 6 2005. ()
External links
- [Lega Nord] official site
- [La Padania] official party organ (newspaper)
- [Miss Padania] beauty pagent supported by Lega Nord
- [Movimento Giovani Padani] Lega Nord's youth movement
- [Associazione Umanitaria Padana Onlus] Humanitarian association
- [Padania (Lega Nord) Paper Money]
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