Centre-right coalition (1994 and 2000–present) Lega (since 2020)
European affiliation
EFA (1989–1994)
ELDR (1994–1997)
EAF (2013–2014)[17][18]
IDP (2014–present)[19]
European Parliament group
Rainbow (1989–1994)
ELDR (1994–1997)
TGI (1999–2001)
I/D (2004–2007)
UEN (2007–2009)
EFD (2009–2014)
ENF (2015–2019)
ID (2019–present)
Associate party
Lega per Salvini Premier
Colours
Green
Website
www.leganord.org
Politics of Italy
Political parties
Elections
Lega Nord (LN; English: Northern League), whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (English: Northern League for the Independence of Padania), is a right-wing, federalist, populist and conservative political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as Lega (lit.'League'), without changing its official name. The party was nonetheless frequently referred to only as "Lega" even before the rebranding, and informally as the Carroccio (lit.'big chariot'). The party's latest elected leader was Matteo Salvini.[20]
In 1989, the LN was established as a federation of six regional parties from northern and north-central Italy (Liga Veneta, Lega Lombarda, Piemont Autonomista, Uniun Ligure, Lega Emiliano-Romagnola and Alleanza Toscana), which became the party's founding "national" sections in 1991. The party's founder and long-time federal secretary was Umberto Bossi, now federal president. The LN has advocated the transformation of Italy from a unitary to a federal state, fiscal federalism, regionalism and greater regional autonomy, especially for northern regions. At times, the party has advocated the secession of northern Italy, which the party has referred to as "Padania", and, thus, Padanian nationalism. The party has always opposed illegal immigration and often adopted Eurosceptic stances, lately joining the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament.
Since 31 January 2020, through a mandate given by the federal council, the party has been managed by commissioner Igor Iezzi. The LN was thus eclipsed by the Lega per Salvini Premier (LSP), until that moment active as the central and southern Italian branch of the party established by Salvini himself in the 2010s, and since 2020 throughout entire Italy.[21] Following the emergence of LSP, the original LN is practically inactive and its former "national" sections (Lega Lombarda, Liga Veneta, etc.) have become "regional" sections of the LSP.
^G. Passarelli – D. Tuorto, Lega & Padania. Storie e luoghi delle camicie verdi, il Mulino [fr; it].
^
Spektorowski, Alberto (March 2003). "Ethonregionalism: The Intellectual New Right and the Lega Nord" (PDF). The Global Review of Ethnopolitics. 2 (3–4): 55–70. doi:10.1080/14718800308405144. S2CID 144243976. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
Huysseune, Michel (2006). Modernity and Secession: The Social Sciences and the Political Discourse of the Lega Nord in Italy. Berghahn Books. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-84545-061-8.
Betz, Hans-Georg (1998). Against Rome: The Lega Nord. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-312-21338-1. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^
Cotta, Maurizio; Verzichelli, Luca (2007). Political Institutions in Italy. Oxford University Press. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-0-19-928470-2. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
Fitjar, Rune Dahl (2010). The Rise of Regionalism: Causes of Regional Mobilisation in Western Europe. Routledge. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-203-87083-9.
Giordano, Benito (May 2000). "Italian regionalism or 'Padanian' nationalism — the political project of the Lega Nord in Italian politics". Political Geography. 19 (4): 445–471. doi:10.1016/S0962-6298(99)00088-8.
^
Zaslove, Andrej (2011). The Re-invention of the European Radical Right. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 101.
"Italian watchdog blocks Salvini's attempt to put 'mother and father' on kids' ID cards". The Local. 16 November 2018.
"Italy's Salvini asserts 'natural family' in move against same-sex parents". Reuters. 10 August 2018.
^Lega has been characterized as populist or right-wing populist by many sources:
Albertazzi, Daniele; McDonnell, Duncan; Newell, James L. (July 2011). "Di lotta e di governo: The Lega Nord and Rifondazione Comunista in office" (PDF). Party Politics. 17 (4): 471–487. doi:10.1177/1354068811400523. S2CID 144328220.
Tarchi, Marco (2008). "Recalcitrant Allies: The Conflicting Foreign Policy Agenda of the Alleanza Nazionale and the Lega Nord". In Schori Liang, Christina (ed.). Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right (1st ed.). London: Routledge. p. 187. doi:10.4324/9781315580821. ISBN 978-0-7546-4851-2.
Chaintera-Stutte, Patricia (2005). "Leadership, Ideology and Anti-European Politics in the Italian Lega Nord". In Daniele Caramani; Yves Mény (eds.). Challenges to Consensual Politics: Democracy, Identity, and Populist Protest in the Alpine Region. Peter Lang. p. 120. ISBN 978-90-5201-250-6.
Gold, Thomas W. (2003). The Lega nord and contemporary politics in Italy (illustrated ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780312296315. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
Zaslove, Andrej (2011). The Re-invention of the European Radical Right: Populism, Regionalism, and the Italian Lega Nord. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-7735-3851-1.
Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Italy". Parties and Elections in Europe.
Gold, Thomas W. (2003). The Lega Nord and Contemporary Politics in Italy. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 2, 4–5. ISBN 978-0-312-29631-5.
Ruzza, Carlo; Fella, Stefano (2009), Re-inventing the Italian Right: Territorial politics, populism and 'post-fascism', Routledge, p. 1, ISBN 978-1-134-28634-8
^Verney, Susannah (March 2011). "Euroscepticism in Southern Europe: A Diachronic Perspective". South European Society and Politics. 16 (1): 1–29. doi:10.1080/13608746.2010.570124.
^Huysseune, Michel (2003). "Deconstructing and Reconstructing Loyalty: The Case of Italy". In Andrew Linklater; Michael Waller (eds.). Political Loyalty and the Nation-State. Routledge. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-134-20143-3.
^Giordano, Benito (2000). "Italian regionalism or 'Padanian' nationalism — the political project of the Lega Nord in Italian politics". Political Geography. 19 (4): 445–471. doi:10.1016/S0962-6298(99)00088-8.
^Zaslove, Andrej (8 December 2023). The Re-invention of the European Radical Right. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773538511. JSTOR j.ctt80mgd.
^Giordano, Benito (8 December 2023). "The Contrasting Geographies of 'Padania': The Case of the Lega Nord in Northern Italy". Area. 33 (1): 27–37. doi:10.1111/1475-4762.00005. JSTOR 20004121.
^Bull, A.; Gilbert, M. (2001). The Lega Nord and the Politics of Secession in Italy (illustrated ed.). Springer. ISBN 978-1-4039-1998-4. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
^Sorens, Jason (2012). "Appendix I". Secessionism: Identity, Interest, and Strategy. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. pp. 180–181. ISBN 978-0-7735-3896-2.
^
Zaslove, Andrej (4 August 2011). The Re-invention of the European Radical Right: Populism, Regionalism, and the Italian Lega Nord. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. ISBN 9780773586109 – via Google Books.
Mucci, Raffaele De (1 August 2013). Democrazia dissociativa. Rubbettino Editore. ISBN 9788849837971 – via Google Books.
"Blog – Breve riflessione sul liberalismo italiano". Il Fatto Quotidiano. 13 August 2013.
^
Greene, Megan (2003). "A Case Study of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Lega Nord (LN)". The Dollfuss/Schuschnigg Era in Austria. Transaction Publishers. p. 199.
^Lega has been described as a right-wing party by these sources:
"European right-wing comes of age". topconservativenews.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
Hawley, Charles (14 April 2014). "European Far Right Developing Closer Ties with Moscow". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
"Right-wing populists on the rise". Eurotopics.net. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
^Lega has been described as a far-right party by these sources:
"Italy's Lega Nord: Changing Poses in a Shifting National and European landscape" (PDF). Michael Longo. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2018.
La Lega di Salvini. Estrema destra di governo. 2018.
"posizionandosi all'estrema destra". De Giorgi. 2018.
"Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper Series" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2018.
"How Matteo Salvini pulled Italy to the far right". The Guardian. 9 August 2018.
"The far right in Italy is blocked but not banished". The Guardian. 26 September 2019.
"The impact of COVID-19 on the Italian far right: The rise of Brothers of Italy". Brookings. 30 November 2020.
^"Lega Nord formerly switches to new Le Pen/Wilders Alliance". 29 May 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
^"Eaf: Il Manifesto di Marine Le Pen". polisblog.it (in Italian). 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
^"National delegations". MENL. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
^"Padania addio, la Lega adesso è il partito personale di Salvini" [Goodbye Padania, the League is now Salvini's personal party]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 21 May 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
^"Addio Lega nord: Salvini chiude con il passato e lancia nuova sfida". ilGiornale.it. 31 January 2020.
LegaNord (LN; English: Northern League), whose complete name is LegaNord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (English: Northern League for the Independence...
region encompassing Northern and, to some extent, part of central Italy. LegaNord, a federation of regional parties of Northern Italy, proclaimed the formation...
Cisalpine Gaul, the term was popularized beginning in the early 1990s, when LegaNord, a federalist and, at times, separatist political party in Italy, proposed...
Infrastructure and Transport since 2022. He has been Federal Secretary of Italy's LegaNord (Northern League) party since December 2013 and an Italian senator since...
Confederation) in 1921, which founded in Milan the LegaNord (Northern Football League), ancestor of present-day Lega Serie A. When CCI teams rejoined the FIGC...
LegaNord: Liga Veneta, Lega Lombarda, Lega Piemonte, Lega Vallée d'Aoste, Lega Trentino, Lega Alto Adige Südtirol, Lega Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lega Emilia...
one of the founding "national" sections of LegaNord (LN) in 1991 and has been the regional section of Lega per Salvini Premier (LSP) in Lombardy since...
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FIGC. Earlier still before, the first football league in Italy was the LegaNord (Northern League), which was composed of the major clubs of Northern Italy...
joined the European People's Party through The People of Freedom, and LegaNord was supportive of a "Europe of Regions". After the 2009 European elections...
Parliament election where LegaNord exceeded the Five Star Movement, and the increase of the tension between the political parties, LegaNord proposed a no-confidence...
competence. A further federalist reform was proposed by the regionalist party LegaNord and in 2005, the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi proposed...
since 1994, was the first federal coordinator. The current leaders of LegaNord and Lega Lombarda, Matteo Salvini and Paolo Grimoldi, were previously leaders...
(born 19 September 1941) is an Italian politician and former leader of LegaNord (Northern League), a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern...
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Divisione Nazionale. 17 teams from LegaNord (Northern League) were admitted to the new Championship along with 3 teams from Lega Sud (Southern League) for 20...
serving as a Member of the European Parliament for LegaNord since 2023. In April 2024 she left LegaNord and joined to Fratelli d’Italia. "Home | Maria Veronica...
group in the Congo Lega language, the language of the Lega people Lega (political party), Italian party established in 2017 LegaNord, Italian political...
The 2013 LegaNord leadership election took place in November–December 2013. In September 2013 Roberto Maroni, who had been secretary of the party for...
founded by Matteo Salvini on 19 December 2014, was the sister party of LegaNord (LN) for southern Italy, Lazio, and Sardinia (where the LN regional section...
coalition called Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government, composed of LegaNord, National Alliance, Christian Democratic Centre and Union of the Centre...