Northern League Italy: Encyclopedia II - Northern League Italy - Ideology

Northern League Italy - 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The league's culture is a mix of pride in the heritage of northern Italy (particularly with historical references to the anti-imperial Lombard League), distrust of southern Italians and especially of Roman authorities, often bordering on racism, xenophobia, elements of Reaganomics, 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".

The Northern League has supported Slobodan Milošević^[2] and Jörg Haider^[3].

Northern League Italy - 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.

Northern League Italy - 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 motherland and undermining cross-regional solidarity, 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.

Northern League Italy - 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 with the same rights of ethnic Italians.^[4] Erminio Boso proposed to segregate immigrants in train cars different than for Italians. ^[5] Umberto Bossi, in an interview, suggested opening fire on the boats of immigrants who would disembark in Italy ^[6], 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"^[7]. 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^[8].

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^[9].

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. ^[10].

Northern League Italy - Leading members

• Umberto Bossi
• Roberto Maroni, minister of Labour
• Roberto Castelli, minister of Justice
• Roberto Calderoli, minister for Institutional Reforms and Devolution

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ideology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki