Between continuity and innovation. The Rise of the Lombard League-Northern League through the papers of its political archive (1984-1992)

Journal title ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA
Author/s Ciro Dovizio
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/304
Language Italian Pages 27 P. 86-112 File size 208 KB
DOI 10.3280/IC2024-304004
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The article aims to reread the emergence of the Lombard League-Northern League in the Italian political system, investigating its ideological and organizational development processes from its origins to the threshold of Tangentopoli (1984-92). Through the analysis of a multiplicity of sources (unpublished archival documents, articles from the party newspaper “Lombardia autonomista” and the coeval press, self-representations of Leghist leaders, and secondary literature), it is shown how under the leadership of Umberto Bossi the Lombard League first and the Northern League later placed the most traditional instrument of Italian democracy, namely the party, at the service of an innovative political proposal and communication. Thus, the intertwining in the Lega’s political action of innovation and continuity, of radical questioning of the themes, language and alignments of the “first” Republic, through a regionalist-federalist line and critique of state centralism, and of the construction of a political machine very similar to traditional parties in terms of militant and ideological spirit, organization, social settlement, and support of associations and collateral bodies, is noted.

Keywords: Lombard League, Northern League, Party, first Republic, Umberto Bossi

Ciro Dovizio, Tra continuità e innovazione. L’ascesa della Lega Lombarda-Lega Nord attraverso le carte del suo archivio politico (1984-1992) in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 304/2024, pp 86-112, DOI: 10.3280/IC2024-304004