Secretary Paolo Grimoldi Founded 12 April 1984 Membership unknown | President Giancarlo Giorgetti Newspaper none Ideology Federalism
Regionalism | |
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Lega Lombarda ("Lombard League", LL), whose complete name is Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord ("Lombard League–Northern League"), is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy.
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Lega Lombarda is one of the national sections of Lega Nord and, along with Liga Veneta, it constitutes the bulk of the federal party. Its main members include Matteo Salvini (federal secretary of Lega Nord), Roberto Maroni (President of Lombardy), Umberto Bossi, Roberto Calderoli, Giancarlo Giorgetti, Gian Marco Centinaio, Francesco Speroni and Roberto Castelli.
The party is currently led by Paolo Grimoldi as national secretary and Giorgetti as national president.
History
Lega Lombarda was officially founded on 12 April 1984 by Umberto Bossi, who used the resonance of the name of the historical Lega Lombarda when choosing the name. Originally Lega Autonomista Lombarda (Lombard Autonomist League, LAL), the party took the current name in 1986. At its electoral debut in the 1987 general election, Lega Lombarda gained 2.6% of the vote in Lombardy. Bossi was elected to the Senate and Giuseppe Leoni to the Chamber of Deputies.
The party participated to the 1989 European Parliament election as the leading member of the coalition Lega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord (8.1% in Lombardy and two MEPs elected). In 1989–1990 it took part in the process of federating the Northern regionalist parties, ahead of the regional elections. In February 1991 it merged into Lega Nord and since then it has been the "national" (hence, regional) section of Lega Nord in Lombardy.
In 1993 Luigi Negri took over as secretary. In 1995 he defected to the Federalist Italian League and was replaced as secretary by Roberto Calderoli, who, as president, had evicted him from the party, despite being his brother-in-law. Calderoli led the party to its best result up to that point in the 1996 general election, when it gained 25.5%.
In 2002 Calderoli was replaced by Giancarlo Giorgetti, while Roberto Castelli became president.
In the 2010 regional election the party gained 26.2%, its best result ever.
The LL elected its new leadership at a congress on 1–2 June 2012. Matteo Salvini ran as candidate of the faction around Roberto Maroni, while Cesarino Monti was the candidate of the old guard and of Bossi's loyalists. Salvini won the election with 74% of the votes, that is to say the support of 403 delegates out of 532. Soon after, Giorgetti was appointed national president.
On 1 July 2012 Maroni was elected federal secretary of Lega Nord by its federal congress. The Lombard delegates elected also six members to the federal council: Giacomo Stucchi (who was appointed deputy federal secretary by Maroni), Paolo Grimoldi, Andrea Mascetti, Gianni Fava, Simona Bordonali, and, on behalf of the minority, Marco Desiderati.
In the 2013 regional election Maroni was elected President of Lombardy with 42.8% of the vote.
In November 2013 Salvini succeeded to Maroni as Lega Nord's federal secretary and, later on, he appointed a federal commissioner, Stefano Borghesi, to fill the post. Borghesi was later replaced by Grimoldi. In November 2015 Grimoldi was elected national secretary of the party.
Popular support
The party has its stongholds in the northern and mountain provinces of Lombardy. In the 2010 regional election it won 30.0% in Varese, 28.2% in Pavia, 33.3% in Como, 28.2% in Lecco, 42.4% in Sondrio, 36.9% in Bergamo and 30.1% in Brescia.
The electoral results of Lega Lombarda in the region since 1990 are shown in the table below.