- In view of the European elections in May, the Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, has proposed building the league of European xenophobic parties. A conference was held in Milan on 4 April with a number of far-right parties, including JxCat. It remains to be seen whether French Marine Le Pen or Hungarian Viktor Orban, to mention two of the heavy weights, will support the proposal.
In Italy, it is two decades since right-wing populism became a political phenomenon. Umberto Bossi formed the Lega Nord in 1992, after the union of several autonomous movements of Iparralde. The scandal erupted when Milanese judge Di Pietro released evidence of the illegal financing of most Italian political parties. It was structured as a movement that claimed the sovereignty of the rich north of Italy from xenophobic theses.
At a time when corruption completely splintered with parties, the seriousness of the situation was a turning point in Italian politics. Added to this was the strengthening of the Mafia, which killed Judge Giovani Falcone and Judge Paolo Borselino that same year. Bossi created an excellent instrument to channel the indignation caused by instability. Nord. Lega Also businessman Silvio Berlsconi took advantage of the turbulent political situation. In a short time, both of them would have moved on to the front line of Italian politics.
Lega Nord de Bossi
While the party of the PCI Mas drowned in its contradictions, Bossi introduced a great novelty on the political stage. He was the young leader who spoke directly to the rhetoric coming from Rome. At first, the federalist ideal had become xenophobic and sovereign. Italy was a failed state and the south, in his own words, lived at the expense of the worker, the worker of the north. He added to the account of the chronic problem of the Mafia the “problem of migrants” of Naples and Sicily. On these false discriminatory bases, the Lega Nord began to claim the sovereignty of the territory known as Padania.
Salvini has achieved what Bossi never achieved: Institutionalization of xenophobia by the Government of Rome.
You want to achieve the same in Europe
To answer the questions raised by globalisation and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Legistas sought in southern Italy the Terronis, that is, the citizens who had come to work from Sicily, Calabria or Naples to the north of the country. Salvini is repeating with refugees and immigrants what Bossi did with them in 1992. Those who come from the other side of the Mediterranean are now responsible for all the ills.
Victory of Berlusconi in 1994
This juncture and an excellent communication strategy led Berlusconi to win the 1994 presidential elections. He needed Lega Nord to secure governance and avoid the left. Berlusconi was appointed President of Italy in exchange for a number of tax and xenophobic measures. The federalist and later independence movement, voluntarily or involuntarily, became the key to maintaining the status quo that the Transalpine country lived in, as did other European sovereign movements.
So he became an ally of Bossi Berlusconi. The scandal of her son's fake college titles and the ghost of the party's illegal funding caused her career to go away tambaleara.Se in 2012. Since the Milanese Roberto Maroni left the leadership of the party to prepare the Lombardy presidential elections in 2013, the leader of the populist movement is Matteo Salvini, who has become Italian Interior Minister.
De Lega Nord, Legara de Salvini
The arrival of Salvini has called into question some of the ideological foundations of Lega Nord. It has taken the step of electioneally extending the xenophobic discourse to southern Italy, where so many condemned have been condemned, changing course. The new name of the movement can be understood as a symbol of this change. The Lega Nord de Bossi has become the Lega de Salvini.
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They have replaced the Europeanism of the party with a direct attitude towards the European Union and have strongly criticised its departure. Those who, at the beginning of the adventure, proclaimed themselves as atheists, are today defined as defenders of Christian Europe and the traditional family. Last year’s elections have brought the Lega to the Italian Government, where it has been concentrated. Salvini has achieved what Bossi dreamed, beyond tactical support, has put in place measures against immigrants and minorities. In this work, the 5 Star Movement (M5S), which rules with him, helps him rather than being an obstacle. He now wants to achieve the same thing in Europe and is looking for Salvini as a travel partner.
Attacks on immigrants have tripled since the Lega came to power, according to data from the Commission of the Italian Parliament against Intolerance, Xenophobia and Racism. Despite the change of heads, xenophobia remains the same. Steve Bannon and company have chosen Salvini to try to gain control of the European Union in the May elections. The latest surveys show that the Italian legitists could be the first political force in Italian history. Meanwhile, apart from experiences like Potere al Popolo, the Italian left, which has historically had a crucial weight on the old continent, is about to disappear, out of occupied spaces and concrete struggles. Fascism is underway in Brussels and in some countries the left is not at all visible. Let some reflect on what it means not to be in the institutions, also in our people. The far-right is very clear.