The Lega Nord in the second Berlusconi government: In a league of its own

Abstract

For regionalist populists like the Lega Nord, participation in coalition at national level requires striking a delicate balance between being a party of government and a movement of opposition. The key to this is choosing the right ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’ within government. In contrast to its previous time in power in 1994, in the second Berlusconi government (2001–05) the Lega cast itself as the Forza Italia leader's most faithful ally, while being seen to be in almost constant conflict with its fellow junior coalition partners: Alleanza Nazionale (AN) and the UDC. Indeed, as AN repositions itself within a respectable governmental ‘European’ Right, so the Lega appears ever more in a league of its own within the Italian centre-right. Based on exclusive recent interviews, this article examines the Lega's relationship to its heartland and its positions on issues such as immigration, Europe, globalisation and constitutional reform. We argue that the party has transformed itself into an ‘institutionalised’ populist movement that has successfully walked the tightrope of being seen to have ‘one foot in and one foot out’ of government.

Notes

We would like to thank Giancarlo Pagliarini, Gian Paolo Gobbo and Giancarlo Giorgetti for agreeing to be interviewed for this article. Pagliarini served until recently in the Milan municipal government and is an MP; Gobbo is an MEP, Mayor of Treviso and the leader of the Liga Veneta, a key regional branch of the Lega Nord; Giorgetti is an MP and leader of the Lega Lombarda, the most important regional branch of the party. He is considered the closest member of the Lega to Umberto Bossi and is a likely future leader of the party. The interviews were conducted as follows: Gobbo in Padua on 12 May 2004, Pagliarini in Rome on 13 May 2004 and Giorgetti in Milan on 25 June 2004.

1. To understand the scale of the disaster one should consider the following: out of 21 provincial capitals, the centre-left won all but 3 on the first ballot; furthermore, out of 231 municipalities, the centre-left gained 171 after the second round, with only 53 going to the centre-right.

2. Another ‘league’, the Lega dei Ticinesi in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, also found itself facing a similar dilemma after its initial success. On the ‘normalisation’ of the party following its participation in regional government, see Mazzoleni (1999).