Amici fragili: the alliance between the Lega Nord and the Popolo della Libertà as seen by their representatives and members

Abstract

The alliance between the Lega Nord (LN) and Forza Italia (FI), later Popolo della Libertà (PDL), continued, uninterrupted, for over a decade, until November 2011. The problems that beset it under the fourth Berlusconi government are known; however, there is a lack of academic analysis of how such an alliance was seen and experienced by the people who made up the fabric of its constituent organisations. Based on interviews with institutional representatives and members from both parties, this article addresses the question of how people within them saw their ally and its leaders, and what they thought of the centre-right alliance under the fourth Berlusconi government. The analysis reveals that, although the LN's rhetoric, style and uncompromising stances on policy were the target of much criticism within the PDL, the latter nonetheless showed much respect for its ally, the way it was led, its ability to communicate effectively and its rootedness at the local level. However, LN members and representatives were, in turn, extremely critical of the PDL and its leader, and very much conceived of the alliance as a ‘marriage of convenience’. This notwithstanding, it is reasonable to expect that the PDL and the LN may find ways to rebuild their alliance in the future, if indeed the PDL continues to exist in its present form, due to their fundamental compatibility at the ideological level and their understanding of each other's priorities.

Keywords:

• Popolo della Libertà
• Lega Nord
• party members
• party representatives
• coalition government

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the Leverhulme Trust (Application ID: 20 761; Funder ref: F/00 094/AZ) for the financial support provided for this research and Davide Pellegrino for conducting some of the interviews mentioned in the text. The author is also very grateful to the many members and representatives of the PDL and LN who agreed to be interviewed for this study. This article forms part of a broader research project by the author and Duncan McDonnell, sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, which looks at populist success in government in Italy and Switzerland. A first draft of section 3 of this article was originally presented at the APSA conference 2010 as part of a paper jointly written with Duncan McDonnell. The author is grateful to all colleagues who offered comments on this occasion, as well as to Charlotte Ross and the anonymous referees of this journal for their feedback.

Notes

Notes

1. For the purposes of this study, I have analysed 11 elite interviews with LN representatives active at different levels of the party (from MEPs, MPs and senators down to city council representatives) and from three northern regions (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Piedmont), plus three one-to-one interviews and two group discussions (with, respectively, five and four participants) with party members from Veneto and Piedmont. As for the PDL, I rely on 17 elite interviews with party representatives active at different levels of the party (from MPs and senators to city council representatives). The higher number of interviewees is here justified by the need to cover both northern (specifically: Piedmont, Liguria, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) and southern regions (i.e. Puglia and Campania). I also make use of nine one-to-one interviews conducted with PDL members based in two northern and one southern region (Piedmont, Liguria and Campania) and one five-strong group discussion which took place in Piedmont. All interviews were conducted face-to-face, with the exception of five phone interviews with respondents based in the Campania region. Interviews were held between March 2009 and December 2010 (so they do not cover the most recent developments in one of the most damaging scandals in which Berlusconi has been involved, i.e. the beginning of the trial of the so-called ‘Ruby affair’). To set up the meetings, representatives’ offices were contacted directly by phone and email. Members were approached through snowballing, with the help of their parties: after first contact by phone, emails were sent out and snowball chains developed with those who agreed to be interviewed. Although there was no attempt to conduct interviews with a statistically representative sample (as is often the case – see Klandermans and Mayer 2006), respondents were selected who were diverse in terms of variables such as political background, gender, age (and, in the case of the members, occupation too). Interviews were conducted by Duncan McDonnell and Davide Pellegrino, phone interviews by me: they lasted about an hour and followed the same interview scheme. The analysis of transcripts was conducted with Nvivo 8. Finally, while the names of representatives are mentioned in the paper alongside their roles at the time of interview, those of the members have been anonymised.

2. These tables alone do not demonstrate that the extra votes gained by the LN are those the PDL has lost; however, studies published after these elections provide ample proof of this (Istituto Cattaneo 2008, 2010; Bordignon and Porcellato 2008).

3. According to PDL sources, in November 2011 the party had gained well over a million members in the first ever member recruitment campaign (‘ Il PDL di “plastica”? Oltre un milione di iscritti’, F. de Feo, Il Giornale, 2 November 2011). To put this in perspective, according to official figures the largest constituent member of the PDL (as far as members were concerned), i.e. AN, was able to count on almost 600,000 members in 2004. These figures would have made it the second largest party in the country at the time, more than three times the size of FI two years later, as far as membership figures were concerned (Ignazi, Bardi, and Massari 2010, 201).

4. Academic analyses of the LN propaganda have confirmed how radical the party's language can be on this theme (e.g. Avanza 2010).

5. As Lorenzo Fontana (a LN city councillor from Verona) put it ‘basically the grassroots would not mind a few more words against Berlusconi [by Bossi] once in a while’.

6. The leghisti enjoy many opportunities to meet up, take part in party activities and talk to their representatives at all levels; however, to what extent they can influence the strategy and day-to-day tactics of a very centralised party such as the LN is very debatable. Importantly, however, they strongly believe their party to be more open to the contribution of the grassroots than the PDL, and are aware of the importance of their proselytising and campaigning activities.

7. This is a reference to former Minister Claudio Scajola, who resigned in May 2010 following the start of an investigation into allegations that one of his flats had been bought with slush funds made available by a property developer who had been accused of corrupting public officials. Scajola famously declared that he did not know that the house had been paid for by this individual.