Lombardy League, The

Italian regional political party, committed to federalism. It models itself on the 12th–13th century Lombard League. In 1993 it became the core of a new conservative-populist political grouping, the Northern League, led by Umberto Bossi, and fought the 1994 general election as part of the right-wing Freedom Alliance.

The Northern League eventually entered into a coalition government led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, but later left. Having founded a ‘parliament of the north’ in Mantua 1995, the League contested 1996 general election on a separatist platform, calling for the creation of an economically dominant Nordnazione, embracing Tuscany, Piedmont and Lombardy. In September 1996, on behalf of the Northern League, Bossi declared an independent state of Padania.