Lega Nord

File:Umberto Bossi, Pontida, 1990.jpg at the first rally in Pontida, 1990]]

At the 1983 general election, Liga Veneta ("Venetian League", based in Veneto) elected a deputy, Achille Tramarin; and a senator, Graziano Girardi. At the 1987 general election, another regional party, Lega Lombarda ("Lombard League", based in Lombardy) gained national prominence when its leader Umberto Bossi was elected to the Italian Senate. The two parties, along with other regionalist outfits, ran as Alleanza Nord ("Northern Alliance") during the 1989 European Parliament election, gaining 1.8% of the vote.

Lega Nord, which was first launched as a reform of Alleanza Nord in December 1989, was officially established as a party in February 1991 through the merger of various regional parties, notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta. These continue to exist as "national sections" of the main party, which presents itself in regional and local contests as "Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord", "Liga Veneta–Lega Nord", "Lega Nord–Piemont" and so on.{{cite book |first1=Pietro |last1=Ignazi |title=Partiti politici in Italia |year=2008 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |page=88}}{{cite book |first1=Paul |last1=Ginsborg |title=L'Italia del tempo presente |year=1996 |publisher=Einaudi |location=Turin |pages=336–337, 534–535}}{{cite book |first1=Giorgio |last1=Galli |title=I partiti politici italiani |year=2001 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=379–380, 384}}

The foundational inspiration for the original regional parties and the unified party was the medieval political alliance of northern Italy known as the Lombard League (1167–1250), the consciousness that the northern ethnicities of the Italian peninsula are descendants of Gaulish and Lombardic populations — historically, northern Italians were called "Lombards" and the entire northern portion of the peninsula was called "Lombardy" —, and that they are ethnically different from the Greco-Roman population of the central-southern half of the peninsula ("Italy" proper).{{cite journal|title=Come si chiama questa Terra?|url=https://archivio.associazionegilbertooneto.org/ARCHIVIO/PDF/Quad_02.pdf|author=Gilberto Oneto|journal=Quaderni Padani|number=2|year=1995}}{{cite journal|title=La "Terra di Mezzo". Il recupero del celtismo padano|url=https://archivio.associazionegilbertooneto.org/ARCHIVIO/PDF/Quad_02.pdf|author=Maurizio Montagna|journal=Quaderni Padani|number=2|year=1995}} The Lega Nord party conveyed resentment against Rome's centralism and the Italian government (epitomised by the popular slogan Roma Ladrona, meaning "Rome the Big Thief"), common in northern Italy as many northerners felt that the government wasted resources collected mostly from northerners' taxes, especially for sustaining the economies of Rome and southern Italy.{{cite book |first1=Paolo |last1=Rumiz |title=La secessione leggera. Dove nasce la rabbia del profondo Nord |year=2001 |publisher=Feltrinelli |location=Milan |pages=10–13}} Resentment against illegal immigrants was also exploited. The party's electoral successes began approximately at a time when public disillusionment with the established political parties was at its height: the Tangentopoli corruption scandals, which involved most of the established parties, broke out from 1992 onwards. Contrary to what many pundits observed at the beginning of the 1990s, Lega Nord became a stable political force in the Italian political scene.

Lega Nord's first electoral breakthrough was at the 1990 regional elections, but it was with the 1992 general election that the party emerged as a leading political actor. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators,{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Parenzo |first2=Davide |last2=Romano |title=Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=263–266}} it became the fourth largest party of the country and within the Italian Parliament. In 1993, Marco Formentini (a left-wing member of the party) was elected mayor of Milan, the party won 49.3% in the provincial election of Varese{{cite book |first1=Pietro |last1=Ignazi |title=Partiti politici in Italia |year=2008 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |page=90}} and by the end of the year—before Silvio Berlusconi launched his own political career and party—it was estimated around 16–18% in electoral surveys (half of that support was later siphoned by Berlusconi).{{cite book |first1=Ilvo |last1=Diamanti |author-link=Ilvo Diamanti |title=Bianco, rosso, verde... e azzurro |year=2003 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |page=67}}

{{More citations needed section|date=August 2019}}In early 1994, some days before the announcement of the Bossi–Berlusconi pact which led to the formation of the Pole of Freedoms, Roberto Maroni, Bossi's number two, signed an agreement with Mario Segni's centrist Pact for Italy, which was later cancelled.{{cite book |first1=Giorgio |last1=Galli |title=I partiti politici italiani |year=2001 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=394–395}}{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=79–82}}

The party thus fought the 1994 general election in alliance with Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) within the Pole of Freedoms coalition. Lega Nord gained just 8.4% of the vote, but thanks to a generous division of candidacies in Northern single-seats constituencies its parliamentary representation was almost doubled to 117 deputies and 56 senators.{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Parenzo |first2=Davide |last2=Romano |title=Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=267–273}} The position of President Chamber of Deputies was thus given to a LN member, Irene Pivetti, a young woman hailing from the Catholic faction of the party.

After the election, the League joined FI, National Alliance (AN) and the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD) to form a coalition government under Berlusconi and the party obtained five ministries in Berlusconi's first cabinet: Interior for Roberto Maroni (who was also Deputy Prime Minister), Budget for Giancarlo Pagliarini, Industry for Vito Gnutti, European affairs for Domenico Comino and Institutional Reforms for Francesco Speroni. However, the alliance with Berlusconi and the government itself were both short-lived: the latter collapsed before the end of the year, with the League being instrumental in its demise.

The last straw was a proposed pension reform, which would have hurt some of the key constituencies of the LN, but the government was never a cohesive one and relations among coalition partners, especially those between the LN and the centralist AN, were quite tense all the time. When Bossi finally decided to withdraw from the government in December, Maroni vocally disagreed and walked out.

In January 1995, the League gave a vote of confidence to the newly formed cabinet led by Lamberto Dini, along with the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Party of the Left. This caused several splinter groups to leave the party, including the Federalist Party (which was actually founded in June 1994) of Gianfranco Miglio, the Federalists and Liberal Democrats of Franco Rocchetta, Lucio Malan and Furio Gubetti{{cite news |first=Gianna |last=Fregonara |title=Maroni e Bossi vanno alla conta |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1995/gennaio/09/Maroni_Bossi_vanno_alla_conta_co_0_9501094060.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=9 January 1995}} and the Federalist Italian League of Luigi Negri and Sergio Cappelli. All these groups later merged into FI while a few other MPs, including Pierluigi Petrini, floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies, joined the centre-left. By 1996, a total of 40 deputies and 17 senators had left the party while Maroni had instead returned to the party's fold after months of coldness with Bossi.{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=94–999}}

Between 1995 and 1998, Lega Nord joined centre-left governing coalitions in many local contexts, notably including the Province of Padua to the city of Udine.

{{Main|Padanian nationalism|Padanian Declaration of Independence}}

{{Further|Lega Nord#1997 Padanian Parliament election}}{{More citations needed section|date=August 2019}}

After a big success at the 1996 general election, its best result so far (10.1%, 59 deputies and 27 senators),{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Parenzo |first2=Davide |last2=Romano |title=Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=273–276}} Lega Nord announced that it wanted the secession of northern Italy under the name of Padania. On 13 September 1996, Bossi took an ampoule of water from the springs of the Po River (called Padus in Latin, whence "Padania"), which was poured into the sea of Venice two days later as a symbolic act of birth of the new nation. The Po River was deified by the party (Dio Po, "Po God") and the "Ampoule Rite" was conducted as a yearly Pagan rite by the party's leaders until the 2010s; in its early phase, the party supported a Celtic Druidic form of religion against Roman Catholicism and some party leaders married with Druidic rites. The party gave "Padania", previously referring to the Po Valley, a broader meaning covering entire Northern Italy that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers. The party even organised a referendum on independence and elections for a Padanian Parliament.

The years between 1996 and 1998 were particularly good for the League, which was the largest party in many provinces of northern Italy and was able to prevail in single-seat constituencies and provincial elections by running alone against both the centre-right and the centre-left. The party also tried to expand its reach through a number of Padanian-styled associations and media endeavours (under the supervision of Davide Caparini), notably including La Padania daily, Il Sole delle Alpi weekly, the Lega Nord Flash periodical, the TelePadania TV channel, the Radio Padania Libera and the Bruno Salvadori publishing house.

However, after the 1996 election, which Lega Nord had fought outside the two big coalitions, the differences between those who supported a new alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini and more) and those who preferred to enter Romano Prodi's Olive Tree (Marco Formentini, Irene Pivetti and others) re-emerged. A total of 15 deputies and 9 senators left the party to join either centre-right or centre-left parties.{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=120–121}} Pivetti left a few months after the election.{{cite news |title=Pivetti: sono disgustata. Ci riprovo da sola |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1996/settembre/14/Pivetti_sono_disgustata_riprovo_sola_co_0_9609149762.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=14 September 1996}} Comencini left in 1998 to launch Liga Veneta Repubblica{{cite news |first=Marisa |last=Fumagalli |title=Rinasce la 'Liga Veneta Repubblica' |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/ottobre/05/Rinasce_Liga_Veneta_Repubblica__co_0_9810052496.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=5 October 1998}} with the mid-term goal of joining forces with FI in Veneto.{{cite news |first=Enrico |last=Caiano |title=Patto Liga – Forza Italia: "Sovranita' ai veneti" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/agosto/04/Patto_Liga_Forza_Italia_Sovranita_co_0_9908042271.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=4 August 1999}} Gnutti and Comino were expelled in 1999 after they had formed local alliances with the centre-right.{{cite news |first=Fabio |last=Cavalera |title=Lega, la "polveriera" puo' esplodere |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/luglio/18/Lega_polveriera_puo_esplodere_co_0_9907184550.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=18 July 1999}}{{cite news |first=Enrico |last=Caiano |title=Gnutti: sì, lavoro a un nuovo Carroccio che punti al federalismo |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/luglio/28/Gnutti_lavoro_nuovo_Carroccio_che_co_0_9907285615.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=26 July 1999}} Formentini also left in 1999 in order to join Prodi's Democrats.{{cite news |first=Enrico |last=Caiano |title=Formentini: Umberto ha sbagliato |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/luglio/26/Formentini_Umberto_sbagliato_co_0_9907265286.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=26 July 1999}}{{cite news |first=Fabio |last=Cavalera |title=Formentini: Bossi sbaglia, Lega addio |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/settembre/25/Formentini_Bossi_sbaglia_Lega_addio_co_0_9909256175.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=25 September 1999}}

As a result, the party suffered a huge setback at the 1999 European Parliament election in which it garnered a mere 4.5% of the vote. Since then, the League de-emphasised demands for independence in order to rather focus on devolution and federal reform, paving the way for a return to coalition politics.

File:Umberto Bossi 1994.jpg

After the defeat at the 1999 European Parliament election, senior members of the party thought it was not possible to achieve anything if the party continued to stay outside the two big coalitions. Some, including Maroni, who despite 1994–1995 row with Bossi had always been left-leaning in the heart, preferred an alliance with the centre-left. Bossi asked Maroni to negotiate an agreement with Massimo D'Alema, who had described Lega Nord as "a rib of the left". These talks were successful and Maroni was indicated as the joint candidate for President of Lombardy for the 2000 regional election. Despite this, Bossi decided instead to approach Berlusconi, who was the front-runner in the upcoming 2001 general election.{{cite book |first1=Giorgio |last1=Galli |title=I partiti politici italiani |year=2001 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=432–433}}{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=122–127, 307–312}} The centre-right coalition won the 2000 regional elections and the League entered the regional governments of Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont and Liguria.

One year later, Lega Nord was part of Berlusconi's House of Freedoms in the 2001 general election. According to its leader, the alliance was a "broad democratic arch, composed of the democratic right, namely AN, the great democratic centre, namely Forza Italia, CCD and CDU, and the democratic left represented by the League, the New PSI, the PRI and, at least I hope so, Cossiga".{{cite web |author=Di Stefano Marroni |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2001/01/25/polo-lo-sgarbo-di-bossi.html |title=Polo, lo sgarbo di Bossi – la Repubblica.it |language=it |website=la Repubblica |date=25 January 2001 |access-date=2 April 2016}}{{cite web |author=QuestIT s.r.l. |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2001/gennaio/25/Debutta_arco_democratico_Martusciello_anti_co_8_010125309.shtml |title=Archivio Corriere della Sera |website=Corriere della Sera |access-date=2 April 2016}}

The coalition won handily the election, but the LN was further reduced to 3.9% while being returned in Parliament thanks to the victories scored by the League members in single-seat constituencies. In 2001–2006, although severely reduced in its parliamentary representation, the party controlled three key ministries: Justice with Roberto Castelli, Labour and Social affairs with Roberto Maroni and Institutional Reforms and Devolution with Umberto Bossi (replaced by Roberto Calderoli in June 2004). In March 2004, Bossi suffered a stroke that led many to question over the party's survival, but that ultimately confirmed Lega Nord's strength due to a very organised structure and a cohesive set of leaders.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

In government, the LN was widely considered the staunchest ally of Berlusconi and formed the so-called "axis of the North" along with FI (whose strongholds included Lombardy and Veneto as well as Sicily) through the special relationship between Bossi, Berlusconi and Giulio Tremonti while AN and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), the party emerged from the merger of the CCD and the CDU in late 2002, became the natural representatives of Southern interests.{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2003/giugno/10/Maggioranza_alla_prova_della_verifica_co_0_030610015.shtml |title=Archivio Corriere della Sera |website=Corriere della Sera |access-date=2 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2003/giugno/12/Non_vanno_piu_bene_romani_co_0_030612017.shtml |title=Archivio Corriere della Sera |website=Corriere della Sera |access-date=2 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2003/settembre/10/centristi_puntano_piedi_sul_Mezzogiorno_co_0_030910007.shtml |title=Archivio Corriere della Sera |website=Corriere della Sera |access-date=2 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/gennaio/27/ultima_trincea_dell_Udc_contro_co_9_040127035.shtml |title=Archivio Corriere della Sera |website=Corriere della Sera |access-date=2 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/giugno/19/Contro_accerchiamento_Resiste_asse_del_co_9_040619051.shtml |title=Archivio Corriere della Sera |website=Corriere della Sera |access-date=2 April 2016}}

During the five years in government with the centre-right, the Parliament passed an important constitutional reform, which included federalism and more powers for the Prime Minister. The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy (MpA) and the Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az) for the 2006 general election was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected in the 2006 constitutional referendum.{{Cite web | url=https://elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=F&dtel=25/06/2006&tpa=Y&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S | title=Dipartimento per gli Affari Interni e Territoriali}}

{{More citations needed section|date=August 2019}}In the aftermath of the fall of Romano Prodi's government in January 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organised by Berlusconi as The People of Freedom (PdL), now without the support of the UDC. Lega Nord ran the election in coalition with the PdL and the MpA, gaining a stunning 8.3% of the vote (+4.2pp) and obtaining 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13).

Following this result, since May 2008 the party was represented in Berlusconi's fourth cabinet by four ministers (Roberto Maroni, Interior; Luca Zaia, Agriculture; Umberto Bossi, Reforms and Federalism; and Roberto Calderoli, Legislative simplification) and five under-secretaries (Roberto Castelli, Infrastructures; Michelino Davico, Interior; Daniele Molgora, Economy and Finances; Francesca Martini, Health; and Maurizio Balocchi, Legislative simplification).

In April 2009, a bill introducing a path towards fiscal federalism was approved by the Senate after having passed by the Chamber. The bill gained bipartisan support by Italy of Values, which voted in favour of the measure; and the Democratic Party (PD), which chose not to oppose the measure.{{cite news |first=Paolo |last=Foschi |title=Ultimo sì al Senato, via al federalismo fiscale |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/aprile/30/Ultimo_Senato_via_federalismo_fiscale_co_8_090430002.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=30 April 2009}} As of late March 2011, all the most important decrees of the reform were approved by the Parliament and Bossi publicly praised the Democrats' leader Pier Luigi Bersani for not having opposed the decisive decree on regional and provincial fiscality.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Calderoli: noi e il Pd? C' è stata una vera svolta |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/marzo/25/Calderoli_noi_stata_una_vera_co_8_110325008.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=25 March 2011}}{{cite news |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi |title=Bossi: federalismo grazie al Pd Ho detto io a Bersani di astenersi |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/marzo/27/Bossi_federalismo_grazie_detto_Bersani_co_8_110327036.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=27 March 2011}} Lega Nord influenced the government also on illegal immigration, especially when dealing with immigrants coming from the sea. While the UNCHR and Catholic bishops expressed some concerns over the handling of asylum seekers,{{cite news |first=Fiorenza |last=Sarzanini |title=Clandestini riaccompagnati in Libia Maroni applaude, l'Onu protesta |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/maggio/08/Clandestini_riaccompagnati_Libia_Maroni_applaude_co_8_090508016.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=8 May 2009}} Maroni's decision to send back to Libya the boats full of illegal immigrants was praised also by some leading Democrats, notably including Piero Fassino;{{cite news |first=Aldo |last=Cazzullo |title=Fassino: la sinistra cambi Nel Paese c' è il rischio di una guerra tra poveri |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/maggio/10/Fassino_sinistra_cambi_Nel_Paese_co_8_090510006.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=10 May 2009}}{{cite news |first=Gianna |last=Fregonara |title=Il Pd e il caso Fassino Parisi apre, no dalemiano |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/maggio/11/caso_Fassino_Parisi_apre_dalemiano_co_8_090511014.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=11 May 2009}} and it was backed by some 76% of Italians according to a poll.{{cite web |author=Aldo Ferrari Nasi |url=http://archivio.sondaggipoliticoelettorali.it/asp/visualizza_sondaggio.asp?idsondaggio=3400 |title=Sondaggio politico-elettorale sull'immigrazione clandestina |publisher=Sondaggipoliticoelettorali.it |date=12 May 2009 |access-date=20 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510233806/http://archivio.sondaggipoliticoelettorali.it/asp/visualizza_sondaggio.asp?idsondaggio=3400 |archive-date=10 May 2013 |url-status=dead }}

In agreement with the PdL,{{cite news |first=Lorenzo |last=Fuccaro |title=Il Pdl a Pd e Udc: basta tensioni Regionali, il Veneto alla Lega |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/dicembre/17/Pdl_Udc_basta_tensioni_Regionali_co_8_091217033.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=17 December 2009}} Luca Zaia was candidate for President in Veneto{{cite news |first=Elsa |last=Muschella |title=Veneto, sì a Zaia. E Zingaretti al Pd: corro nel Lazio |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/dicembre/20/Veneto_Zaia_Zingaretti_corro_nel_co_9_091220001.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=20 December 2009}} and Roberto Cota in Piedmont{{cite news |first=Aldo |last=Cazzullo |title=Cota, "lotta" a Cavour e ai Savoia "I meridionali di qui voteranno me" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/dicembre/19/Cota_lotta_Cavour_Savoia_meridionali_co_9_091219024.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=19 December 2009}} in the 2010 regional elections while in the other Northern regions, including Lombardy, the League supported candidates of the PdL. Both Zaia and Cota were elected. The party became the largest in Veneto with 35.2% and the second-largest in Lombardy with 26.2% while getting stronger all around the North and in some regions of central Italy.

In November 2011, Berlusconi resigned and was replaced by Mario Monti. The League was the only major party to oppose Monti's technocratic government.

{{Weasel words|section|date= June 2022}}

{{Further|Lega Nord#2008–2011 developments}}

File:Roberto Maroni 2010 (cropped).jpg, 2010]]

Throughout 2011, the party was riven in internal disputes, which Bossi's weak-as-ever leadership was not able to stop. Roberto Maroni, a moderate figure who had been the party's number two since the start, was clearly Bossi's most likely successor. The rise of Maroni and his fellow maroniani was obstacled by a group of Bossi's loyalists, whom journalists called the "magic circle". The leaders of this group were Marco Reguzzoni (floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies) and Rosi Mauro.

After being temporarily forbidden from speaking at the party's public meetings,{{cite news |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi |title=Bossi, l'offensiva anti Maroni Vietati tutti gli incontri pubblici |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/gennaio/14/Bossi_offensiva_anti_Maroni_Vietati_co_8_120114027.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=14 January 2012}} Maroni gained the upper hand in January 2012.{{cite news |first=Paolo |last=Bracalini |title=Bossi stoppa la rivolta della Lega e firma un armistizio con Maroni |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/bossi_stoppa_rivolta_lega_e_firma_armistizio_maroni/15-01-2012/articolo-id=566965-page=0-comments=1 |newspaper=Il Giornale |location=Milan |date=15 January 2012}} During a factional rally in Varese, he launched direct attacks on Reguzzoni and Mauro in the presence of a puzzled Bossi. On that occasion, Maroni called for the celebration of party congresses and closed his speech paraphrasing Scipio Slataper and Che Guevara (the latter being one of his youth's heroes): "We are barbarians, dreaming barbarians. We are realistic, we dream the impossible".{{cite web |title=Per una Lega unita e per una Padania libera e indipendente |url=http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/343749 |publisher=Radio Radicale |date=18 January 2012}} On 20 January, Bossi replaced Reguzzoni as leader in the Chamber with Gianpaolo Dozzo.{{cite news |first=Sergio |last=Rame |title=Dozzo è capogruppo al posto di Reguzzoni: la Lega ritrova l'unità? |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/dozzo_e_capogruppoal_posto_reguzzonila_lega_ritrova_unita/manifestazione-marco_reguzzoni-umberto_bossi-roberto_maroni-lega_nord/20-01-2012/articolo-id=567982-page=0-comments=1 |newspaper=Il Giornale |location=Milan |date=20 January 2012}} Two days later, the federal council of the party scheduled provincial congresses by April and national (regional) congresses by June.{{cite news |title=Maroni annuncia su Facebook 'Ora i congressi' |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/milano/maroni_annuncia_facebook_ora_congressi/23-01-2012/articolo-id=568397-page=0-comments=1 |newspaper=Il Giornale |location=Milan |date=23 January 2012}} Maroni, whose flock included people as diverse as Flavio Tosi, a conservative liberal; and Matteo Salvini, then a left-winger,{{cite news |first1=Maurizio |last1=Giannattasio |title=Salvini, leghista-comunista: ho "convertito" 10 religiosi |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2008/aprile/26/Salvini_leghista_comunista_convertito_religiosi_co_9_080426116.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=26 April 2008}}{{cite news |first1=Antonino |last1=D'Anna |title=La rivincita dei cattolici leghisti Borghezio il tramite col Vaticano |url=http://affaritaliani.libero.it/politica/la-rivincita-dei-cattolici-leghisti240312.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120701102642/http://affaritaliani.libero.it/politica/la-rivincita-dei-cattolici-leghisti240312.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 July 2012 |publisher=Affaritaliani |date=22 March 2012}} strengthened his grip on the party.

On 3 April, a corruption scandal hit the magic circle and consequently the entire party. The party's treasurer Francesco Belsito was charged with money-laundering, embezzlement and fraud of the LN's expenses. Among other things, he was accused of having taken money away from the party's chest and paid it out to Bossi's family and other members of the magic circle, notably including Mauro.{{cite news |first1=Luigu |last1=Ferrarella |first2=Giuseppe |last2=Guastalla |title=Lavori alla villa di Gemonio con i rimborsi della Lega |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/aprile/04/Lavori_alla_villa_Gemonio_con_co_9_120404024.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=4 April 2012}} Maroni, who had already called for Belsito's resignation as early as in January, asked for his immediate replacement. Belsito resigned a few hours later and was replaced by Stefano Stefani.{{cite news |first1=Claudio |last1=Del Frate |title=Maroni: dobbiamo fare pulizia E il Cavaliere difende il Senatur |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/aprile/04/Maroni_dobbiamo_fare_pulizia_Cavaliere_co_9_120404088.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=4 April 2012}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Via Bellerio, ore 16.30. Il Senatur si dimette |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/aprile/06/Via_Bellerio_ore_Senatur_dimette_co_8_120406004.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=6 April 2012}}

More shockingly, on 5 April, Bossi resigned as the federal secretary. The party's federal council then appointed a triumvirate composed of Maroni, Calderoli and Manuela Dal Lago, who would lead the party until a new federal congress was held. Bossi, however, was then elected the federal president. On 12 April, the federal council expelled both Belsito and Mauro and decided that a federal congress would be held at the end of June.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Maroni: "Via loro, o lascio" Espulsi Belsito e Rosi Mauro |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/aprile/13/Maroni_Via_loro_lascio_Espulsi_co_9_120413102.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=13 April 2012}} In the 6–7 May local elections, the League was crushed almost everywhere{{cite news |first1=Dino |last1=Martirano |title=Schiaffo a Pdl e Lega, regge il Pd |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/maggio/08/Schiaffo_Pdl_Lega_regge_Pd_co_8_120508015.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=8 May 2012}} while retaining the city of Verona, where Tosi, the incumbent mayor, was re-elected by a landslide;{{cite news |first1=Giuseppe |last1=Sarcina |title=Verona Brinda Tosi, l'anti Bossi: "Il futuro è qui" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/maggio/08/Verona_Brinda_Tosi_anti_Bossi_co_8_120508039.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan}} and a few other strongholds.

The Bossi–Belsito scandal finally resulted, on 7 August 2019, in a sentence by Italy's highest court, according to which the LN was to pay back 49 million euros.{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-league-court/italys-top-court-upholds-seizure-of-league-funds-over-corruption-idUSKCN1UX0ZB |title=Italy's top court upholds seizure of League funds over corruption |date=7 August 2019 |access-date=8 August 2019}}

At the beginning of June, after having secured the leadership of several national sections of the party, Maroni and his followers scored two big victories at the congresses of the two largest "nations", Lombardy and Veneto: Matteo Salvini was elected secretary of Lega Lombarda with 74% of the votes{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=La prima vittoria di Maroni Ma Bossi: non-andrò in pensione |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/giugno/03/prima_vittoria_Maroni_Bossi_non_co_8_120603018.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=3 June 2012}} while Flavio Tosi fended off a challenge by the Venetists' and Bossi's loyalists' standard-bearer Massimo Bitonci, defeating him 57%–43%.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Bis di Maroni al congresso veneto Tosi vince ma la "Liga" si spacca |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/giugno/04/Bis_Maroni_congresso_veneto_Tosi_co_8_120604031.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=4 June 2012}}

File:Discorso Maroni al congresso federale Lega Nord 2012.jpg, 1 July 2012.]]

On 1 July, Maroni was virtually unanimously elected federal secretary. The party's constitution was changed in order to make Bossi federal president for life, to restructure the federal organisation and to give more autonomy to the national sections, in fact transforming the federation into a confederation.{{cite news |first1=Claudio |last1=Del Frate |title=Maroni leader della Lega: "Via da Roma" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/luglio/02/Maroni_leader_della_Lega_Via_co_9_120702035.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=2 July 2012}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=La regia di Zaia per il cambio di stagione "Basta riserva indiana, ora concretezza" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/luglio/02/regia_Zaia_per_cambio_stagione_co_9_120702026.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=2 July 2012}}

At the 2013 general election, which saw the rise of the Five Star Movement (M5S), the League won a mere 4.1% of the vote (−4.2pp).[http://www.corriere.it/Speciali/Politica/2013/elezioni/camera/index.shtml Corriere della Sera] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310135414/http://www.corriere.it/Speciali/Politica/2013/elezioni/camera/index.shtml |date=10 March 2013 }}. Corriere.it. Retrieved 24 August 2013. However, in the simultaneous 2013 regional election in Lombardy the party won the big prize: Maroni was elected President by defeating his Democratic opponent 42.8% to 38.2%. The League, which retrieved 12.9% in Lombardy in the general election, garnered 23.2% (combined result of party list, 13.0% and Maroni's personal list, 10.2%) in the regional election.[http://www.corriere.it/Speciali/Politica/2013/elezioni/SEAS/regionali/20130224000000_71_REGIONE_3.shtml LOMBARDIA: Risultati elezioni regionali – Elezioni 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711091851/http://www.corriere.it/Speciali/Politica/2013/elezioni/SEAS/regionali/20130224000000_71_REGIONE_3.shtml |date=11 July 2015 }}. Corriere.it. Retrieved 24 August 2013. All three big regions of the North were thus governed by the League.

In September 2013, Maroni announced he would soon leave the party's leadership.{{cite news |first1=Anna |last1=Gandolfi |title=L'annuncio di Maroni: lascio la segreteria entro Natale |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2013/settembre/02/annuncio_Maroni_lascio_segreteria_entro_co_0_20130902_7b471db2-1393-11e3-b851-d970976d2918.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=2 September 2013}}{{cite news |author=Albertino |title=Maroni abdica. Tosi va verso la Balena Verde. La Lega non-si sa |url=http://www.lintraprendente.it/2013/09/maroni-abdica-tosi-va-verso-la-balena-verde-la-lega-non-si-sa/ |newspaper=L'intraprendente |location=Milan |date=3 September 2013}} A congress was scheduled for mid December and in accordance to the new rules set for the leadership election five candidates filed their bid to become secretary: Umberto Bossi, Matteo Salvini, Giacomo Stucchi, Manes Bernardini and Roberto Stefanazzi.{{cite news |first1=Cesare |last1=Zapperi |title=Stucchi scende in campo per il fronte anti-Salvini |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2013/novembre/12/Stucchi_scende_campo_per_fronte_co_0_20131112_3bd7a334-4b62-11e3-94e1-503ecbe82dc7.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=12 November 2013}} Of these, only Bossi and Salvini gathered the 1,000 necessary signatures by party members to take part to the internal "primary" and Salvini collected four times the signatures gathered by Bossi.{{cite news |title=Segreteria Lega, in corsa Salvini e Bossi |url=http://www.lastampa.it/2013/11/28/italia/politica/segreteria-lega-in-corsa-salvini-e-bossi-YwZ8k8e7ft4OQE3wLMHSTO/pagina.html |work=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=28 November 2013}}

File:Matteo Salvini Viminale (cropped).jpg, 2018]]

On 7 December, Salvini, endorsed by Maroni and most leading members (including Tosi, who had renounced a bid of his own), trounced Bossi with 82% of the vote in the "primary".{{cite news |title=Lega: primarie, a Salvini l'81,66% dei voti a Bossi il 18,34% |url=http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/News/Politica/Lega-primarie-a-Salvini-l8166-dei-voti-a-Bossi-il-1834_32965449296.html |publisher=Adnkronos |location=Rome |date=8 December 2013}} His election was ratified a week later by the party's federal congress in Turin.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Parte l'era di Salvini E Bossi difende l'euro |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2013/dicembre/16/Parte_era_Salvini_Bossi_difende_co_0_20131216_cee787e8-661a-11e3-9ab1-d0a8f0dc30ed.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=16 December 2013}} Under Salvini, the party embraced a very critical view of the European Union,{{cite web |url=http://www.mattinonline.ch/matteo-salvini-basta-essere-succubi-dellunione-europea-e-di-roma/ |title=Matteo Salvini: "Basta essere succubi dell'Unione Europea e di Roma" Mattinonline |website=Mattinonline.ch |date=16 December 2013 |access-date=2 April 2016}} especially of the euro, which he described a "crime against mankind".{{cite web |url=http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/politica/2013/12/15/Lega-Salvini-contro-euro-Crimine-contro-umanita-_9781968.html |title=Lega, Salvini contro euro: 'Crimine contro l'umanità' |work=ANSA.it |access-date=9 June 2015}} Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election, Salvini started to cooperate with Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front; and Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom.{{cite web |url=http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2013-12-13/-europa-marine-pen-preferisce-salvini-e-lega-nord-beppe-grillo--210854.shtml?uuid=ABCNPxj |title=Europa, Marine Le Pen preferisce Salvini e la Lega Nord a Beppe Grillo |work=Il Sole 24 ORE |access-date=9 June 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lindipendenza.com/salvini-al-congresso-della-lega-marine-le-pen-e-wilders/ |title=Salvini: "Al congresso della Lega Marine Le Pen e Wilders" | L'Indipendenza Nuova |website=Lindipendenza.com |access-date=2 April 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118180126/http://www.lindipendenza.com/salvini-al-congresso-della-lega-marine-le-pen-e-wilders/ |archive-date=18 November 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://www.tmnews.it/web/sezioni/top10/salvini-lega-ha-terreno-comune-con-le-pen-il-23-no-euro-day-20131114_085012.shtml |title=askanews |access-date=9 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117090525/http://www.tmnews.it/web/sezioni/top10/salvini-lega-ha-terreno-comune-con-le-pen-il-23-no-euro-day-20131114_085012.shtml |archive-date=17 November 2013}} All this was criticised by Bossi, who re-called his left-wing roots;{{cite web |url=http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2014/04/03/news/umberto_bossi_il_blitz_del_ros_colpa_dei_servizi_la_gente_si_incazza-82617710/ |title=Umberto Bossi: "Il blitz del Ros? Colpa dei Servizi, la gente si incazza" |author=di LAVINIA RIVARA |date=3 April 2014 |work=la Repubblica |access-date=9 June 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lindipendenza.com/bossi-con-le-pen-alleanza-transitoria-boso-la-lega-non-e-di-destra/ |title=Bossi: con Le Pen alleanza transitoria. Boso: la Lega non è di destra | L'Indipendenza Nuova |website=Lindipendenza.com |date=29 May 2014 |access-date=2 April 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331194736/http://lindipendenza.com/bossi-con-le-pen-alleanza-transitoria-boso-la-lega-non-e-di-destra/ |archive-date=31 March 2016}} and Tosi, who represented the party's centrist wing and defended the Euro.{{cite web |url=http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2014-02-05/tosi-non-si-puo-uscire-euro-italia-sarebbe-preda-speculazioni-162427.shtml?uuid=ABm2Vfu |title=Tosi: non si può uscire dall'euro. L'Italia sarebbe preda di speculazioni |work=Il Sole 24 ORE |access-date=9 June 2015}}

In the European election, the party, which ran on a "Stop the Euro" ticket, emphasised Euroscepticism and welcomed candidates from other anti-Euro and/or autonomist movements, notably including South Tyrol's Freiheitlichen,{{cite web |url=http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/ContentItem-6842ea78-18ff-4644-9f74-94fe3384a6b3.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407090834/http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/ContentItem-6842ea78-18ff-4644-9f74-94fe3384a6b3.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 April 2014 |title=Salvini: nuovo simbolo Lega per Europee |work=rainews |access-date=9 June 2015 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2014/03/31/lega-nuovo-simbolo-per-le-europee-via-scritta-padania-al-suo-posto-basta-euro/933161/ |title=Europee 2014, nuovo simbolo Lega. Via scritta 'Padania', al suo posto 'Basta euro' |work=Il Fatto Quotidiano |access-date=9 June 2015|date=31 March 2014 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.ansa.it/lombardia/notizie/2014/03/31/salvini-simbolo-lega-con-basta-euro_e1c158f9-4274-4f66-8156-0026e5a23811.html |title=Salvini: simbolo Lega con 'Basta euro' |work=ANSA.it |access-date=9 June 2015|date=31 March 2014 }} obtained 6.2% of the vote and five MEPs.{{cite web |url=http://elezioni.interno.it/europee/scrutini/20140525/index.html |title=[Scrutini] Europee – Elezioni del 25 maggio 2014 – Ministero dell'Interno |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-date=20 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820195718/http://elezioni.interno.it/europee/scrutini/20140525/index.html |url-status=dead }} The result was far worse than that of the previous European election in 2009 (−4.0pp), but better than that of 2013 general election (+2.1pp). The LN came third with 15.2% in Veneto (where Tosi obtained many more votes than Salvini, showing his popular support once for all and proving how the party was far from united on the anti-Euro stance),{{cite web |url=http://www.lintraprendente.it/2014/05/la-grande-vittoria-politica-di-tosi/ |title=La grande vittoria (politica) di Tosi |access-date=9 June 2015|date=26 May 2014 }} ahead of the new Forza Italia (FI) and the other PdL's spin-offs; and fourth in Lombardy with 14.6%. Salvini was triumphant, despite the party had lost Piedmont to the Democrats after Cota had been forced to resign due to irregularities committed by one of its supporting lists in filing the slates for the 2010 election and had decided not to stand. Moreover, Bitonci was elected mayor of Padua, a centre-left stronghold.

The party's federal congress, summoned in Padua in July 2014, approved Salvini's political line, especially a plan for the introduction of a flat tax and the creation of a sister party in central-southern Italy and the Isles.{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2014/luglio/21/Salvini_avverte_nuova_Lega_corre_co_0_20140721_7fa8c8fe-1097-11e4-80f9-2e3c33391d10.shtml |title=Salvini avverte: la nuova Lega corre da sola |access-date=9 June 2015}} In November, the Emilia-Romagna regional election represented a major step for Salvini's "national project": the LN, which won 19.4% of the vote, was the region's second-largest and resulted far ahead of FI, paving the way for a bid for the leadership of the centre-right.{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2014/novembre/24/Lega_doppia_Forza_Italia_urlo_co_0_20141124_68460c56-73a9-11e4-b779-766ff3003bac.shtml |title=La Lega doppia Forza Italia L?urlo di Salvini: "È storico" |access-date=9 June 2015}} In December, Us with Salvini (NcS) was launched. The party's growing popularity among voters was reflected also by a constant rise in opinion polls.

In March 2015, after a long struggle between Tosi and Zaia, who was backed by Salvini, over the party's candidates in the upcoming regional election in Veneto, Tosi was removed from national secretary of Liga Veneta and ejected from the federal party altogether.{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2015/marzo/11/Salvini_rottura_nella_Lega_Tosi_co_0_20150311_19ef6226-c7bb-11e4-80a1-d57600bcc7ce.shtml |title=Salvini e la rottura nella Lega: Tosi non è più un militante del partito |access-date=9 June 2015}} However, the 2015 regional elections were another success for the LN, especially in Veneto, where Zaia was handily re-elected with 50.1% of the vote (Tosi got 11.9%) and the combined score of party's and Zaia's personal lists was 40.9%. The party also came second in Liguria (22.3%) and Tuscany (16.2%), third in Marche (13.0%) and Umbria (14.0%).

After the 2016 local elections in which the party ran below expectations in Lombardy (while doing well in Veneto—thanks to Zaia, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany) and the NcS performed badly,{{cite web |url=http://www.lettera43.it/politica/il-fallimento-di-salvini-leader-del-centrodestra_43675250391.htm |title=Il fallimento di Salvini leader del centrodestra |date=20 June 2016 |access-date=22 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926103602/http://www.lettera43.it/politica/il-fallimento-di-salvini-leader-del-centrodestra_43675250391.htm |archive-date=26 September 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://formiche.net/2016/06/20/ecco-come-ballottaggi-ridimensionano-matteo-salvini/ |title=Ecco come i ballottaggi ridimensionano Matteo Salvini |first=Pietro Di |last=Michele |date=20 June 2016 |website=Formiche.net}}{{cite web |url=http://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/veneto/notizie/politica/2016/7-giugno-2016/lega-miete-consensi-comuni-pd-soffre-grillini-non-sfondano-240526451658.shtml |title=La Lega miete consensi nei Comuni Il Pd soffre, i grillini non-sfondano |first=Marco |last=Bonet|date=7 June 2016 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.ilgiornaledivicenza.it/home/veneto/la-lega-di-zaia-vince-su-quella-di-salvini-1.4949687 |title=La Lega di Zaia vince su quella di Salvini |first=Società Editrice Athesis |last=S.p.A. |access-date=22 June 2016 |archive-date=19 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191119072135/https://www.ilgiornaledivicenza.it/home/veneto/la-lega-di-zaia-vince-su-quella-di-salvini-1.4949687 |url-status=dead }} Salvini's political line came under pressure from Bossi, Maroni and Paolo Grimoldi, the new leader of Lega Lombarda. In the 2017 leadership election, Salvini, who was focused on becoming the leader of the centre-right{{cite web |url=http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/speciali/referendum/2016/11/11/referendum-berlusconi-dopo-412-cambiare-italicum-e-votare_c30e6b23-8384-4167-8ed1-ea5c2bd88caf.html |title=Salvini: "Io candidato premier? Se chiedono ci sono. Col no si va a votare" – Referendum |date=11 November 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/16_novembre_12/matteo-salvini-firenze-pronto-candidarmi-come-premier-8bf1731c-a8e9-11e6-b875-b27331f307f4.shtml |title=Matteo Salvini a Firenze: "Pronto a candidarmi come premier" |first=Annalisa |last=Grandi|date=11 December 2016 }} and possibly changing the LN's name by ditching the word "North",{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/16_ottobre_25/lega-congresso-togliere-parola-nord-e56a6d54-9a25-11e6-939e-ec3a0eea054f.shtml |title=Lega, un congresso per togliere la parola Nord |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi|date=24 October 2016 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/salvini-vuole-togliere-nord-nome-lega-1323142.html|title=Salvini vuole togliere il "Nord" al nome della Lega|first=Ivan|last=Francese|website=ilGiornale.it|date=25 October 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/politica/12001736/lega-nord-cambia-nome-addio-nord.html|title=Clamoroso Salvini, addio Lega Nord. Mossa-terremoto, caos nel partito|language=it|website=Libero|access-date=12 March 2019|archive-date=12 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140733/http://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/politica/12001736/lega-nord-cambia-nome-addio-nord.html|url-status=dead}} was re-elected leader of the party with 82.7% of the vote against his opponent Gianni Fava's 17.3%.{{cite web|url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/17_maggio_14/bossi-se-vince-salvini-lega-finita-io-valutero-d660bdcc-38b8-11e7-8530-ea2b12fbdf2c.shtml|title=Salvini stravince le primarie Bossi: "La Lega è finita, io valuterò"|last=Zapperi|first=Cesare|date=14 May 2017}} Consequently, Salvini launched his campaign to become Prime Minister.

In the meantime, the LN campaigned heavily for Veneto's and Lombardy's autonomy referendums, which took place on 22 October. In Veneto, the turnout was 57.2% and those who voted "yes" reached 98.1% whereas in Lombardy the figures were 38.3% and 95.3%.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/world/europe/lombardy-veneto-referendums.html |title=Italian Regions of Lombardy and Veneto Vote for More Autonomy |first=Elisabetta |last=Povoledo |date=22 October 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite news |last1=Sanderson |first1=Rachel |date=23 October 2017 |title=Italy's richest regions vote overwhelmingly for greater autonomy |website=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/38f625f6-b7dc-11e7-8c12-5661783e5589 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/38f625f6-b7dc-11e7-8c12-5661783e5589 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21730602-unlike-catalonia-no-one-asking-independence-yet-northern-italy-votes-more-autonomy |title=Northern Italy votes for more autonomy|newspaper=The Economist|date=26 October 2017}} When the referendums were over, with strong opposition by Bossi, Salvini persuaded the party's federal council to style the party simply as "Lega", including NcS, in the upcoming general election.[http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/world/italy-rebranded-lega-seeks-national-posture-2018-vote-article-1.3713674 "Italy's rebranded Lega seeks national posture for 2018 vote"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519032906/http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/world/italy-rebranded-lega-seeks-national-posture-2018-vote-article-1.3713674 |date=19 May 2018 }}.{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-20/italy-s-northern-league-is-suddenly-in-love-with-the-south |title=Italy's Northern League Is Suddenly in Love With the South |date=20 February 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018 |publisher=Bloomberg L.P.}}{{cite news |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/17_ottobre_28/lega-toglie-parola-nord-calderoli-salvini-bossi-71d8cdd6-bb4e-11e7-8ef5-94a13146dc45.shtml |title=La Lega cambia il simbolo: via la parola Nord. Bossi a Salvini: "Fascista" |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi|newspaper=Corriere della Sera |date=27 October 2017 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2017/10/27/news/lega_nord_nuovo_simbolo-179501278 |title=Lega, nuovo simbolo senza "nord". Salvini: "Sarà valido per tutta Italia" |date=27 October 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/17_ottobre_28/lega-toglie-parola-nord-calderoli-salvini-bossi-71d8cdd6-bb4e-11e7-8ef5-94a13146dc45.shtml |title=La Lega cambia il simbolo: via la parola Nord. Bossi a Salvini: "Fascista" |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi |access-date=2 March 2018|date=27 October 2017 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-election-league/italys-league-leaves-northern-bastions-bangs-anti-migrant-drum-idUSKBN1FT1Q9 |title=Italy's League leaves northern bastions, bangs anti-migrant drum |date=9 February 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018 |agency=Reuters|newspaper=Reuters }}{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.it/2013/12/07/primarie-lega-salvini-vince-82-bossi-fermo-18_n_4404640.html |title=Primarie Lega, vince Matteo Salvini con l'82%. Umberto Bossi si ferma al 18% |date=7 December 2013 |access-date=2 March 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/17_settembre_17/bossi-lega-pontida-salvini-solitudina-ormai-devo-andar-via-b27e8798-9be8-11e7-99a4-e70f8a929b5c.shtml |title=La solitudine di Bossi: "Non è più Pontida, ormai devo andar via" |first=Marco Cremonesi, dal nostro inviato a |last=Pontida |access-date=2 March 2018|date=17 September 2017 }} Additionally, Salvini toned down his stances against the European Union and the Euro in order to make an alliance with FI possible.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/lega-e-m5s-ammainano-bandiera-anti-euro-1409067.html|title=Lega e M5s ammainano la bandiera anti euro|first=Pasquale|last=Napolitano|website=ilGiornale.it|date=14 June 2017}}{{cite news |url=https://it.reuters.com/article/topNews/idITKCN1BE0K5-OITTP |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903170851/http://it.reuters.com/article/topNews/idITKCN1BE0K5-OITTP |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 September 2017 |title=Salvini: Lega non-proporrà referendum su euro, "non-si può fare" |first=Reuters |last=Editorial|newspaper=Reuters |date=3 September 2017 }}

Despite misgivings by Bossi and the Padanist old guard, the party still had a strong autonomist outlook in the northern regions,{{Cite web | url=https://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/veneto/economia/18_ottobre_23/onda-sovranista-88df1d68-d6c4-11e8-86b1-93f92584e776.shtml | title=Veneto, Lega pigliatutto anche in Trentino fra sovranismo e autonomismo| date=23 October 2018}} especially in Veneto where Venetian nationalism was stronger than ever before.{{Cite web | url=http://www.limesonline.com/perche-il-veneto-non-si-sente-italia/100953 | title=Perché il Veneto non si sente Italia| date=8 August 2017}}{{Cite web| url=https://www.qdpnews.it/pieve-di-soligo/17934-veneto-texas-d-italia-intervista-a-giovanni-collot-di-conegliano| title="Veneto Texas d'Italia": l'Analista politico Giovanni Collot di Conegliano in redazione| date=17 September 2017| access-date=24 October 2018| archive-date=6 February 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206175023/https://www.qdpnews.it/pieve-di-soligo/17934-veneto-texas-d-italia-intervista-a-giovanni-collot-di-conegliano| url-status=dead}}{{Cite web | url=https://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/referendum-autonomia-lombardia-e-veneto/notizie/venezia-06-07-t1corriereveneto-web-veneto-f4d4bac2-b7bd-11e7-a918-737504981ad0.shtml | title=La questione Veneta| date=23 October 2017}} Additionally, the League maintained its power base in the North, where it continued to get most of its support.

{{See also|2018 Italian government formation|First Conte government}}

File:Salvini Premier.jpg, resembling Donald Trump's one in 2016]]

The League ran in the 2018 general election within the four-party centre-right coalition, also composed of FI, Brothers of Italy (FdI) and Us with Italy (NcI), which formed a joint list with the Union of the Centre (UdC). In a further effort to broaden its base, the League welcomed in its electoral slates several independents, notably including Giulia Bongiorno{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/18_gennaio_19/elezioni-2018-bongiorno-va-la-lega-salvini-e142d7fa-fc96-11e7-80a4-a8d109924739.shtml |title=Bongiorno va con la Lega: "Salvini è concreto, come Andreotti" |first=Dino |last=Martirano |access-date=2 March 2018|date=18 January 2018 }} and Alberto Bagnai,{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/elezioni-2018/notizie/lega-borghi-bagnai-candidati-sfida-due-economisti-anti-euro-elezioni-2018-92e5ba6e-004c-11e8-9961-f20884a97d4b.shtml |title=Lega, Borghi e Bagnai candidati: la sfida dei due economisti anti euro |first=Claudio |last=Bozza |access-date=2 March 2018|date=23 January 2018 }} as well as a wide range of minor parties, including the Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az),{{cite web |url=http://www.unionesarda.it/articolo/politica_italiana/2018/01/24/lega_psd_az_oggi_l_accordo_salvini_arrivato_a_cagliari-1-689984.html |title=Lega-Psd'Az, arriva l'accordo: Salvini a Cagliari – Politica – L'Unione Sarda.it |date=24 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018}} the Italian Liberal Party (PLI){{cite web |url=https://www.agenziagiornalisticaopinione.it/lancio-dagenzia/lega-elezioni-raggiunto-laccordo-partito-liberale-italiano |title=lega * elezioni: "raggiunto l'accordo con il partito liberale italiano" – Agenzia giornalistica Opinione |date=31 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018}} and the National Movement for Sovereignty (MNS).{{cite web |url=http://www.movimento-nazionale.it/news/candidati-del-movimento-nazionale-per-la-sovranita-2 |publisher=Movimento-nazionale.it |date=30 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018 |title=CANDIDATI DEL MOVIMENTO NAZIONALE PER LA SOVRANITA' – Movimento Nazionale per la Sovranità |archive-date=2 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302012311/http://www.movimento-nazionale.it/news/candidati-del-movimento-nazionale-per-la-sovranita-2/ |url-status=dead }} The League obtained a resounding success, becoming the third largest party in Italy with 17.4% of the vote (+13.3pp). The ticket won most of its votes in the North (including 32.2% in Veneto, 28.0% in Lombardy, 26.7% in Trentino, 25.8% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and 22.6% in Piedmont) while making inroads elsewhere, especially in central Italy (notably 20.2% in Umbria), the upper part of the South (13.8% in Abruzzo) and Sardinia (10.8%).

In the simultaneous regional election in Lombardy, LN's Attilio Fontana ran for President after Maroni, increasingly critical of Salvini,{{cite web |url=https://www.ilfoglio.it/politica/2018/01/11/news/io-salvini-il-cav-e-renzi-il-gran-manifesto-anti-populista-di-maroni-172516/ |title=Io, Salvini, il Cav. e Renzi. Il gran manifesto anti populista di Maroni |access-date=2 March 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/18_gennaio_11/lega-l-affondo-maroni-a227da28-f6a8-11e7-b0f9-ae3913959e9e.shtml |title=Maroni: "Con me Salvini si è comportato da stalinista" |first=Redazione |last=Politica |access-date=2 March 2018}} chose not to run for a second term and step aside from politics.{{cite web |url=http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2018-01-08/maroni-la-rinuncia-corsa-lombardia-071748.shtml |title=Maroni rinuncia alla Lombardia, Fontana in pole per la successione |access-date=2 March 2018}} Fontana was elected with 49.8% of the vote and the party scored 29.4%. In late April in the regional election in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, LN's Massimiliano Fedriga was elected with 57.1% of the vote and the party scored 34.9%.

As neither of the three main groupings (the centre-right, the PD-led centre-left and the M5S) obtained a majority of seats in Parliament, the League entered in coalition talks with the M5S which was the most voted party with 32.7% of the vote. The talks resulted in the proposal of the so-called "government of change" under the leadership of Giuseppe Conte, a law professor close to the M5S.[http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/05/23/conte-says-to-be-italians-defence-lawyer-in-govt-of-change_3294ff64-f175-4f2d-8323-c775d270645c.html "Conte says to be Italians' defence lawyer in govt of change"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204540/http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/05/23/conte-says-to-be-italians-defence-lawyer-in-govt-of-change_3294ff64-f175-4f2d-8323-c775d270645c.html |date=29 May 2018 }}. After some bickering with President Sergio Mattarella,[http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2018/05/27/mattarella-meets-conte-vetoed-savona_48b12bb2-f239-462d-83db-fca1f68d70b6.html "Mattarella meets Conte, 'vetoed' Savona"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204506/http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2018/05/27/mattarella-meets-conte-vetoed-savona_48b12bb2-f239-462d-83db-fca1f68d70b6.html |date=29 May 2018 }}.[http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2018/05/27/conte-drops-govt-bid_e9254d0f-03bd-4699-8599-8ec8edbcf626.html "Conte drops govt bid"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204539/http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2018/05/27/conte-drops-govt-bid_e9254d0f-03bd-4699-8599-8ec8edbcf626.html |date=29 May 2018 }}. Conte's government, which was dubbed by the media as Western European "first all-populist government", was sworn in on 1 June. The cabinet featured Salvini as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Giancarlo Giorgetti as Secretary of the Council and four other League members (plus an independent close to the party) as ministers.[https://roma.corriere.it/notizie/politica/18_maggio_31/governo-conte-moavero-milanesi-esteri-savona-affari-europei-564a07a8-64f7-11e8-95f7-d0bed95533ca.shtml "Governo Conte, la lista di tutti i ministri: Salvini all’Interno e Di Maio al Welfare. Saranno vicepremier"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601060250/https://roma.corriere.it/notizie/politica/18_maggio_31/governo-conte-moavero-milanesi-esteri-savona-affari-europei-564a07a8-64f7-11e8-95f7-d0bed95533ca.shtml |date=1 June 2018 }}.

During 2019, along with the LN's membership recruitment in the Centre-North, the party launched a parallel drive in the Centre-South for the LSP,{{Cite web | url=https://www.tpi.it/2018/07/08/doppie-tessere-lega-salvini | title=Lo strano caso delle doppie tessere della Lega: Così Salvini si è fatto due partiti| date=8 July 2018}} practically supplanting NcS. It was a sign that the LSP, whose party constitution had been published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale in December 2017{{Cite web|url=http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/vediMenuHTML;jsessionid=zLkAYtiVQi8t+yqW+98Yfw__.ntc-as1-guri2a?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2017-12-14&atto.codiceRedazionale=17A08410&tipoSerie=serie_generale&tipoVigenza=originario|title=*** ATTO COMPLETO ***|website=www.gazzettaufficiale.it}} and had been described as a "parallel party",{{Cite web | url=http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/centrodestra-salvini-seppellisce-il-vecchio-carroccio-e-fonda-un-altro-partito-dfa2c0d9-9f75-4983-95ae-110f83bbbb4b.html | title=Centrodestra. Salvini seppellisce il vecchio Carroccio e fonda un altro partito| date=24 January 2018}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/premium/articoli/soldi-e-poltrone-salvini-schiera-il-partito-parallelo | title=Lega, Salvini schiera il 'partito parallelo' per seppellire il vecchio Carroccio su cui pendono sequestri e confische |language=it |work=Il Fatto Quotidiano}} might eventually replace both the LN and NcS. In the meantime, the parties' joint parliamentary groups were named "League–Salvini Premier" in the Chamber{{Cite web | url=http://www.camera.it/leg18/1083 | title=XVIII Legislatura – Deputati e Organi – Modifiche intervenute}} and "League–Salvini Premier–Sardinian Action Party" in the Senate.{{Cite web | url=http://www.senato.it/Leg18/4839 | title=Senato.it – Senato della Repubblica senato.it – Variazioni dei Gruppi parlamentari}} According to some news sources, Salvini wanted to launch a brand-new party and absorb most of the centre-right parties into it.{{Cite web | url=https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/politica/18_agosto_31/partito-unico-centrodestra-piano-salvini-il-5-settembre-3999f4ee-aca8-11e8-a56f-72aa622a097c.shtml | title=Il piano di Salvini dopo il 5 settembre: Partito unico del centrodestra| date=31 August 2018}}{{Cite web | url=http://www.affaritaliani.it/politica/salvini-il-piano-segreto-per-un-partito-unico-del-centrodestra-a-settembre-557650.html | title=Salvini, il piano per un partito unico del centrodestra e Palazzo Chigi – Affaritaliani.it| date=31 August 2018}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/politica/13373027/matteo-salvini-rivoluzione-partito-unico-centrodestra-retroscena-data-tribunale-riesame-addio-lega.html | title=Rivoluzione Salvini: 'Nasce il suo nuovo partito'. Il retroscena: Segnatevi la data, qui cambia tutto |language=it|work=Libero}}

Since the government's formation, the party was regularly the country's largest party in opinion polls, at around or over 30%. The party's strength was confirmed in October by the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections: in Trentino LN's Maurizio Fugatti was elected President with 46.7% of the vote and the party scored 27.1% (despite competition from several autonomist parties), while in South Tyrol it came third with 11.1% (being the most voted in Bolzano and, more generally, among Italian-speakers), leading it to replace the PD as junior partner of the South Tyrolean People's Party in the provincial government coalition.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/politica/2019/01/07/alto-adige-svp-approva-giunta-con-lega_f325d105-7456-4dd1-8bb9-d6b8de1e2441.html|title=Alto Adige, Svp approva giunta con Lega – Politica|date=7 January 2019|website=ANSA.it}}

In the 2019 European Parliament election in Italy, the League won 34.3% of the vote, winning for the first time a plurality of the electorate, while the M5S stopped at 17.1%.{{cite web | last1=Amaro | first1=Silvia | title=Italy's anti-immigration Lega party enjoys EU election triumph | url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/27/italy-european-election-results.html | date=27 May 2019 | publisher=CNBC | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Castelfranco | first1=Sabina | title=In Italy, Anti-Migrant Populist Wins Big | url=https://www.voanews.com/a/in-italy-anti-migrant-populist-wins-big/4933943.html | date=27 May 2019 | publisher=Voice of America | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite news | last1=Balmer | first1=Crispian | last2=Amante | first2=Angelo | title=Italy's ruling League triumphs in EU vote as 5-Star slumps | url=https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-election-italy/italys-ruling-league-triumphs-in-eu-vote-as-5-star-slumps-idUKKCN1SW0WZ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527030420/https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-election-italy/italys-ruling-league-triumphs-in-eu-vote-as-5-star-slumps-idUKKCN1SW0WZ | url-status=dead | archive-date=27 May 2019 | date=26 May 2019 | work=Reuters | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Follain | first1=John | last2=Totaro | first2=Lorenzo | title=Salvini Pulls Rank After Trouncing Five Star in EU Vote | url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-26/salvini-s-league-set-to-surge-but-premiership-may-elude-him | date=26 May 2019 | publisher=Bloomberg News | access-date=28 May 2019}} The election thus weakened the M5S and strengthened Salvini's position within the government.{{cite web | last1=Ritter | first1=Karl | last2=Barry | first2=Colleen | title=European victory gives Salvini more leverage in Italy | url=https://apnews.com/dfd4f5206e5b4152b7dcb337e5fa0356 | date=27 May 2019 | work=Associated Press | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Sciorilli Borrelli | first1=Silvia | last2=Barigazzi | first2=Jacopo | title=Salvini wins big — but only in Italy | url=https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-election-2019-matteo-salvinis-wins-big-but-only-in-italy/ | date=27 May 2019 | work=Politico | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite news | last1=Galofaro | first1=Antonino | title=La double victoire de Matteo Salvini | url=https://www.letemps.ch/monde/double-victoire-matteo-salvini | date=27 May 2019 | newspaper=Le Temps | access-date=29 May 2019 | language=fr}} At the European level, Salvini worked to create a pan-European alliance of nationalist political parties, the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations,{{cite news | last1=Parodi | first1=Emilio | title=Nationalist EU parties plan to join forces after May elections | url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-italy/nationalist-eu-parties-plan-to-join-forces-after-may-elections-idUSKCN1RK10F | date=8 April 2019 | work=Reuters | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Barry | first1=Colleen | title=Italy emerges as ground zero for European extremist populism | url=https://www.apnews.com/6ad43709411a4526a0e520869652158e | date=3 May 2019 | work=Associated Press | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Barry | first1=Colleen | title=Italy's Salvini stakes out post as Europe's populist leader | url=https://www.apnews.com/3376a808df2641cf9da01476bcf7a1e9 | date=19 May 2019 | work=Associated Press | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | title=Salvini seeks European nationalist unity at Milan rally | url=https://www.france24.com/en/20190518-salvini-seeks-european-nationalist-unity-milan-rally | date=18 May 2019 | publisher=France 24 | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite news | last1=Giuffrida | first1=Angela | title=Europe's far-right leaders unite with a vow to 'change history' | url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/18/europe-far-right-leaders-unite-milan-vow-to-change-history | date=18 May 2019 | newspaper=The Guardian | access-date=28 May 2019}} and he continued these efforts after the election through the Identity and Democracy Party.{{cite news | last1=Guarascio | first1=Francesco | title=Europe's rising far-right tries to bury differences to wield clout | url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-right/europes-rising-far-right-tries-to-bury-differences-to-wield-clout-idUSKCN1SX1EP | date=27 May 2019 | work=Reuters | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Hinnant | first1=Lori | title=Macron vs. Salvini: Two leaders face off over EU's future | url=https://www.apnews.com/6152801851684d879999dbcdc62c1e0f | date=27 May 2019 | work=Associated Press | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite news | last1=Squires | first1=Nick | title=How a triumphant Matteo Salvini plans to build a new coalition of eurosceptics with Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/27/matteo-salvini-triumphs-european-elections-taking-nearly-35/ | date=28 May 2019 | newspaper=The Daily Telegraph | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite web | last1=Barry | first1=Colleen | title=Salvini vows to unite EU populists yet lacks partners | url=https://www.apnews.com/f4c8b3c5e07e4924833ff072aed10783 | date=28 May 2019 | work=Associated Press | access-date=28 May 2019}} In the election the party performed strongly in its northern strongholds, especially Veneto (49.9%) and Lombardy (43.4%), obtaining as usual most of its votes in small towns, as well as increasing its share of vote all around the country. The party also obtained notable results in some of the places associated with the European migrant crisis, from north to south, such as Bardonecchia, Ventimiglia, Riace and Lampedusa.{{cite web | title=Italy's migrant 'hot spots' vote for anti-immigration League | url=https://www.thelocal.it/20190527/matteo-salvini-league-italy-eu-election-migrants-lampedusa-riace-ventimiglia | date=27 May 2019 | publisher=The Local (from Agence France-Presse) | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{cite news | title=Italy's dominant Salvini is small town phenomenon, polling data shows | url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-salvini-vote/italys-dominant-salvini-is-small-town-phenomenon-polling-data-shows-idUSKCN1SX1HT | date=27 May 2019 | work=Reuters | access-date=28 May 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/live194004943/Juso-Chef-Kuehnert-spricht-von-politischem-Gaffertum-nach-der-Wahl.html|title=Juso-Chef: Kühnert spricht von "politischem Gaffertum" nach der Wahl|last=WELT|date=2019-05-29|access-date=2019-08-18}}

In July 2019, a case of attempted Russia-linked corruption by the League was made public by voice recordings acquired by BuzzFeed. The recordings showed Gianluca Savoini, a LN member, meeting with unspecified Russian agents in Moscow, at the same time when Salvini was also in Moscow on an official trip. The meeting centered around providing the party with $65 million of illegal funding by Russia. The matter was made part of a larger investigation by Italian authorities into the League's finances.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/11/matteo-salvinis-party-under-investigation-for-alleged-russian-oil-deal |title=Italian prosecutors investigate League over alleged Russian oil deal claims |date=11 July 2019 |access-date=8 August 2019}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertonardelli/salvini-russia-oil-deal-secret-recording |title=Revealed: The Explosive Secret Recording That Shows How Russia Tried To Funnel Millions To The "European Trump" |website=BuzzFeed News |date=10 July 2019 |access-date=8 August 2019}} In February 2019 the Italian magazine L'Espresso had already published an investigation revealing another 3 million euro funding scheme,{{Cite web|url=http://espresso.repubblica.it/inchieste/2019/02/20/news/esclusivo-lega-milioni-russia-1.331835|title=Esclusivo - La trattativa segreta per finanziare con soldi russi la Lega di Matteo Salvini|date=2019-02-21|website=L'Espresso|language=it|access-date=2019-02-23}} paid for by Kremlin-linked entities and disguised as a diesel sale. That scheme involved the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft selling 3 million dollars worth of diesel to an Italian company. Allegedly, the money was to be transferred from Rosneft to the League through a Russian subsidy of the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo, in which LN's federal council member Andrea Mascetti was a board member. The money was supposed to fund the coming European election campaign. Italian authorities are currently investigating the matter. The League was also an official cooperation partner of the Russian governing party United Russia.

On 8 August 2019, Salvini announced his intention to leave the coalition with the Five Stars and called for a snap general election.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/09/italys-matteo-salvini-calls-for-fresh-elections-as-coalition-fractures |title=Italy's Matteo Salvini calls for fresh elections as coalition fractures |date= 9 August 2019 |access-date=9 August 2019}} However, after successful talks between the M5S, and the PD, a new government led by Conte was formed. The League thus returned to opposition, together with its electoral allies of the centre-right coalition.

The first election after the formation of Conte's second government was the 2019 Umbrian regional election. In a traditional stronghold of the centre-left, the League won 37.0% of the vote and its candidate Donatella Tesei was elected President with 57.6% of the vote and a 20% lead over Vincenzo Bianconi, who was the candidate of a joint list of centre-left and M5S.{{cite news |last1=Giuffrida |first1=Angela |title=Salvini's coalition sweeps to power in Umbria elections |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/28/matteo-salvinis-coalition-sweeps-to-power-in-umbria-elections |access-date=28 October 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=28 October 2019}}

During a federal congress on 21 December 2019, the party's constitution undwerwent some major changes, including reduced powers for the federal president, the extension of the federal secretary's and federal council's terms from three to five years, the introduction of "dual membership" and the faculty given to the federal council to grant the use of the party's symbol to other political movements.[https://www.ilgiorno.it/milano/politica/congresso-lega-statuto-1.4948731 Lega, "sì" al nuovo statuto. Bossi: "Salvini non può imporre nulla"] With the end of its membership drive in August 2020, the LSP, until then present only in central-southern Italy, became active throughout Italy. The LN, unable to be dissolved because of its burden of €49 million debt to the Italian state, was instead formally kept alive, while its cards were donated to former activists.[https://www.today.it/politica/salvini-nuova-lega.html Salvini "chiude" la vecchia Lega: ecco il nuovo partito nazionale][https://www.ilpost.it/2020/08/04/lega-nord-lega-salvini-premier/ La nuova Lega e la vecchia Lega]

File:Alberto da Giussano 4.jpg (Monument to the Warrior of Legnano), the Medieval knight who inspired Umberto Bossi]]

The party's ideology is a combination of political federalism, fiscal federalism, regionalism and defense of northern Italian traditions. The historical goal of the party is to transform Italy into a federated state, letting Padania keep more tax revenues collected there under a regime of fiscal federalism. Through Lega Nord, federalism has become a major issue in the country. This is also the main difference between the Lega Nord and most European regionalist parties (South Tyrolean People's Party,{{cite book |first1=Paolo |last1=Rumiz |title=La secessione leggera. Dove nasce la rabbia del profondo Nord |year=2001 |publisher=Feltrinelli |location=Milan |page=171}} Basque Nationalist Party, Republican Left of Catalonia, Scottish National Party, Vlaams Belang and the like), which focus on special rights for their own regions.{{cite book |first1=Umberto |last1=Bossi |author-link1=Umberto Bossi |first2=Daniele |last2=Vimercati |title=Vento dal Nord. La mia Lega, la mia vita |year=1992 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=25–35, 194–205}}{{cite book |first1=Gianfranco |last1=Miglio |title=Come cambiare. Le mie riforme |year=1992 |publisher=Mondadori |location=Milan |pages=31–40}}{{cite book |first1=Elio |last1=Bonifazi |first2=Alberto |last2=Pellegrino |title=Educazione civica e costituzionale |year=1996 |publisher=Bulgarini |location=Florence |pages=79, 128–129}}

The original programme of the party identified "federalist libertarianism" as ideology.{{cite book |first1=Francesco |last1=Jori |title=Dalla Łiga alla Lega. Storia, movimenti, protagonisti |year=2009 |publisher=Marsilio |location=Venice |page=77}} In fact, the party has often varied its tone and policies, replacing its original libertarianism and social liberalism with a more socially conservative approach, alternating anti-clericalism{{cite book|last=Chaintera-Stutte|first=Patricia|chapter=Leadership, Ideology and Anti-European Politics in the Italian Lega Nord|editor1=Daniele Caramani|editor2=Yves Mény|title=Challenges to Consensual Politics: Democracy, Identity, and Populist Protest in the Alpine Region|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rwofe0Zg8MQC&pg=PA120|year=2005|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-90-5201-250-6|page=120}} with a pro-Catholic Church stance and Europeanism with a marked Euroscepticism{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Parenzo |first2=Davide |last2=Romano |title=Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=49–52}}{{cite book |first1=Pietro |last1=Ignazi |title=Partiti politici in Italia |year=2008 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |page=87}} and ultimately abandoning much of its original pacifism and uncompromising environmentalism.{{cite web |first=Davide |last=Romano |url=http://politicaesocieta.blogosfere.it/2008/09/romanzo-padano-la-lega-di-bossi-berlusconi-seduttore-e-maroni-ex-venduto-parla-davide-romano.html |title=Romanzo padano, la Lega di Bossi: Berlusconi seduttore e Maroni ex venduto. Parla Davide Romano |publisher=Politica e Società 2.0 |date=29 September 2009 |access-date=20 April 2009 |archive-date=23 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323064906/http://politicaesocieta.blogosfere.it/2008/09/romanzo-padano-la-lega-di-bossi-berlusconi-seduttore-e-maroni-ex-venduto-parla-davide-romano.html |url-status=dead }} Lega Nord is now often regarded as a right-wing populist party.{{cite news |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,719842,00.html |title=Continent of Fear: The Rise of Europe's Right-Wing Populists |work=Der Spiegel |access-date=3 January 2015|date=28 September 2010 }} Party leaders generally reject the "right-wing" label,{{cite web |url=http://www.ilfoglio.it/soloqui/8528 |title=Così la Lega conquista nuovi elettori (non-solo al nord) |work=Il Foglio |access-date=3 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521161601/http://www.ilfoglio.it/soloqui/8528 |archive-date=21 May 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.asca.it/news-Lega_Nord__Maroni_ne__destra_ne__sinistra__alleanze_dopo_congresso-1156873.html |title=Lega Nord: Maroni ne' destra ne' sinistra, alleanze dopo congresso |publisher=asca.it |access-date=3 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521161933/http://www.asca.it/news-Lega_Nord__Maroni_ne__destra_ne__sinistra__alleanze_dopo_congresso-1156873.html |archive-date=21 May 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.termometropolitico.it/109110_intervista-matteo-salvini-lega-renzi-peggio-di-monti-vergognoso-con-la-merkel.html |title=INTERVISTA Matteo Salvini (Lega): "Renzi? Peggio di Monti, vergognoso con la Merkel |publisher=termometropolitico.it |access-date=3 January 2015|date=20 March 2014 }} though not the "populist" label.{{cite web |url=http://www.leganord.org/index.php/notizie2/12498-europee-salvini-sono-referendum-meglio-populista-che-fesso |title=Lega Nord |publisher=leganord.org |access-date=3 January 2015 |archive-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624192026/https://www.leganord.org/index.php/notizie2/12498-europee-salvini-sono-referendum-meglio-populista-che-fesso |url-status=dead }} In 2008, Umberto Bossi explained in an interview that Lega Nord is "libertarian, but also socialist" and that the right-wing ideology he prefers is an anti-statist one with a "libertarian idea of a state which does not weigh on citizens". When asked to tell his most preferred politician of the 20th century, he said Giacomo Matteotti, a Socialist MP who was killed by Fascist squads in 1925 and remembered his anti-fascist and left-wing roots.{{cite web |first=Umberto |last=Bossi |author-link=Umberto Bossi |title=Ecco l'intervista integrale della Iena Enrico Lucci a Umberto Bossi |url=http://www.affaritaliani.it/politica/iene-bossi-intervista300908.html |publisher=Affaritaliani |date=30 September 2008 |access-date=1 October 2008 |archive-date=13 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213135833/https://www.affaritaliani.it/politica/iene-bossi-intervista300908.html |url-status=dead }}

Lega Nord's political culture was a mix of northern Italian pride or even Padanian nationalism, often with claims of a proud Celtic heritage; resentment of perceived southern Italian habits and Roman authorities; distrust of the Republic of Italy and especially its flag; and some support for the free market, anti-statism, anti-globalism and separatism or secessionism. The party boasts historical references to the anti-imperialist Lombard League and Alberto da Giussano (stylised in the party's symbol), the hero of the wars against Frederick I Barbarossa.{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Parenzo |first2=Davide |last2=Romano |title=Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=23–24}} These historical references are the base for the party's anti-monopolism and anti-centralism.

Lega Nord has long maintained an anti-southern Italian stance. Party members have been known to oppose large-scale southern Italian migration to northern Italian cities, stereotyping southern Italians as welfare abusers, criminals and detrimental to Northern society. Party members have often attributed Italy's economic stagnation and the disparity of the North-South divide in the Italian economy to supposed negative characteristics of the southern Italians, such as lack of education, laziness, or criminality.{{cite book |last1=Tambini |first1=Damian |title=Nationalism in Italian Politics: The Stories of the Northern League, 1980–2000 |date=6 December 2012 |publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pW009kl_z2AC&q=northern+league+terroni&pg=PT25|isbn=9781134540013 }}{{cite news |last1=Willey |first1=David |title=The rise and fall of Northern League founder Umberto Bossi |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17703460 |access-date=28 October 2015 |work=BBC News |date=14 April 2012}}{{cite news |last1=Pullella |first1=Philip |title=Italy unity anniversary divides more than unites |url=http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSLNE72706B20110308 |access-date=28 October 2015 |work=Reuters |date=8 March 2011}} Some LN members have been known to publicly deploy the offensive slur terrone ("earthling", "mulatto"), a common pejorative term for southern Italians.{{cite book |last1=Russo Bullaro |first1=Grace |title=From Terrone to Extracomunitario: New Manifestations of Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema : Shifting Demographics and Changing Images in a Multi-cultural Globalized Society |date=2010 |publisher=Troubador Publishing Ltd |pages=179–81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBTMi_XXCgYC&q=northern+league+terroni&pg=PA180|isbn=9781848761766 }}{{cite book |last1=Garau |first1=Eva |title=Politics of National Identity in Italy: Immigration and 'Italianità' |date=17 December 2014 |publisher=Routledge |pages=110–11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2vfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 |access-date=28 October 2015|isbn=9781317557661 }}

At times, it has seemed possible that the League might unite with similar leagues in central and southern Italy, but it has not succeeded in doing so. The party continues dialogue with regionalist parties throughout Italy, notably the South Tyrolean People's Party, the Valdostan Union, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, the Movement for the Autonomies and the Sardinian Action Party; and it has some figures from the South in its parliamentary ranks. Notably, Angela Maraventano, former deputy mayor of Lampedusa, was a senator of Lega Nord. Although it is no longer a member of the European Free Alliance, the party has ties with many regionalist parties around Europe, including left-wing parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia.{{cite news |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi |title=Bossi, show su Padania e Cavaliere: lo controlliamo, senza Lega va a casa |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/dicembre/02/Bossi_show_Padania_Cavaliere_controlliamo_co_9_091202003.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=2 December 2009}} Lega Nord has some ties also with the Ticino League from Switzerland.

Lega Nord aims at uniting all those northern Italians who support autonomy and federalism for their land. For this reason, it has tended to be a multi-ideological catch-all party, especially at its beginnings,{{Citation |first1=Robert |last1=Leonardi |first2=Monique |last2=Kovacs |title=The Lega Nord: the rise of a new Italian catch-all party |journal=Italian Politics: A Review |volume=8 |year=1993}}{{cite web |url=http://europe.demsoc.org/2014/04/22/lega-nord/ |title=Lega Nord – The Democratic Society |website=Europe.demsoc.org |date=22 April 2014 |access-date=2 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318055501/http://europe.demsoc.org/2014/04/22/lega-nord/ |archive-date=18 March 2016 |url-status=dead}} following what Bossi stated in 1982 to his early followers: "It does not matter how old are you, what your job is and what your political tendency: what matters is that you and we are all Lombard. [...] It is as Lombards, indeed, that we have a fundamental common goal in face of which our division in parties should fall behind".{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Parenzo |first2=Davide |last2=Romano |title=Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |page=19}} Roberto Biorcio, a political scientist, wrote: "The political commitment of Umberto Bossi was influenced by his encounter with Bruno Salvadori, leader of the Valdostan Union [...]. The convictions of Salvadori on federalism, the self-determination of the peoples (the so-called nations without state) and the belonging to a people on the basis of cultural criteria and not on blood, were adopted by the future leader of the League".{{cite book |first1=Roberto |last1=Biorcio |title=La rivincita del Nord. La Lega dalla contestazione al governo |year=2010 |publisher=Laterza |location=Rome-Bari |pages=137–138}}

Since the beginning the electorate of the party has been very diverse on a left-right scale. At the 1992 general election, for instance, 25.4% of the party supporters were former Christian Democratic voters, 18.5% Communists, 12.5% Socialists and 6.6% former voters of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement.{{cite book |first1=Pietro |last1=Ignazi |title=Partiti politici in Italia |year=2008 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |pages=87–88}} According to a 1996 Abacus poll, 28.7% of LN voters identified as centrist, 26.3% as right-wingers and 22.1% as left-wingers.{{cite web |url=https://formazioneonline.unisalento.it/pluginfile.php/23746/mod_resource/content/1/Biorcio1999_LegaNord.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808154607/https://formazioneonline.unisalento.it/pluginfile.php/23746/mod_resource/content/1/Biorcio1999_LegaNord.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 August 2017 |title=La Lega Nord e la transizione italiana}}

It is quite difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is variously conservative, centrist and left-wing with regard to different issues. For example, the party supports both liberal ideas such as deregulation and social-democratic positions such as the defense of workers' wages and pensions. This is because Lega Nord, as a "people's party" representing the North as a whole, includes both liberal-conservative and social-democratic factions.{{cite news |first1=Mark |last1=Duff |title=Italy's Northern League reviews support for Berlusconi |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13845525 |work=BBC News |location=London |date=20 June 2011}}{{Citation needed|date=September 2014|reason=Ref does not really support the statement. According to the BBC article, the Lega "claims to be a broad church". A LN politician is quoted who claims that the party has people both from the left and the right. This is however only reported as a LN claim, it is not attested by the BBC author. Moreover there is no mention at all of "liberal-conservative" or "social-democratic" factions.}} As Lega Nord, the party could be seen as a cross-class entity uniting northern Italians, whether working class or petit bourgeois, around a sense of opposition to both the powerful forces of capital and a centralising state based in Rome which redistributes resources towards southern Italy.{{cite book |last=Biorcio |first=Roberto |chapter=The Lega Nord and the Italian media system |editor1=Gianpietro Mazzoleni |editor2=Julianne Stewart |editor3=Bruce Horsfield |title=The Media and Neo-populism: A Contemporary Comparative Analysis |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdG5cLc_Pi4C&pg=PA72 |year=2003 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-97492-3 |pages=72–73}}

Generally speaking, the party supports the social market economy and other typical issues of Christian-democratic parties{{cite web |last1=Ronchi |first1=Fabio |title=La Lega Nord ai raggi X |url=https://www.youtrend.it/2010/03/17/la-lega-nord-ai-raggi-x |website=YouTrend |access-date=12 December 2019 |language=it-IT |date=17 March 2010 |archive-date=6 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506172409/https://www.youtrend.it/2010/03/17/la-lega-nord-ai-raggi-x/ |url-status=dead }} and has been described as a "neo-labour party" by some commentators{{cite news |first=Dario |last=Di Vico |title=Fabbriche e Gazebo: la Lega modello Pci |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2009/giugno/10/Fabbriche_Gazebo_Lega_modello_Pci_co_8_090610031.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=10 June 2009}} and also by some of its members.{{cite book |first1=Francesco |last1=Jori |title=Dalla Łiga alla Lega. Storia, movimenti, protagonisti |year=2009 |publisher=Marsilio |location=Venice |page=18}}{{cite news |first=Luca |last=Zaia |author-link=Luca Zaia |url=http://rassegna.governo.it/testo.asp?d=38010215 |title=Siamo i nuovi laburisti, sfonderemo al Centro e al Sud e vogliamo una poltrona Ue |publisher=Quotidiano Nazionale |location=Milan |date=16 June 2009}} Lega Nord is populist in the sense that it is an anti-monopolist and anti-elitist popular and participative party (it is one of the few Italian political parties not to permit freemasons to join), fighting against the "vested interests", once identified by Bossi in "Agnelli, the Pope and the Mafia". The party is also libertarian populist in its promotion of small ownership, small and medium-sized enterprise, small government as opposed to governmental bureaucracy, waste of public funds, pork barrel spending and corruption.{{cite book |first1=Pietro |last1=Ignazi |title=Partiti politici in Italia |year=2008 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |pages=86–87, 96}} These are the main reasons why the party is strong in the North despite being obscured (especially at the beginning of its history) and badly presented by national media, television and newspapers.{{cite book |first1=Aldo |last1=Bonomi |title=Prefazione – Romanzo padano. Da Bossi a Bossi. Storia della Lega |year=2009 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |page=X}} According to a number of scholars, Lega Nord is an example of a right-wing populist,{{citation |first=Amir |last=Abedi |title=Anti-Political Establishment Parties: A comparative analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_27NbOL0l8C&q=lega+nord+right-wing+populist&pg=PA13 |isbn=978-0-415-31961-4}}{{Citation |first=Hans-Georg |last=Betz |title=Mobilising Resentment in the Alps: The Swiss SVP, the Italian Lega Nord and the Austrian FPÖ |work=Challenges to Consensual Politics |publisher=P.I.E.–Peter Lang |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rwofe0Zg8MQC&q=lega+nord+right-wing+populist |isbn=9789052012506}} radical right,{{Citation |first=Andrej |last=Zaslove |title=One Foot in One Foot Out: can radical right populist parties govern? |publisher=Political Studies Association |year=2008 |url=http://www.psa.ac.uk/2008/pps/Zaslove.pdf}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{citation |first=Gilles |last=Ivaldi |title=The Populist Radical Right in European Elections 1979–2009 |work=The Extreme Right in Europe |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2011 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBnmachN8vkC&q=Lega+Nord+radical+right&pg=PA22 |isbn=978-3-525-36922-7}}{{Cite journal|last=Zulianello|first=Mattia|date=2019|title=Varieties of Populist Parties and Party Systems in Europe: From State-of-the-Art to the Application of a Novel Classification Scheme to 66 Parties in 33 Countries|journal=Government and Opposition|volume=55|issue=2|pages=327–347|doi=10.1017/gov.2019.21|doi-access=free|hdl=11368/3001222|hdl-access=free}} or far-right party{{Citation |first=Michael |last=Huysseune |title=Federalism and the Extreme Right in Italy |journal=Fédéralisme Régionalisme |volume=2 |year=2001–2002 |url=http://popups.ulg.ac.be/federalisme/document.php?id=250#tocto2 |access-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823082532/http://popups.ulg.ac.be/federalisme/document.php?id=250#tocto2 |archive-date=23 August 2011 |url-status=live}} while some see significant differences to typical European radical right-wing populist parties,{{citation |first=Hans-Georg |last=Betz |title=Radical right-wing populism in Western Europe |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1994 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LwTTwbtNyxUC&q=lega+nord+right-wing+populist&pg=PA64 |isbn=978-0-312-08390-8}} or reject the label of radical right as inadequate to describe the party's ideology.{{citation |first=Duncan |last=McDonnell |title=A Weekend in Padania: Regionalist Populism and the Lega Nord |journal=Politics |volume=26 |issue=2 |date=April 2006 |pages=126–132 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9256.2006.00259.x|hdl=2318/69762 |s2cid=145674115 |hdl-access=free }}

According to many observers, under Matteo Salvini the party lurched to the right, but both Salvini, a former communist; and Luca Zaia insist the party is "neither right nor left"{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2014/novembre/27/Salvini_per_ora_avanti_solo_co_0_20141127_6dbd835e-7600-11e4-8dd1-b9af854f838d.shtml |title=Salvini (per ora) va avanti da solo "Mancano squadra e schema" |access-date=9 June 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.iltempo.it/adn-kronos/2014/11/27/lega-zaia-non-e-di-destra-ne-di-sinistra-1.1350361?localLinksEnabled=false |title=Lega: Zaia, non è di destra nè di sinistra |author=Adnkronos |access-date=9 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018133553/http://www.iltempo.it/adn-kronos/2014/11/27/lega-zaia-non-e-di-destra-ne-di-sinistra-1.1350361?localLinksEnabled=false |archive-date=18 October 2015}} while Roberto Maroni, another former leftist, stated that "we are a big political movement which has in its platform issues and people of right and left".{{cite web |url=http://www.formiche.net/2014/11/25/lega-chi-nongioisce-successo-matteo-salvini/ |title=Ecco chi non-gioisce troppo nella Lega per il successo di Matteo Salvini |work=Formiche |access-date=9 June 2015|date=25 November 2014 }}

The party usually takes a socially conservative stance on social issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, medical embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination, same-sex marriage (although there is an association called Los Padania, where "Los" stands for "free sexual orientation", linked to the party and Lega Nord was once in favour of same-sex marriage){{cite news |title=Il Carroccio: matrimoni gay nella Repubblica Padana |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/aprile/05/Carroccio_matrimoni_gay_nella_Repubblica_co_0_9804052417.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=5 April 1998}} and drug use (although it did once support the legalization of marijuana along with Marco Pannella's Radicals).{{Citation needed |date=October 2022}} Despite this, the party has been home to some social liberals, namely Giancarlo Pagliarini, Rossana Boldi, Giovanna Bianchi Clerici{{cite news |first1=Margherita |last1=De Bac |first2=Virginia |last2=Piccolillo |title=Fecondazione un fronte del sì tra le donne della Cdl |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2005/maggio/01/Fecondazione_fronte_del_tra_donne_co_8_050501066.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=1 May 2005}} and to some extent Roberto Castelli.

The party has often espoused criticism of Islam{{cite journal |last1=Amiel |first1=Sandrine|title=Salvini claims he is saving Europe from Islam, what are the facts?

|journal=Euronews |date=May 2019 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–29 |url= https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/03/europe-will-become-an-islamic-caliphate-if-we-don-t-take-back-control-salvini-tells-hunga |access-date=July 31, 2020}} and has styled itself as a defender of "Judeo-Christian values". In 2018 the party made a proposal to make it mandatory for crucifixes to be displayed in all public spaces, including ports, schools, embassies and prisons, with fines of up to €1,000 for failing to comply.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/26/pope-francis-adviser-decries-matteo-salvini-policy-on-crucifix|title=Pope Francis adviser decries Matteo Salvini's 'co-option' of crucifix|date=26 July 2018|website=the Guardian}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-far-right-is-trying-to-make-crucifixes-mandatory-across-italy/|title=The far right is trying to make crucifixes mandatory across Italy|website=Vice.com|date=11 April 2019 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/994234/italy-news-crucifix-law-matteo-salvini-christian-news|title=Italy plans MANDATORY crucifixes in public buildings - with a £890 fine for non-compliance|first=Harvey|last=Gavin|date=25 July 2018|website=Express.co.uk}}

File:Camper pubblicitario Lega Nord Toscana a Firenze.jpg in Florence]]

Lega Nord has long opposed statism and supports lower taxes, especially for families and small entrepreneurs,{{cite news |first=Angelo |last=Panebianco |author-link=Angelo Panebianco |title=I confini della Lega |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1993/giugno/15/confini_della_LEGA_co_0_93061516126.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=15 June 1993}} most recently in the form of a 15% flat tax for all.{{cite web |url=http://www.affaritaliani.it/politica/salvini-intervista-proposta-choc-tasse1206.html |title=Salvini: ecco il mio Centrodestra. Choc sulle tasse, aliquota unica |work=Affaritaliani.it |date=12 June 2014 |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-date=21 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621154201/http://www.affaritaliani.it/politica/salvini-intervista-proposta-choc-tasse1206.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/07/italys-election-everything-you-need-to-know |title=Italy's Election: everything you need to know |newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 March 2018 |last1=Henley |first1=Jon }} In earlier times, the party campaigned for a stop of the flow of public money in help to big businesses facing crisis as for FIAT{{cite web |url=http://banchedati.camera.it/sindacatoispettivo_16/showXhtml.asp?highLight=0&idAtto=3250&stile=6 |title=9/01519/013 : CAMERA – ITER ATTO |publisher=Chamber of Deputies |date=31 July 2008}} and Alitalia.{{cite web |first=Giacomo |last=Stucchi |title=Stucchi (Lega Nord): "Su Alitalia staremo in guardia più dell'Ue" |url=http://intervistestucchi.blogspot.com/2008/06/stucchi-lega-nord-su-alitalia-staremo.html |publisher=Intervistestucchi.blogspot.com |date=23 February 2004}}{{cite news |first=Marco |last=Castoro |title=Al diavolo Alitalia, che fallisca! La Lega boccia l'assistenzialismo |url=http://www.marcocastoro.it/?p=2080#more-2080 |publisher=Italia Oggi |location=Rome |date=20 September 2008}} Other key policies include the legalisation, regulation and taxation of prostitution in brothels,{{cite web |url=http://leganord.org/notizie2/10659-prostituzione-lega-presenta-legge-per-regolamentazione |title=Prostituzione: Lega presenta legge per regolamentazione – Lega Salvini Premier |website=leganord.org |access-date=2 March 2018 |archive-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215165513/https://leganord.org/notizie2/10659-prostituzione-lega-presenta-legge-per-regolamentazione |url-status=dead }} the direct election of prosecutors{{cite news |first=Maria Antonietta |last=Calabrò |title=La Lega: pm eletti dal popolo Pdl diviso, no dai democratici |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2008/agosto/26/Lega_eletti_dal_popolo_Pdl_co_9_080826096.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=26 August 2008}} and a regionalised judiciary and Constitutional Court.

In its political programme, the party is committed to the environment, supporting public green areas, the establishment of natural parks, recycling and the end (or regulation) of the construction of sheds in country areas, especially in Veneto.{{cite news |first=Gian Antonio |last=Stella |title="Basta capannoni, sono inutili" Il Veneto e i 200 km di cemento |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/settembre/18/Basta_capannoni_sono_inutili_Veneto_co_9_040918030.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=18 September 2004}} Lega Nord, which has a strong agricultural wing, also supports the protection of traditional food, opposes GMOs and has campaigned for a revision of the quota system of the Common Agricultural Policy.

In foreign policy, the League has never had a particularly pro-United States stance, although it admires the American federal political system. The party's MPs opposed both the Gulf War in 1991 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 in the name of pacifism and Bossi personally met Slobodan Milošević during that war.{{cite news |first=Massimo |last=Nava |title=Bossi: La Serbia inviterà Annan |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/aprile/24/Bossi_Serbia_invitera_Annan__co_0_9904241451.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=24 April 1999}}{{cite news |first=Paolo |last=Rumiz |title=L'Europa profonda che odia l'America |url=http://www.repubblica.it/online/dossier/rumi/rumi/rumi.html |newspaper=La Repubblica |location=Rome |date=11 April 1999}} However, after the September 11 attacks and the emergence of Islamic terrorism, the League became a supporter of the American efforts in the War on Terror,{{cite news |first=Maria |last=Latella |title=Lega, il partito filo Milosevic ora dà il via libera all'America |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2001/ottobre/10/Lega_partito_filo_Milosevic_ora_co_0_0110104176.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=10 October 2001}}{{cite news |first=Daria |last=Gorodisky |title=I Poli trovano l'intesa, sì all'intervento militare |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2001/novembre/08/Poli_trovano_intesa_all_intervento_co_0_0111087026.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=8 November 2001}}{{cite news |first=Roberto |last=Zuccolini |title=Sì a maggioranza, via alla "missione Afghanistan" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2002/ottobre/04/maggioranza_via_alla_missione_Afghanistan_co_0_0210043126.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=4 October 2002}}{{cite news |title=Calderoli: Bush regali l'atomica ad Ahmadinejad |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2006/settembre/07/Calderoli_Bush_regali_atomica_Ahmadinejad_co_9_060907127.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=7 September 2006}} while expressing several reservations about the Iraq War and the American policy in its aftermath.{{cite news |first=Monica |last=Guerzoni |title=Lo strappo della Lega sulla missione italiana |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/aprile/22/strappo_della_Lega_sulla_missione_co_9_040422002.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=22 April 2004}}{{cite news |first=Franco |last=Massimo |author-link=Massimo Franco|title=La Lega tende a smarcarsi. Inviti alla cautela sugli ostaggi |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/aprile/22/Lega_tende_smarcarsi_Inviti_alla_co_9_040422006.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=22 April 2004}}{{cite news |first=Livia |last=Michilli |title=Calderoli: andiamocene. Il Polo lo frena Rifinanziamento, il centrosinistra diviso |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2005/luglio/09/Calderoli_andiamocene_Polo_frena_Rifinanziamento_co_8_050709028.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=9 July 2005}} The League is also a staunch supporter of Israel.{{cite news |first1=Dario |last1=Di Vico |title=Attraverso Maroni e Israele La Lega "scopre" la Politica Estera |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/17/attraverso_Maroni_Israele_Lega_scopre_co_9_110617081.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=17 June 2011}} In 2011, the party was severely opposed to the Italian participation in the war in Libya{{cite news |first1=Virginia |last1=Piccolillo |title=Calderoli e il no della Lega "Il mio voto non-lo avranno" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/aprile/26/Calderoli_della_Lega_mio_voto_co_8_110426025.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=26 April 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Dino |last1=Maritano |title=Raid in Libia, no di Bossi. Il Pd: si rivoti |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/aprile/27/Raid_Libia_Bossi_rivoti_co_8_110427027.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=27 April 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Pontida, la sfida di Bossi "Berlusconi leader? Vedremo" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/20/Pontida_sfida_Bossi_Berlusconi_leader_co_8_110620016.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=20 June 2011}} while in 2014 it opposed the sanctions on Russia, a key economic partner of Lombard and Venetian entrepreneurs and a likely ally in the fight against Islamic terrorism and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.{{cite web |url=http://www.lapadania.net/Detail_News_Display?ID%3D3674 |title=ESISTE |access-date=11 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016223536/http://www.lapadania.net/Detail_News_Display?ID=3674 |archive-date=16 October 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.leganord.org/index.php/notizie2/13155-ucraina-pini-ln-stupide-sanzioni-priorita-e-lotta-isis |title=Lega Nord |last=Cordua |first=Davide |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-date=15 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215165510/https://www.leganord.org/index.php/notizie2/13155-ucraina-pini-ln-stupide-sanzioni-priorita-e-lotta-isis |url-status=dead }} At times, the party has adopted anti-globalist{{cite journal |last=Zaslove |first=Andrej |title=Exclusion, community, and a populist political economy: the radical right as an anti-globalization movement |journal=Comparative European Politics |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=169–189|doi=10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110126 |date=July 2008 |s2cid=144465005 }} views.

Through the Associazione Umanitaria Padana, Lega Nord participates in humanitarian projects which are intended to respect local cultures, traditions and identities. The campaigns are carried out in poor countries or in those that have suffered from war or natural catastrophes. Locations of missions include Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ivory Coast.{{cite web |url=http://www.umanitariapadanaonlus.net/ |title=Umanitaria Padana |publisher=Umanitaria Padana |access-date=12 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725082707/http://www.umanitariapadanaonlus.net/ |archive-date=25 July 2008 |url-status=dead }} The association is led by Sara Fumagalli, wife of Roberto Castelli and born-again Catholic after a pilgrimage in Medjugorje.{{cite news |url=http://www.umanitariapadanaonlus.net/articoli/Monzaclub%20n%2038.pdf |title=Sara Fumagalli. Una guerriera per la pace |publisher=Umanitaria Padana |access-date=12 January 2009 |archive-date=6 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206081530/http://www.umanitariapadanaonlus.net/articoli/Monzaclub%20n%2038.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |title=Castelli va a Medjugorje. L'ex ministro: a piedi nudi per sciogliere un mio voto |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2007/aprile/16/Castelli_Medjugorje_ministro_piedi_nudi_co_9_070416113.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=16 April 2007}}

File:Flag of Padania.svg, the proposed flag for Padania by Lega Nord]]

The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years as some opponents claimed it wanted secession of Padania while at other times it appeared to be requesting only autonomy for Northern regions. The League eventually settled on federalism, which rapidly became a buzzword and a popular issue in most Italian political parties.{{cite book |first1=Ilvo |last1=Diamanti |author-link=Ilvo Diamanti |title=Bianco, rosso, verde... e azzurro |year=2003 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |pages=68–71}}{{cite book |first1=Maurizio |last1=Ridolfi |title=Storia dei partiti politici. L'Italia dal Risorgimento alla Repubblica |year=2008 |publisher=Bruno Mondadori |location=Milan |pages=219–220}}

By 1996, the party switched to open separatism, calling for the independence of Padania. The party's constitution was reformed accordingly and still proclaims at article 1 that the LN's fundamental goal is "the achievement of the independence of Padania, through democratic means, and its international recognition as independent and sovereign federal republic".{{cite web |url=http://www.leganord.org/phocadownload/ilmovimento/statuto/Statuto.pdf |title=STATUTO DELLA LEGA NORD PER L'INDIPENDENZA DELLA PADANIA |website=Leganord.org |access-date=2 April 2016 |archive-date=6 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706125429/http://www.leganord.org/phocadownload/ilmovimento/statuto/Statuto.pdf |url-status=dead }} A voluntary group of militants, the "Green Volunteers", often referred as "green shirts" (green being the colour of Padania), was also established, but it has since been active mainly in civil defense and emergency management. In September 1996 in Venice, the party unilaterally proclaimed the independence of Padania at which time while reading the Padanian Declaration of Independence Bossi announced: {{blockquote|We the peoples of Padania solemnly declare that Padania is an independent and sovereign federal republic. We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honour.{{cite web |author=alkhan |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCRjBaZI4sA |title=Umberto Bossi – Dichiarazione di indipendenza della Padania1 |via=YouTube |date=1 July 2006 |access-date=2011-06-28}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}{{cite web |author=alkhan |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaDpz5Sppvc |title=Umberto Bossi – Dichiarazione di indipendenza della Padania2 |via=YouTube |access-date=28 June 2011}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}}}

The renewed alliance with Berlusconi in 2001 forced the party to tone down its separatism and Padania became the name of a proposed "macro-region", based on the ideas of Miglio: the establishment an Italian federal republic, divided into three "macro-regions" ("Padania", "Etruria" and the "South") and some autonomous regions. A new buzzword, devolution (often used in English), was also introduced, but with less success than "federalism". This evolution caused some criticism within party ranks and led to the formation of some minor breakaway groups.{{cite book |first1=Pietro |last1=Ignazi |title=Partiti politici in Italia |year=2008 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |pages=97–98}} Moreover, the peculiarity of the LN among European regionalist parties is that its main goal has long been the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions. Despite this, the party's constitution continues to declare that the independence of Padania is one of the party's final goal.

Lega Nord often criticises the European Union (it was the only party in the Italian Parliament, along with the Communist Refoundation Party, to vote against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, but it voted in favour of the Treaty of Lisbon){{cite news |first=Maurizio |last=Caprara |title=Passa all'unanimità il Trattato europeo |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2008/luglio/24/Passa_all_unanimita_Trattato_europeo_co_9_080724090.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=24 July 2008}} and opposes what it calls the "European superstate", favoring instead a "Europe of the Regions".{{cite book |first1=Umberto |last1=Bossi |author-link1=Umberto Bossi |first2=Daniele |last2=Vimercati |title=Vento dal Nord. La mia Lega, la mia vita |year=1992 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=194–205}}{{cite web |title=Sintesi posizioni Lega Nord sull'Unione Europea |url=http://www.padaniaoffice.org/pdf/affari_istituz/doc_politici/Punti_LN_Europa.pdf |publisher=Lega Nord |date=10 March 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727161710/http://www.padaniaoffice.org/pdf/affari_istituz/doc_politici/Punti_LN_Europa.pdf |archive-date=27 July 2011}}{{cite news |first=Giancarlo |last=Pagliarini |author-link=Giancarlo Pagliarini |url=http://www.giovanipadani.leganord.org/articoli.asp?ID=2846 |title=Sì all'Europa, ma che sia quella delle Regioni |publisher=La Padania |location=Milan |date=1 February 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707005508/http://www.giovanipadani.leganord.org/articoli.asp?ID=2846 |archive-date=7 July 2010}} Especially under the leadership of Matteo Salvini and the influence of professor Claudio Borghi, the party has proposed the abandonment of the Euro by Italy, although this has been opposed by some party heavyweights, notably including Flavio Tosi.{{cite web |url=http://www.larena.it/stories/Home/639157_tosi_uscire_dalleuro_io_dico_no_salvini_si_deve_uscire/ |title=L'Arena.it – Il giornale di Verona – Notizie, Cronaca, Sport, Cultura su Verona e Provincia |author=vambrosi |work=L'Arena.it |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019182652/http://www.larena.it/stories/Home/639157_tosi_uscire_dalleuro_io_dico_no_salvini_si_deve_uscire/ |archive-date=19 October 2014 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.iltempo.it/politica/2014/07/21/e-nella-lega-litigano-salvini-e-tosi-1.1273315 |title=E nella Lega litigano Salvini e Tosi |author=Gianni Di Capua |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924045929/http://www.iltempo.it/politica/2014/07/21/e-nella-lega-litigano-salvini-e-tosi-1.1273315 |url-status=dead }} In an October 2012 interview, Salvini said that "I in Milan want [the euro], because here we are in Europe. The South, however, is like Greece and needs another currency, the euro can't afford it."{{Cite web |title=I meridionali stiano "senza l'euro, non se lo meritano" |url=https://www.milanotoday.it/politica/salvini-euro-sud.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=MilanoToday |language=it}}

However, according to Roberto Maroni the party is not Eurosceptic and stands for a "new Europeanism". In a public speech in 2012, he said to party activists: "We should start looking at Padania in a Northern, European perspective. [...] The project of Padania is not anti-European, this is a new Europeanism which looks at the future: a Europe of the regions, a Europe of the peoples, a truly federal Europe". Moreover, under Maroni the party has supported the direct election of the President of the European Commission, more powers for the European Parliament, acceleration of the four unions (political, economic, banking and fiscal), Eurobonds and project bonds, the European Central Bank as lender of last resort and the "centrality of Italy in European politics".{{cite web |url=http://www.prov-como.leganord.org/news/63-programma-lega-nord-elezioni-politiche-2013 |title=Lega Nord Como Progamma Lega Nord Elezioni Politiche 2013 |publisher=Lega Nord |year=2013 |access-date=19 September 2013 |archive-date=22 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422020934/http://www.prov-como.leganord.org/news/63-programma-lega-nord-elezioni-politiche-2013 |url-status=dead }}

File:Manifestazione Lega Nord, Torino 2013 51.JPG, 2013.]]

The party takes a tough stance on crime, illegal immigration,{{Cite news |url=http://euobserver.com/justice/32181 |title=Barroso warns of extremism in immigration debate |date=14 April 2011 |first=Valentina |last=Pop |newspaper=EU Observer |access-date=10 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110163739/http://euobserver.com/justice/32181 |archive-date=10 January 2014 |url-status=live}} especially from Muslim countries, and terrorism. It supports the promotion of immigration from non-Muslim countries in order to protect the "Christian identity" of Italy and Europe, which according to party officials should be based on "Judeo-Christian heritage".{{cite web |url=http://www.leganord.org/elezioni/2008/lega/default.asp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20080311121249/http://www.leganord.org/elezioni/2008/lega/default.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 March 2008 |title=Movimento politico Lega Nord per l'indipendenza della Padania: programmi ed iniziative del partito |publisher=Lega Nord |year=2008}} The party has been labeled as "nationalist",{{cite book |last1=Cepernich |first1=Cristopher |title=The Italian General Election of 2018 |chapter=Digital Campaigning: The Communication Strategies of the Leaders on Facebook |editor1-last=Ceccarini |editor1-first=L. |editor2-last=Newell |editor2-first=J. |date=2019 |pages=217–243 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-13617-8_10 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-3-030-13616-1|s2cid=159273871 }} "xenophobic"{{cite news |first1=Aidan |last1=Lewis |title=Italy's Northern League resurgent |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7350691.stm |work=BBC News |location=London |date=17 April 2008}}{{cite news |first1=Iain |last1=Rogers |title=League allies may hinder Italy's Berlusconi: reports |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041500577_pf.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, DC |date=15 April 2008}} and "anti-immigration".{{cite news |first1=Elisabeth |last1=Rosenthal |title=Italy Arrests Hundreds of Immigrants |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world/europe/16italy.html?scp=9&sq=northern%20league%20anti-immigrant&st=cse |work=The New York Times |location=New York |date=15 May 2008}}{{cite book |first=Sonia |last=Alonso |title=Challenging the State: Devolution and the Battle for Partisan Credibility – A Comparison of Belgium, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhNwQ3CV0hQC |isbn=978-0-19-969157-9 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691579.001.0001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |page=216}}{{cite book |first=David |last=Art |title=Inside the Radical Right: The Development of Anti-Immigrant Parties in Western Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dUTXJakqLoC |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780511976254 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511976254 |year=2011 |pages=216 et seqq., especially p. 226}}{{cite journal |last1=Geddes |first1=Andrew |title=Il rombo dei cannoni? [Cannon thunders?] Immigration and the Centre-Right in Italy |journal=Journal of European Public Policy |date=April 2008 |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=349–366 |doi=10.1080/13501760701847416 |s2cid=143708920}}{{cite journal |last1=Shin |first1=Michael E. |last2=Agnew |first2=John |editor1-last=Leib |editor1-first=Jonathan |title=Spatial regression for electoral studies: The case of the Italian Lega Nord |journal=Revitalizing Electoral Geography |date=8 April 2011 |volume=1 |pages=71–85 |doi=10.4324/9781315606293 |publisher=Routledge |location=London|isbn=9781315606293}}{{cite book |last1=Zaslove |first1=Andrej |title=The Re-invention of the European Radical Right: Populism, Regionalism, and the Italian Lega Nord |date=2011 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-3851-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JSTpSX8q44C |access-date=12 December 2019 |language=en |at=passim, especially pp. 29, 119–121, 130}} In 1992, the League was compared by Le Nouvel Observateur to some national populist parties of the European far-right, including France's National Front, the Freedom Party of Austria and the Vlaams Blok, claiming that "the League rejects any association with neo-fascists but plays on themes of xenophobia regionalism and trivial racism".{{cite news |first1=Gianna |last1=Fregonara |title=Un giornale francese lo mette nella casa europea dei Le Pen |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1992/aprile/19/giornale_francese_mette_nella_casa_co_0_9204193761.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=19 April 1992}}

In 2002, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) denounced the party, saying that "exponents of the Lega Nord [...] have been particularly active in resorting to racist and xenophobic propaganda, although members of other parties have also made use of xenophobic or otherwise intolerant political discourse".{{cite web |title=European Commission against Racism and Intolerance – Second Report on Italy |url=https://rm.coe.int/second-report-on-italy/16808b582e |website=coe.int |publisher=European Commission against Racism and Intolerance |access-date=3 July 2019 |location=Strasbourg |page=24 |date=23 April 2002}} In 2006 the ECRI noticed that "some members of the Northern League have intensified the use of racist and xenophobic discourse". While noting that those expressing themselves this way were mostly local representatives, according to the ECRI "representatives exercising important political functions at national level have also resorted to racist and xenophobic discourse. Such discourse has continued to target essentially non-EU immigrants, but also other members of minority groups, such as Roma and Sinti". The ECRI also recalled that "in December 2004, the first instance court of Verona found six local representatives of Lega Nord guilty of incitement to racial hatred in connection with a campaign organised in order to send a group of Sinti away from a local temporary settlement".{{cite web |title=European Commission against Racism and Intolerance – Third Report on Italy |url=https://rm.coe.int/third-report-on-italy/16808b5831 |website=coe.int |publisher=European Commission against Racism and Intolerance |access-date=3 July 2019 |location=Strasbourg |pages=22–23 |date=16 May 2006}} However, the Court of Cassation cancelled the sentence in 2007.{{cite news |url=http://www.repubblica.it/2008/06/sezioni/cronaca/sicurezza-politica-10/cassazione-tosi/cassazione-tosi.html |title=Cassazione, se i nomadi sono ladri è legittima la discriminazione |newspaper=La Repubblica |location=Rome |date=29 June 2008}}

Although several LN members speak strongly against illegal immigrants (Bossi suggested in 2003 opening fire on the boats of illegal immigrants from Africa, whom he described as bingo-bongos;{{cite news |first=Giovanna |last=Pajetta |title=Bossi prende il cannone |url=http://it.geocities.com/ilgruppodellatanadelgiaguaro/forum_libero/messaggi/58.htm |date=17 June 2003 |work=il manifesto |location=Rome |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060218090812/http://it.geocities.com/ilgruppodellatanadelgiaguaro/forum_libero/messaggi/58.htm |archive-date=18 February 2006}} and Giancarlo Gentilini labeled foreigners as "immigrant slackers", saying that "we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang"),{{cite news |first1=Emilio |last1=Marrese |title=Ramadan, sindaco nega lo spazio Benetton concede il palazzetto |url=http://www.repubblica.it/online/cronaca/immitreviso/ramadan/ramadan.html |newspaper=La Repubblica |location=Rome |date=13 December 2002}} the party's official line is more moderate. In a 2010 interview after some riots in Milan between South American and North African immigrants, Maroni, then Minister of the Interior, stated that "the police state is not the solution" to integration problems and calling for a "new model of integration" maintained that "we should think that, other than a permit of stay, a job and a house, there are further conditions that today are missing for integration to succeed".{{cite news |first=Giangiacomo |last=Schiavi |title=Maroni: niente rastrellamenti serve una nuova integrazione |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2010/febbraio/15/Maroni_niente_rastrellamenti_serve_una_co_8_100215021.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=15 February 2010}} Bossi endorsed the position.{{cite news |first=Michele |last=Focarete |title=Bossi: "Immigrati, no ai rastrellamenti" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2010/febbraio/16/Bossi_Immigrati_rastrellamenti__co_8_100216022.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=16 February 2010}}

Lega Nord rejects all charges of xenophobia, instead claiming that the North is the victim of discrimination and racism.{{cite book |first1=Umberto |last1=Bossi |author-link1=Umberto Bossi |first2=Daniele |last2=Vimercati |title=Vento dal Nord. La mia Lega, la mia vita |year=1992 |publisher=Sperling & Kupfer |location=Milan |pages=141–150}}{{cite news |first=Guido |last=Passalacqua |title=Bossi si infuria: siete voi i razzisti |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2000/11/22/bossi-si-infuria-siete-voi-razzisti.html |newspaper=La Repubblica |location=Rome |date=22 November 2000}} After more than fifteen years of government by Lega Nord, the Province of Treviso was widely considered the place in Italy where immigrants are best integrated.{{cite news |url=http://www.giovaniemissione.it/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=780 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128164935/http://www.giovaniemissione.it/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=780 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 January 2012 |first=Tiziana |last=Cavallo |title=Rapporto / Integrazione immigrati |publisher=Nigrizia |location=Verona |date=23 March 2006}}{{cite news |title=Immigrati, ben integrati in Veneto ok anche Marche ed Emilia Romagna |url=http://www.repubblica.it/2006/c/sezioni/cronaca/caritas/caritas/caritas.html?ref=search |newspaper=La Repubblica |location=Rome |date=22 March 2006}} Similar things can be said about the city of Verona,{{cite news |first=Duilio |last=Colonna |title=Integrazione, la città è ospitale con gli stranieri |url=http://www.veronasera.it/News/CRONACA/13-07-2010_14.17/Integrazione_la_citt%C3%A0_%C3%A8_ospitale_con_gli_stranieri_01738.htm |publisher=Verona Sera |location=Verona |date=13 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305101037/http://www.veronasera.it/News/CRONACA/13-07-2010_14.17/Integrazione_la_citt%C3%A0_%C3%A8_ospitale_con_gli_stranieri_01738.htm |archive-date=5 March 2012}} governed by Flavio Tosi, who evolved from being a hardliner to be one of the most popular mayors of Italy.{{cite news |first=Paolo |last=Biondani |title=Mi manda Maroni |url=http://rassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=14WLUI |newspaper=L'Espresso |location=Milan |date=6 October 2011 |page=59 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425132507/http://rassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=14WLUI |archive-date=25 April 2012 |language=it}}{{cite news |title=Sindaci più amati, Piero Fassino scalza Tosi dal primo posto |url=http://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/veneto/notizie/politica/2011/13-ottobre-2011/sindaci-piu-amati-piero-fassino-scalza-tosi-primo-posto-1901810186747.shtml |newspaper=Corriere del Veneto |location=Padua |date=13 October 2011}} Moreover, the first and so far only black mayor in Italy belongs to the League: Sandy Cane (whose mother is Italian and father is an African American){{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5496550/Unlikely-champion-of-Italys-anti-immigration-party-is-black-and-half-American.html |title=Unlikely champion of Italy's anti-immigration party is black and half-American |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=11 June 2009 |location=London |first=Nick |last=Squires}} was elected mayor in Viggiù in 2009. In an interview with The Independent, Cane said that the League does not include racist or xenophobic members.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/antiimmigration-party-member-becomes-italys-first-black-mayor-1701893.html |title=Anti-immigration party member becomes Italy's first black mayor |work=The Independent |date=10 June 2009 |location=London |first=Michael |last=Day}} She eventually left the League in 2014.{{cite news |url=http://www.varesenews.it/2014/10/sandy-cane-do-l-addio-alla-lega-e-vi-spiego-il-perche/341677/ |title=Lascio la Lega e vi spiego perche' |publisher=Varese News |year=2014}} More recently, Hajer Fezzani, a Tunisian-born lapsed Muslim, was appointed local coordinator in Malnate;{{cite news |first=Tommaso |last=Guidotti |title=Un tunisina alla guida della Lega Nord: "Il mio sogno è incontrare Bossi" |url=http://www3.varesenews.it/varese/articolo.php?id=198159 |publisher=Varese Laghi |location=Varese |date=10 March 2011}} Souad Sbai, president of the association "Moroccan women in Italy" and former deputy of The People of Freedom, joined the party;{{cite web |url=http://lapadania.net/Detail_News_Display?ID%3D3015 |title=ESISTE |access-date=11 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016223452/http://lapadania.net/Detail_News_Display?ID=3015 |archive-date=16 October 2014}} and most notably Toni Iwobi, a Nigerian-born long-time party member, was appointed at the head of the party's department on immigration ("Tony will do more for legal immigrants in a month than what Kyenge has done in an entire life", Salvini said during the press conference){{cite web |url=http://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/politica/11700208/Immigrati--Salvini--Iwobi-fara.html |title=Immigrati: Salvini, Iwobi farà di più della Kyenge |language=it |work=Libero |access-date=9 June 2015}} and became the first person of colour to be elected a senator of Italy after 2018 general election.[http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/03/06/news/bergamo_eletto_il_primo_senatore_italiano_nero_e_leghista-190601497/ Nigeriano, immigrato, titolare d'azienda: eletto dalla Lega il primo senatore di colore] Milano.repubblica.it. Retrieved 6 March 2018

Lega Nord was originally a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA) and its first two MEPs, Francesco Speroni and Luigi Moretti, joined the Rainbow Group in the European Parliament during the fourth parliamentary term (1989–1994). Between 1994 and 1997, it was a member of the group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR)[http://www.eldr.eu/en/congress/2006/05/congress-in-torquay-9-10-december-1993] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091006094300/http://www.eldr.eu/en/congress/2006/05/congress-in-torquay-9-10-december-1993|date=6 October 2009}}[http://www.leeds.ac.uk/politics/cbl/int/party/eldrhis.htm History of ELDR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221935/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/politics/cbl/int/party/eldrhis.htm |date=3 March 2016 }}. University of Leeds. Retrieved 24 August 2013. and one MEP of Lega Nord, Raimondo Fassa, continued to sit in the ELDR group until 1999. During the sixth parliamentary term (1999–2004), it was briefly a component of the Technical Group of Independents (TGI) along with Italian Radicals and then returned to the Non-Inscrits.{{cite web |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=1101 |title=European Parliament: Luigi Moretti |publisher=European Parliament}}{{cite web |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=997 |title=European Parliament: Francesco Speroni |publisher=European Parliament}}{{cite web |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=2036 |title=European Parliament: Umberto Bossi |publisher=European Parliament}}{{cite web |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive/alphaOrder/view.do?language=EN&id=1954 |title=European Parliament: Raimondo Fassa |publisher=European Parliament}}

Following the 2004 European Parliament election, Lega Nord joined the Independence/Democracy (I/D) group and later the Union for Europe of the Nations (UEN), a seemingly awkward affiliation for a party proposing a "Europe of the Regions"—but in the Lega Nord's view a state's "regions" are populated by "nations" such as the Catalans or the Lombards. The party was affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe until 2006, when its members joined the European Democrat Group (EDG), a diverse group stretching from the British Conservative Party to United Russia.{{cite web |url=http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/ALMemberDetails.asp?MemberID=5791 |title=Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Roberto Maroni |publisher=Assembly.coe.int |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722013239/http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/ALMemberDetails.asp?MemberID=5791 |archive-date=22 July 2011}}

Following the 2009 European Parliament election, Lega Nord joined the newly formed the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group. One year after the 2014 European Parliament election, the party was a founding member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENL) group. After the 2019 European Parliament election, Lega Nord co-founded the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, alongside the French National Rally, the Danish People's Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Conservative People's Party of Estonia, the Finns Party, the Belgian Vlaams Belang, the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy party, and Alternative for Germany. Outside of its European parliamentary group, Lega also has contacts with the Spanish Vox,{{cite news|work=a Vanguardia|title=Abascal y Salvini se reúnen en Roma para hablar de inmigración|date=20 September 2019|url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20190920/47503462802/abascal-salvini-roma-inmigracion.html}} the Dutch Forum for Democracy, the Sweden Democrats, the Hungarian Fidesz,{{cite news|work=Politico|date=2 May 2019|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/orban-salvini-flirt-with-alliance-after-eu-election/|title=Orbán, Salvini flirt with alliance after EU election}} and the Polish Law and Justice party.{{cite news|work=Politico|date=19 April 2019|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-salvini-jaroslaw-kaczynski-italy-poland-eu-pledges-italo-polish-axis-after-warsaw-talks/|title=Italian and Polish leaders to discuss European election axis}} In March 2017 the LN signed a cooperation protocol with United Russia.{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0d33d22c-0280-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/0d33d22c-0280-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |title=Putin's party signs deal with Italy's far-right Lega Nord |first1=Max |last1=Seddon |first2=James |last2=Politi |work=Financial Times |date=6 March 2017}}

The party has also been active in counter-jihad networks, and in 2016 signed the "Prague Declaration" as part of the Fortress Europe group alongside the Pegida movement and other groups against the "Islamic conquest of Europe".{{cite book|title='Green Crescent, Crimson Cross': The Transatlantic 'Counterjihad' and the New Political Theology|url=https://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3780/1/Pertwee__green-crescent-crimson-cross.pdf|pages=3, 101|last=Pertwee|first=Ed|date=October 2017|publisher=London School of Economics|doi=10.21953/lse.xx0e1p4w3f3y|doi-access=free}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAxZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT18|first=Anita|last=Nissen|title=Europeanisation of the Contemporary Far Right: Generation Identity and Fortress Europe|page=18|publisher=Routledge|year=2022|isbn=9781000547085}}

Although there are almost no official factions within the party, it is possible to distinguish several tendencies or wings.

File:Folla alla festa dei popoli padani, Venezia, 2011.jpg, 2011]]

The wing from the province of Varese and more broadly the bulk of the original Lega Lombarda (including Umberto Bossi, Roberto Maroni and Marco Formentini) has tended to be the left-wing of the party while that from the province of Bergamo (notably Roberto Calderoli) has tended to be more conservative. In fact, both Bossi and Maroni hailed from the far-left of the political spectrum, having been active in the Italian Communist Party,{{cite journal | url=https://journals.openedition.org/qds/1498 | doi=10.4000/qds.1498 | title=Etnografia della Lega Nord. Partecipazione e linguaggio politico in quattro sezioni piemontesi | date=1998 | last1=Marzano | first1=Marco | journal=Quaderni di Sociologia | issue=17 | pages=166–198 | doi-access=free }}{{cite web | url=https://st.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2011-09-19/bossi-compie-anni-vita-134121_PRN.shtml | title=Bossi compie 70 anni, la storia del - Ecco una conferma per chi crede - Il Sole 24 ORE }} il manifesto movement, the Party of Proletarian Unity, Proletarian Democracy and the Greens before starting Lega Lombarda;{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=22–23, 57}}{{cite book |first1=Michele |last1=De Lucia |title=Dossier Bossi-Lega Nord |year=2011 |publisher=Kaos |location=Milan |page=1}} and conceived Lega Nord as a centre-left (and to some extent social-democratic) political force.{{cite news |first=Gianna |last=Fregonara |title=Bossi riaccoglie Maroni e torna alle origini |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1995/maggio/08/Bossi_riaccoglie_Maroni_torna_alle_co_0_9505087057.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=8 May 1995}}{{cite news |first=Gianfranco |last=Ballardin |title=Maroni: solo, ma vado al congresso |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1995/gennaio/28/Maroni_solo_vado_congresso_co_0_9501287416.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=28 January 1995}} From the left came also Marco Formentini, a long-time member of the left-wing of the Italian Socialist Party;{{cite news |first=Elio |last=Girompini |title=Il cuore socialista di Marco Formentini |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1993/novembre/29/cuore_socialista_Marco_Formentini_co_0_9311299676.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=29 November 1993}} and Rosi Mauro, a trade unionist of the metal workers' section of the Italian Labour Union and later leader of the Padanian Trade Union (SinPa).{{cite news |first=Enrico |last=Marro |title=Cremaschi e il boom della Lega operaia: "Marxisti di destra. E Tremonti non-sbaglia" |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2008/aprile/17/Cremaschi_boom_della_Lega_operaia_co_9_080417090.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=17 April 2008}}

Since its foundation, Liga Veneta was instead characterised as a liberal, centrist and economically libertarian outfit due to the political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base. In the early 1990s, the League took votes especially from the Communists and the Socialists in western and central Lombardy, while the party electorally replaced Christian Democracy in eastern Lombardy and Veneto.{{cite web |first=Massimiliano |last=Finazzer |title=Analisi dello scontro tra la Lega Lombarda e la Liga Veneta La strategia di Bossi del blocco padano |url=http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/104709/105181-analisi-dello-scontro-tra-la-lega-lombarda-e-la-liga-veneta-la-strategia-di-bossi-del-blocco-padano |publisher=Radio Radicale |date=17 September 1998}}{{cite book |first1=Ilvo |last1=Diamanti |author-link=Ilvo Diamanti |title=Bianco, rosso, verde... e azzurro |year=2003 |publisher=Il Mulino |location=Bologna |pages=55–83}}

Lega Lombarda also included liberal-conservative figures such as Gianfranco Miglio and Vito Gnutti, both former Christian Democrats, while Giovanni Meo Zilio, a Socialist partisan during the Italian Resistance, was one of the founding fathers of Liga Veneta.

In Emilia-Romagna, a left-wing heartland, the party has many former Communists in its ranks and many others have Communist upbringings.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Imarisio |title=Emilia, dove il rosso diventa Lega |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2008/aprile/19/Emilia_dove_rosso_diventa_Lega_co_9_080419145.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=19 April 2008}}{{cite news |first1=Michele |last1=Brambilla |title=Reggio o Bologna, la guerra fratricida della Lega in Emilia |url=http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/politica/201010articoli/59905girata.asp |work=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=28 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101031014550/http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/politica/201010articoli/59905girata.asp |archive-date=31 October 2010}}{{cite news |first1=Olivio |last1=Romanini |title=Bernardini: "Scoprii la Lega sulla Smemoranda" |url=http://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/notizie/politica/2011/24-marzo-2011/bernardini-scoprii-legasulla-smemoranda-190297103799.shtml |newspaper=Corriere di Bologna |location=Bologna |date=24 March 2011}} However, with the passing of time the party underwent a process of homogenisation.

Between Maroni and Calderoli, there has been a liberal centrist wing including Roberto Castelli, a conspicuous group of former Liberals (Manuela Dal Lago, Daniele Molgora, Francesco Speroni and more) and a new generation of leghisti (Roberto Cota, Giancarlo Giorgetti, Marco Reguzzoni, Luca Zaia and others).

The League is home also to some issue-oriented groups. First, there is a group of Christian democrats, most of whom are affiliated to the Padanian Catholics, founded by late Roberto Ronchi and currently led by Giuseppe Leoni. Another leading Catholic is Massimo Polledri.{{cite news |first1=Carlo |last1=Puca |title=Dove vuole arrivare la Balena verde |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=ZM31W |work=Panorama |location=Milan |date=11 May 2011}} Many leghisti are committed to Catholic social teaching and the social market economy and several party members are former members or voters of Christian Democracy.

There is a right-wing which is represented mainly by Mario Borghezio, a former Monarchist and Ordine Nuovo member who is the leader of Christian Padania, which is a key advocate of social conservatism within party ranks and has some links with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X.{{Citation needed |date=September 2019}}

File:Raduno Lega Nord a Pontida 2011.jpg, 2011]]

Third and fourth, the party has always included also a group of libertarians, whose leading members Leonardo Facco, Gilberto Oneto and Giancarlo Pagliarini have since left the party; and an Independentist Unit.{{cite news |first=Gian Guido |last=Vecchi |title=Bossi multato dai suoi |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1995/novembre/21/Bossi_multato_dai_suoi_co_2_951121488.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=21 November 1995}} The independentist wing crosses all the other factions and tendencies and in fact includes Borghezio and Francesco Speroni, among others. Oneto, father of Padanian nationalism; and Pagliarini were also close to this group.{{cite news |first=Alessandro |last=Trocino |title=La Lega delusa punta tutto sul referendum |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2006/aprile/11/Lega_delusa_punta_tutto_sul_co_9_060411103.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=11 April 2006}}{{cite news |first=Alessandro |last=Trocino |title=La mozione della Lega: pronti a correre da soli |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2007/febbraio/10/mozione_della_Lega_pronti_correre_co_9_070210114.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=10 February 2007}}

Finally, the party is home to an agricultural wing, which is particularly strong in southern Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto and is represented by the Cobas del latte, a farmers' trade union; the Land Movement, whose leader was Giovanni Robusti;{{cite web |url=http://www.leganord.org/ilmovimento/storia/03_lega_nord_storia96_98.pdf |title=Cronistoria della Lega Nord 1996–1998 |publisher=Lega Nord |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612225329/http://leganord.org/ilmovimento/storia/03_lega_nord_storia96_98.pdf |archive-date=12 June 2010}} and politicians such as Luca Zaia, a former Minister of Agriculture, Fabio Rainieri, one of the leader of Lega Nord Emilia; and Erminio Boso, a historic and now marginal figure from Trentino.

In October 1997, Lega Nord organised what it called "the first elections to the Padanian Parliament". Roughly 4 million northern Italians (6 million according to the party) went to the polls and chose between a number of Padanian parties. This is a short resume of the affiliations of leading party members:{{cite news |first1=Fabio |last1=Cavalera |title=Tra le 43 liste gli "italiani" Pannella e Dalla Chiesa |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1997/ottobre/24/Tra_liste_gli_italiani_Pannella_co_0_9710242051.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=24 October 1997}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Dal Fior |title=I lumbard al primo voto: favorito Formentini nei 200 seggi gazebo |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1997/ottobre/26/lumbard_primo_voto_favorito_Formentini_co_0_9710261576.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=26 October 1997}}{{cite news |first1=Venanzio |last1=Postiglione |title=Nei gazebo vincono Centro e ultra' |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1997/ottobre/28/Nei_gazebo_vincono_Centro_ultra_co_0_9710281499.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=28 October 1997}}{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=111–112}}{{cite news |first=Gian Guido |last=Vecchi |title=Lista Dalla Chiesa alle elezioni padane |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1997/settembre/20/Lista_Dalla_Chiesa_alle_elezioni_co_0_97092014632.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=20 September 1997}}

• Marco Formentini, Giovanni Meo Zilio, Roberto Bernardelli, Franco Colleoni and Mariella Mazzetto, with the support of Roberto Maroni,{{Cite web | url=https://www.ilpost.it/2018/01/13/roberto-maroni-lombardia | title=Una vita da Roberto Maroni| date=13 January 2018}} launched the Europeanist and social-democratic European Democrats – Padanian Labour (52 seats out of 210);
• Vito Gnutti, Giancarlo Pagliarini, Domenico Comino, Roberto Cota and Massimo Zanello led the liberal-conservative Liberal Democrats – Forza Padania (50);
• Oreste Rossi, Enzo Flego and Walter Gherardini formed the national-conservative Padanian Right (27);
• Roberto Ronchi and Giuseppe Leoni founded the Christian democratic Padanian Catholics (20);
• A group of Venetian leghisti formed the Venetist Padanian Lions (14);
• Leonardo Facco, Leopoldo Siegel and Marco Pottino launched Libertarian and Liberal Padania (12);
• Matteo Salvini and Mauro Manfredini were candidates of the Padanian Communists (5);
• Erminio Boso led the agrarian conservative Padanian Union – Agriculture, Environment, Hunting, Fishing (5);
• Benedetto Della Vedova, a Radical politician, was elected at the head of an anti-prohibitionist and free market libertarian list in Milan while Nando Dalla Chiesa, a Green MP, was an unsuccessful candidate in Milan too.

During the years in government in Rome (2001–2006), in the party there were different viewpoints on coalitions: some, led by Calderoli and Castelli (with the backing of Bossi), vigorously supported the alliance with the centre-right while others, represented by Maroni and Giorgetti, were less warm about it.{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=152–153, 158–159, 168}}{{cite news |first=Guido |last=Passalacqua |title=Maroni contro Calderoli, l'enigma è Giorgetti |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2004/05/14/maroni-contro-calderoli-enigma-giorgetti.mi_020maroni.html |newspaper=La Repubblica |location=Rome |date=14 May 2004}}{{cite news |first=Alessandro |last=Trocino |title=Un'ora di cammino al giorno, Bossi prepara il rientro |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/ottobre/21/ora_cammino_giorno_Bossi_prepara_co_9_041021057.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=21 October 2004}} Some of them spoke about joining the centre-left some time after the 2006 general election, which they were certain to lose. This idea was ascribed to the fact that without any support from the left it seemed even more difficult to win the constitutional referendum which would have turned Italy into a federal state.{{cite book |first1=Adalberto |last1=Signore |first2=Alessandro |last2=Trocino |title=Razza padana |year=2008 |publisher=BUR |location=Milan |pages=122–127, 312–313}}

Similar differences emerged during (and within) Berlusconi's fourth government (2008–2011). While Calderoli was again a keen supporter of the arrangement, Maroni was far less warm on Berlusconi and at times evoked an alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party. Calderoli's line had the backing of Federico Bricolo, Cota, Reguzzoni and chiefly Bossi while Maroni was backed by Giorgetti, Speroni, Zaia and Tosi.{{cite news |title=La Lega è sull'orlo della spaccatura. Calderoli contro Maroni. Insider choc |url=http://affaritaliani.libero.it/politica/lega_maroni_calderoli_spaccatura_bossi010211.html |publisher=Affaritaliani |date=1 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204025227/http://affaritaliani.libero.it/politica/lega_maroni_calderoli_spaccatura_bossi010211.html |archive-date=4 February 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Il Senatur insegue la riforma e diventa "garante" del no alle urne |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/febbraio/05/Senatur_insegue_riforma_diventa_garante_co_8_110205011.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=5 February 2011}} However, the alliance with the centre-right continued at the regional/local level (Veneto, Piedmont, Lombardy and others municipalities) after 2011 and has become a virtually permanent feature of Lega Nord's electoral politics.

Since 2008, besides the traditional regional divides, the party was increasingly divided among three groups. The first was the so-called "magic circle", that was to say Bossi's inner circle, notably including Marco Reguzzoni, Rosi Mauro and Federico Bricolo. The second was formed around Roberto Calderoli, who was the powerful coordinator of Lega Nord's national secretariats and had among his closest supporters Giacomo Stucchi and Davide Boni. The third one was led by Roberto Maroni, who tended to be more independent from Bossi and was somewhat critical of the centre-right affiliation of the party; and it included Giancarlo Giorgetti, Attilio Fontana, Matteo Salvini and Flavio Tosi.{{cite news |first1=Giuliano |last1=Zulin |title=Colpi bassi nella Lega per il dopo-Bossi |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=Y36T0 |work=Libero |date=10 March 2011 |location=Milan}}{{cite news |title=Reguzzoni-Mauro, i bossiani non-amati dalla Lega |url=http://affaritaliani.libero.it/politica/lega_mappa_potere100311.html |publisher=Affaritaliani |date=12 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319070442/http://affaritaliani.libero.it/politica/lega_mappa_potere100311.html |archive-date=19 March 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Matteo |last1=Pandini |title=Umberto sistema i conti a Roma. A Milano i suoi litigano ancora |work=Libero |location=Milan |date=4 May 2011}} Gian Paolo Gobbo and Luca Zaia, leaders of the party in Veneto, although very loyal to Bossi, tended to be independent from "federal" factions and were engaged in a long power struggle with Flavio Tosi (see Liga Veneta#Factions).{{cite news |first1=Lillo |last1=Aldegheri |title=La Lega si spacca sull'Unità Gobbo, nuovo attacco a Tosi |url=http://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/veneto/notizie/politica/2011/25-gennaio-2011/lega-si-spacca-sull-unita-gobbo-nuovo-attacco-tosi-181325186254.shtml |newspaper=Corriere del Veneto |location=Padua |date=25 January 2011}} Indeed, Corriere della Sera identified four main groups: the magic circle, maroniani, calderoliani and "Venetians" (or, better, Venetists),{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Difesa dei "piccoli" e un orizzonte di alleanza che non-va oltre il 2011 |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=11BFBJ |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=19 June 2011}} leaving aside the core independentists (see Lega Nord#Issue-oriented groups). Roberto Cota, leader of Lega Nord Piemont, the third largest national section of Lega Nord, was very close to Bossi and was part of the magic circle, but since his election as President of Piedmont became more independent.{{cite news |first1=Michele |last1=Brambilla |title=Il Capo stanco e i "pretoriani" del cerchio magico |url=http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/politica/201009articoli/58493girata.asp |work=La Stampa |location=Turin |date=13 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011141007/http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/politica/201009articoli/58493girata.asp |archive-date=11 October 2011}} Equidistant from the main factions were also Roberto Castelli and Francesco Speroni.

File:Raduno di Pontida 2013 60.JPG

By 2011, maroniani clearly became the strongest faction within the party and Maroni, who was acclaimed at the traditional rally in Pontida in June, became Bossi's obvious successor.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Imarisio |title=Quello striscione della base per Maroni |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/20/Quello_striscione_della_base_per_co_8_110620018.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=20 June 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Paolo |last1=Bracalini |title=Il popolo lumbard ha scelto: "Bobo, sarai il nostro premier" |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/il_popolo_lumbard_ha_scelto_bobo_sarai_nostro_premier/20-06-2011/articolo-id=530336-page=0-comments=1 |newspaper=Il Giornale |location=Milan |date=20 June 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Francesco |last1=Borgonovo |title=La trota è Maroni. Bobo parla da leader. Del centrodestra |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=11BZ8E |work=Libero |location=Milan |date=20 June 2011}} Maroniani commanded wide support among rank-and-file members and were well represented in all regions,{{cite news |first1=Cristina |last1=Giudici |title=Maroni, il più italiano dei leghisti e il suo esercito di leghisti italiani |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=YAM15 |work=Il Foglio |location=Rome |date=18 March 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Alessandro |last1=Da Rold |title=In Veneto la spunta Tosi (per ora). Congresso dopo le amministrative |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=YLZFP |publisher=Il Riformista |location=Rome |date=30 March 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Salvatore |last1=Merlo |title=Così dietro la baruffa tra Bossi e il Cav. cresce l'egemonia di Maroni |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=ZGQUU |work=Il Foglio |location=Rome |date=30 April 2011}} notably including Veneto, where Tosi was loyal to Maroni despite being a conservative-liberal.{{cite news |first1=Alessandro |last1=Zuin |title=Il caso Lega. Se ai congressi gli uomini del capo adesso perdono |url=http://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/veneto/notizie/politica/elezioni2011/notizie/caso-lega-190760946109.shtml |publisher=Corriere del Veneto |location=Padua |date=31 May 2011}} Maroni and Calderoli, who had been on opposite sides for years, joined forces against the magic circle and its influence on Bossi.{{cite news |first1=Francesco |last1=Verderami |title="Poi alle elezioni da soli", ma lo scopo del Carroccio è trattare su Palazzo Chigi |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/maggio/12/Poi_alle_elezioni_soli_scopo_co_8_110512035.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=12 May 2011}} After Pontida 2011, Mauro and Reguzzoni tried to convince Bossi to remove Giorgetti from the leadership of Lega Lombarda, but this move was strongly opposed by Maroni and Calderoli, who were supported in this also by Cota and most Venetians.{{cite news |first1=Matteo |last1=Pandini |title=Nella Lega volano gli stracci |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=11D33M |work=Libero |location=Milan |date=21 June 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Paolo |last1=Bracalini |title=Macché unita, ora la Lega rischia di implodere: è scoppiata la guerra sui vertici in Lombardia |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/macche_unita_lega_scoppia_e_guerra_vertici_lombardia/21-06-2011/articolo-id=530502-page=0-comments=1 |newspaper=Il Giornale |location=Milan}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Nervi tesi dopo Pontida. Accuse e liti in casa |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/21/Nervi_tesi_dopo_Pontida_Accuse_co_8_110621025.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=21 June 2011}} The attempted "coup d'etat" produced an umparalleled backclash against the magic circle: 49 deputies out of 59 wanted to replace Reguzzoni as floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies with Stucchi, but Bossi imposed the status quo.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Ma il Carroccio resta in fibrillazione: Reguzzoni ora è un caso |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/22/Carroccio_resta_fibrillazione_Reguzzoni_ora_co_9_110622006.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=22 June 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Alessandro |last1=Trocino |title=Tregua armata nella Lega. E Castelli: romani arretrati |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/23/Tregua_armata_nella_Lega_Castelli_co_8_110623025.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=23 June 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Unità fragile. Maroni: non è andata come volevo |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/giugno/23/Unita_fragile_Maroni_non_andata_co_8_110623027.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=23 June 2011}}{{cite news |first1=Giuliano |last1=Zulin |title=Bossi spara sui suoi, ora la Lega rischia grosso |url=http://newrassegna.camera.it/chiosco_new/pagweb/immagineFrame.asp?comeFrom=search¤tArticle=11GT4S |work=Libero |location=Milan |date=June 2011}}

After earning resounding victories in the provincial congresses of Verona, Belluno and eastern Veneto during the first half of 2011, maroniani (with the support of calderoliani) prevailed also in Brescia and Val Camonica, defeating the candidates of the magic circle by landslides.{{cite news |first1=Giuseppe |last1=Spatola |title=Lega, Maroni prende Brescia Sfida a tre per Varese |url=http://www.bresciaoggi.it/stories/Home/294147_lega_nord_sempre_pi_divisacaso_brescia_in_via_bellerio/ |publisher=Brescia Oggi |location=Brescia |date=5 October 2011 |access-date=5 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407032929/http://www.bresciaoggi.it/stories/Home/294147_lega_nord_sempre_pi_divisacaso_brescia_in_via_bellerio/ |archive-date=7 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}{{cite news |first1=Giuseppe |last1=Spatola |title=La svolta leghista, in Valle vince Antonini |url=http://www.bresciaoggi.it/stories/Home/291335_la_svolta_leghista_invalle_vince_antonini/ |publisher=Brescia Oggi |location=Brescia |date=26 September 2011 |access-date=5 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407032945/http://www.bresciaoggi.it/stories/Home/291335_la_svolta_leghista_invalle_vince_antonini/ |archive-date=7 April 2012 |url-status=dead}} In October, fearing a remake in Varese, his homeprovince, Bossi imposed his candidate, who was declared elected without a vote. In the event, Bossi was openly contested by many delegates at the congress and there had been an open vote, maroniani would have won.{{cite news |first1=Marco |last1=Cremonesi |title=Spintoni e tessere strappate Critiche al leader: basta capetti |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2011/ottobre/10/Spintoni_tessere_strappate_Critiche_leader_co_8_111010020.shtml |work=Corriere della Sera |location=Milan |date=10 October 2011}} These party infightings ended with Bossi's demise in February 2012 (see Lega Nord#From Bossi to Maroni).

Since Salvini's rise to leadership in 2013, the party sported the usual regional and ideological divides and especially that between Salvini and Tosi as the former displayed a more populist attitude, strongly opposed the Euro and nominally supported separatism while the latter presented himself as a more centrist figure, supported European integration, was soft on independence and unveiled a liberal program{{cite web |url=https://www.ricostruiamoilpaese.it/noi/ |title=Noi siamo per |access-date=9 June 2015 |archive-date=18 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018133553/https://www.ricostruiamoilpaese.it/noi/ |url-status=dead }} for his intended run in a putative "centre-right prime-ministerial primary election".{{cite web |url=http://www.lastampa.it/2013/10/06/italia/politica/tosi-primarie-anche-nel-centrodestra-76TpDVnwuQ7xBGttFjZJiM/pagina.html |title=Tosi: "Primarie anche nel centrodestra" |date=6 October 2013 |work=La Stampa |access-date=9 June 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ilgazzettino.it/NORDEST/PRIMOPIANO/primarie_tosi_candidato_leader_centrodestra_lega_divisa/notizie/770277.shtml |title="Io leader del centrodestra" Tosi alle primarie anche contro Salvini |date=28 June 2014 |access-date=9 June 2015}} As leader of Liga Veneta, Tosi, who was ejected from Lega Nord in March 2015, was confronted by the Venetist and separatist wings of the regional party,{{cite web |url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2014/novembre/17/mille_beghe_venete_nella_Lega_co_0_20141117_3efed89a-6e23-11e4-9041-ccd06dcb9d60.shtml |title=Le mille beghe venete nella Lega di Salvini (che sale nei sondaggi) |access-date=9 June 2015}} having in Zaia and Massimo Bitonci their leading members (see Liga Veneta#Factions). Curiously enough, those Venetists did not oppose Salvini's "Italian nationalist" turn.

Since 2014, Salvini started to build a network of supporters in central-southern Italy and the Isles with the creation of Us with Salvini, a sister party to Lega Nord. This was broadly accepted by Venetians, but it was increasingly opposed by key Lombard figures, including Bossi, Maroni and Paolo Grimoldi (leader of Lega Lombarda), who criticised the LN's right-wing turn and its focus on the South while reclaiming the federalist and autonomist identity of the LN.{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.it/2016/06/21/matteo-salvini-flop-urne_n_10594850.html |title=Lega Nord, dopo le urne tramonta la pax salviniana: il segretario sul banco degli imputati per il flop al Sud e la linea lepenista |website=L’Huffington Post|date=21 June 2016 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/nella-lega-allarme-salvini-sotto-accusa-cos-perdiamo-voti-1274061.html|title=Nella Lega in allarme Salvini è sotto accusa: "Così perdiamo voti"|first=Paolo|last=Bracalini|website=ilGiornale.it|date=21 June 2016}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/tutta-colpa-salvini-bossi-guida-fronte-contro-capo-leghista-1274517.html|title="Tutta colpa di Salvini". Bossi guida il fronte contro il capo leghista|first=Paolo|last=Bracalini|website=ilGiornale.it|date=22 June 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ilfoglio.it/politica/2017/03/20/news/pezzi-grossi-leghisti-dicono-che-salvini-non-deve-piu-seguire-il-modello-le-pen-125992/|title=Pezzi grossi leghisti dicono che Salvini non deve più seguire il modello Le Pen|website=www.ilfoglio.it}}

In the 2017 leadership election, Salvini easily fended off the challenge posed by Gianni Fava, Lombard minister of Agriculture in the old social-democratic tradition, representing the federalist/autonomist/separatist wing of the party. Fava, who was anti-prohibition of drugs, pro-civil unions for same-sex couples, pro-Atlanticism, and anti-National Front ("[it] is one of the most centralist and conservative blocs in Europe, what has it to do with us?"), recalled an old activist saying "let's hurry up in making Padania, that I want to return voting for the left" and added "this was the League and it has to be like this anew".{{cite web |url=http://www.lastampa.it/2017/04/11/italia/politica/fava-sfido-salvini-perch-la-lega-non-perda-le-sue-radici-voglio-un-congresso-vero-mh6Emx5KmkMHKcMdHn10II/pagina.html |title=Fava: "Sfido Salvini perché la Lega non-perda le sue radici. Voglio un congresso vero" |website=La Stampa|date=12 April 2017 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2017/04/11/news/lega_spunta_l_anti-salvini_gianni_fava_giunta_maroni_sfida_il_segretario_al_congresso-162765692 |title=Lega, spunta l'anti-Salvini. Gianni Fava (giunta Maroni) sfida il segretario al congresso |date=11 April 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2017-05-09/sfida-salvini-fava-alleanze-e-ue-lega-elegge-suo-segretario-113645.shtml?uuid=AE59vxIB|title=Sfida Salvini-Fava su alleanze e Ue, la Lega elegge il suo segretario|website=Il Sole 24 ORE|date=9 May 2017}} After Marine Le Pen's defeat by Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the French presidential election, Maroni declared that the "tactical and not strategic" alliance with Le Pen, "who wants to go back to national states", was over and that "we should return to our origins of post-ideological movement, neither right nor left".{{cite web |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/17_maggio_11/maroni-fase-lepenista-conclusa-273354ca-35b8-11e7-ae5c-ac92466523f8.shtml |title=Maroni: "Fase lepenista conclusa, sbagliato disprezzare FI La Lega torni alle origini" |first=Marco |last=Cremonesi|date=5 October 2017 }} Maroni added that "the League is not right-wing, we have done things in Lombardy that the red regions would dream of, from the baby bonus to the welfare. Typically left-wing policies. For us there are the Lombards, not those of right or left". Finally, reminding Salvini's left-wing roots, he remarked that "those are the origins" and that also Salvini would eventually share his views.{{cite web |url=http://www.lastampa.it/2017/05/16/italia/politica/maroni-la-lega-non-pu-stare-a-destra-non-sono-agli-ordini-di-salvini-FDwA8QDVnMpQELO0l15GWI/pagina.html |title=Maroni: "La Lega non-può stare a destra. Non sono agli ordini di Salvini" |website=La Stampa|date=16 May 2017 }} More worryingly for party's unity, Bossi threatened to leave the party and form an alternative movement with Roberto Bernardelli's Padanian Union.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/bossi-minaccia-di-lasciare-lega-salvini-brutta-copia-rensi-carroccio-finito-27e07c14-22ee-4644-b121-0c265a0147fb.html|title=Bossi minaccia di lasciare la Lega: Salvini brutta copia di Renzi. Con lui Carroccio finito|website=rainews|date=15 May 2017 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/politica/12384953/umberto-bossi-addio-lega-nord-movimento-roberto-bernardello-tanko-serenissimi-matteo-salvini.html|title=Ricordate il tanko? Mossa clamorosa di Bossi: lo vuole usare per fare fuori Matteo Salvini|website=Libero}}

The tensions between Salvini and Maroni culminated in latter's decision not to run for a second term as President of Lombardy in 2018. On that occasion, Maroni was very critical of Salvini in an interview with Il Foglio. As a result, very few maroniani were selected as candidates for the 2018 general election{{cite web |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/bongiorno-bagnai-tutti-i-candidati-lega-1488411.html |title=Da Bongiorno a Bagnai: tutti i candidati della Lega |access-date=2 March 2018|date=29 January 2018 }} and Fava was also excluded.{{cite web |url=http://gazzettadimantova.gelocal.it/mantova/cronaca/2018/01/28/news/fava-fuori-dalla-corsa-non-mi-candidano-ma-non-mi-arrendo-1.16406743 |title=Fava fuori dalla corsa: "Non mi candidano ma non-mi arrendo" – Cronaca – Gazzetta di Mantova |date=28 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018}} Bossi, who had not left the party, was selected by Salvini to lead the LN's list for the Senate in Varese,{{cite web |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2018/01/28/elezioni-salvini-bossi-candidato-a-varese-maroni-ci-aiutera-grillo-sa-che-governo-m5s-e-calamita-naturale/4122252 |title=Elezioni, Salvini: "Bossi? Candidato a Varese, Maroni ci aiuterà. Grillo? Sa che governo M5s è calamità naturale" |work=Il Fatto Quotidiano |date=28 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018}} but he was challenged also by Gianluigi Paragone, a former LN member who had switched to the Five Star Movement;{{cite web |url=http://www.ilgiorno.it/varese/politica/elezioni-politiche-2018-1.3693100 |title=Elezioni politiche 2018, i candidati a Varese: la Lega punta su Bossi al Senato – Il Giorno |last=R.V. |date=30 January 2018 |access-date=2 March 2018}} and Great North, a party launched by Bernardelli and Marco Reguzzoni.

Support for Lega Nord is diverse even within Padania and has varied over time, reaching an early maximum of 10.1% of the vote at the 1996 general election (around 25% north of the Po River). That year, the League scored 29.3% of the vote in Veneto, 25.5% in Lombardy, 23.2% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 18.2% in Piedmont, 13.2% in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 10.2% in Liguria, 7.2% in Emilia-Romagna, 1.8% in Tuscany, 1.5% in the Marche and 1.0% in Umbria. The party got 59 deputies and 27 senators (39 and 19, respectively, in single-seat constituencies), helping the centre-left to win due to its victories in some Northern constituencies characterised by three-way races. The League won barely all the seats in the provinces of the so-called Pedemontana, the area at the feet of the Prealps, from Udine to Cuneo, encompassing Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont.{{cite book |first1=Piergiorgio |last1=Corbetta |first2=Maria Serena |last2=Piretti |title=Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia |year=2009 |publisher=Zanichelli |location=Bologna |pages=182–187}}{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=C&dtel=21/04/1996&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S |title=Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: House of Deputies 1996 |publisher=Elezionistorico.interno.it}}{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=S&dtel=21/04/1996&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S |title=Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: Senate 1996 |publisher=Elezionistorico.interno.it}} Lega Nord is stronger in the areas of the late Republic of Venice and among Catholics.{{cite book |first1=Francesco |last1=Jori |title=Dalla Łiga alla Lega. Storia, movimenti, protagonisti |year=2009 |publisher=Marsilio |location=Venice |page=8}}

At the 2008 general election, Lega Nord scored 8.3% at the national level, slightly below the result of 1996: 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy, 13.0% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 12.6% in Piedmont, 9.4% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 7.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 6.8% in Liguria, 2.2% in the Marche, 2.0% in Tuscany and 1.7% in Umbria.{{cite book |first1=Piergiorgio |last1=Corbetta |first2=Maria Serena |last2=Piretti |title=Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia |year=2009 |publisher=Zanichelli |location=Bologna |pages=200–205}}{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=C&dtel=13/04/2008&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S |title=Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: Chamber of Deputies 2008 |publisher=Elezionistorico.interno.it}}

At the 2009 European Parliament election, Lega Nord won 10.2% of the vote: 28.4% in Veneto, 22.7% in Lombardy, 17.5% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 15.7% in Piedmont, 9.9% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 11.1% in Emilia-Romagna, 9.9% in Liguria, 5.5% in the Marche, 4.3% in Tuscany and 3.6% in Umbria.{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=E&dtel=07/06/2009&tpa=Y&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S |title=Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: European Parliament 2009 |publisher=Elezionistorico.interno.it}} At the 2014 European Parliament election, the party scored 15.2% in Veneto and 14.6% in Lombardy.{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=E&dtel=25/05/2014&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S |title=::: Ministero dell'Interno ::: Archivio Storico delle Elezioni – Europee del 25 Maggio 2014 |website=elezionistorico.interno.it}}

At the 2010 regional elections, the party gained 35.2% of the vote in Veneto, 26.2% in Lombardy, 16.7% in Piedmont, 13.7% in Emilia-Romagna, 10.2% in Liguria, 6.3% in the Marche, 6.5% in Tuscany and 4.3% in Umbria.{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php?tpel=R&dtel=28/03/2010&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=N |title=Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections: Regional elections 2010 |publisher=Elezionistorico.interno.it}} At the 2014–2015 regional elections, it obtained 40.9% in Veneto, 20.3% in Liguria, 19.4% in Emilia-Romagna, 16.2% in Tuscany, 14.0% in Umbria and 13.0% in Marche, marking its best results so far in those six regions.

The 2013 general election was not a good moment for the party, which gained meagre results, e.g. 12.9% in Lombardy and 10.5% in Veneto.

Five years later, the party obtained its best results so far in the 2018 general election: 17.4% in Italy, 32.2% in Veneto, 28.0% in Lombardy, 26.7% in Trentino, 25.8% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 22.6% in Piedmont, 20.2% in Umbria, 19.9% in Liguria, 19.2% in Emilia-Romagna, as well as significant results in the South (5–10%).

In the 2019 European Parliament election the party again increased its share of the vote: 34.3% in Italy, 49.9% in Veneto, 43.4% in Lombardy, 42.6% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 37.7% in Trentino, 38.2% in Umbria, 38% in Marche, 37.1% in Piedmont, 33.9% in Liguria, 33.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 31.5% in Tuscany, as well as 15-25% in the South.

The electoral results of the LN in general (Chamber of Deputies) and European Parliament elections since 1989 are shown in the chart below.

{{Graph:Chart

|width=550

|type=rect

|colors=#008000,#008000

|xAxisTitle=Elections

|xAxisAngle=-40

|x=1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

|yAxisMin=0

|yAxisFormat=%

|yAxisTitle=% of popular vote

|y1=0.018, 0, 0, .087, 0, .084, 0, .101, 0, 0, 0.045, 0, .039, 0, 0, 0.05, 0, .041, 0, .083, 0.102, 0, 0, 0, .041, 0.062, 0, 0, 0, .174, 0.343

|y2=,,,,, .066,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

}}

The electoral results of Lega Nord (and its predecessors) in northern and north-central regions are shown in the table below.{{cite web |url=http://elezionistorico.interno.it/index.php |title=Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections |publisher=Elezionistorico.interno.it}}{{cite book |first1=Piergiorgio |last1=Corbetta |first2=Maria Serena |last2=Piretti |title=Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia |year=2009 |publisher=Zanichelli |location=Bologna |pages=170–205}}{{cite book |editor=Conte, Mario |title=1946–2006 Sessant'anni di elezioni in Italia |year=2007 |publisher=Reality Book |location=Rome |pages=91–154, 171–184}}

{{Notelist}}

{{incomplete-section|date=July 2018}}

Thanks to its use of the figure of Alberto da Giussano—legendary warrior of the Lombard League during the Battle of Legnano—in his iconography and campaigns, the LN has been nicknamed "il Carroccio" by the Italian media, a reference to a four-wheeled war altar used during the battle.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqkZE_L9fhUC&pg=PA9|title=New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies: The arts and history|last=Parati|first=Graziella|date=2012|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781611475661|pages=8–9|language=en}} Later on, the "sun of the Alps" was chosen as a symbol of Padanian nationalism.{{Cite journal|last=Albertazzi|first=Daniele|date=2006-03-01|title='Back to our roots' or self-confessed manipulation? The uses of the past in the Lega Nord's positing of Padania|journal=National Identities|volume=8|issue=1|pages=29|doi=10.1080/14608940600571222|bibcode=2006NatId...8...21A |s2cid=144860060|issn=1460-8944}} The party also made Va, pensiero by Giuseppe Verdi Padania's "national" anthem.Di Bonaventura, Florence. "Italy and Lega Nord: Stories of Communities, National (Dis) Integration and Spaces of (Restricted) Citizenship." SocietàMutamentoPolitica 7, no. 13 (2016). p. 298

• Federal Secretary: Umberto Bossi (1989–2012), Roberto Maroni (2012–2013), Matteo Salvini (2013–2020), Igor Iezzi (2020–present, commissioner)
• Deputy Federal Secretary: Francesco Formenti (1992–1995), Francesco Speroni (1998–1999), Gianpaolo Dozzo (1998–1999), Mario Borghezio (1998–1999), Federico Caner (vicar, 2012–2013), Giacomo Stucchi (2012–2013), Elena Maccanti (2012–2013), Matteo Salvini (2013), Flavio Tosi (2013), Riccardo Molinari (2014–2016), Edoardo Rixi (2014–2016), Giancarlo Giorgetti (2016–2020), Lorenzo Fontana (2016–2020), Andrea Crippa (2019–2020)
• Coordinator of National Sections/Organisational Secretary: Roberto Calderoli (2002–2020)
• Coordinator of Federal Secretariat/Legislative Office: Roberto Ronchi (1991–1994), Roberto Maroni (1994–2001), Francesco Speroni (2001–2005), Roberto Maroni (2005–2012), Giacomo Stucchi (2012–2013), Federico Bricolo (2013–2016)
• Federal President: Marilena Marin (1989–1991), Franco Rocchetta (1991–1994), Stefano Stefani (1995–2002), Luciano Gasperini (2002–2005), Angelo Alessandri (2005–2012), Umberto Bossi (2012–present)
• Honorary President: Luigi Rossi (1991–1996)
• Federal Administrative Secretary/Administrator: Alessandro Patelli (1991–1993), Maurizio Balocchi (1993–2010), Francesco Belsito (2010–2012), Stefano Stefani (2012–2014), Giulio Centemero (2014–present)
• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Marco Formentini (1992–1993), Roberto Maroni (1993–1994), Pierluigi Petrini (1994–1995), Vito Gnutti (1995–1996), Domenico Comino (1996–1999), Giancarlo Pagliarini (1999–2001), Alessandro Cè (2001–2005), Andrea Gibelli (2005–2006), Roberto Maroni (2006–2008), Roberto Cota (2008–2010), Marco Reguzzoni (2010–2012), Gianpaolo Dozzo (2012–2013), Giancarlo Giorgetti (2013–2014), Massimiliano Fedriga (2014–2018), Giancarlo Giorgetti (2018), Riccardo Molinari (2018–present)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Francesco Speroni (1992–1994), Francesco Tabladini (1994–1996), Francesco Speroni (1996–1999), Luciano Gasperini (1998–1999), Roberto Castelli (1999–2001), Francesco Moro (2001–2004), Ettore Pirovano (2004–2006), Roberto Castelli (2006–2008), Federico Bricolo (2008–2013), Massimo Bitonci (2013–2014), Gian Marco Centinaio (2014–2018), Massimiliano Romeo (2018–present)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Francesco Speroni (1989–1992), Luigi Moretti (1992–1999), Francesco Speroni (1999–2004), Mario Borghezio (2004–2009), Francesco Speroni (2009–2012), Lorenzo Fontana (2012–2014), Matteo Salvini (2014–2018), Mara Bizzotto (2018–2019), Marco Campomenosi (2019–present)

Liga Veneta

{{:Liga Veneta}}

Lega Lombarda

{{:Lega Lombarda}}

Piemont Autonomista/Lega Nord Piemont

{{:Lega Piemonte}}

• List of regional and minority parties in Europe
• List of active separatist movements in Europe

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|40em}}

• Abbondanza, Gabriele, and Francesco Bailo. "The electoral payoff of immigration flows for anti-immigration parties: the case of Italy’s Lega Nord." European Political Science 17 (2018): 378-403.
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{{Refend}}

{{clear}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• [http://www.leganord.org Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981205104230/http://www.leganord.org/ |date=5 December 1998 }}
• [http://www.giovanipadani.com Movimento Giovani Padani]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20040721050513/http://www.lapadania.com/ La Padania]

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