Lega Nord Piemont

Infobox_Italian_political_party
name_english = Lega Nord Piemont

leader =
leader1_title = Secretary
leader1_name = Roberto Cota
leader2_title = President
leader2_name = Mario Borghezio
leader3_title =
leader3_name =
leader4_title =
leader4_name =
foundation = 1987
dissolution =
headquarters =
newspaper = none
membership_year=
membership = "unknown"
ideology = Federalism, Fiscal federalism, Regionalism
coalition = with The People of Freedom
international = "none"
european = "none"
europarl = Union for Europe of the Nations
website = http://www.leganordpiemonte.net
colorcode = lightgreen

Lega Nord Piemont (North League Piedmont, LNP) is a regionalist Italian political party active in Piedmont.

History

The party was founded in April 1987 by spliters from Piedmontese Union ("Union Piemontèisa", UP), led by Gipo Farassino. This group, which took the name of Piedmontese Autonomist Movement ("Moviment Autonomista Piemontèis", MAP) and soon later Autonomist Piedmont ("Piemont Autonomista", PA), wanted to make an alliance with Lega Lombarda of Umberto Bossi, in contrast with UP leader Roberto Gremmo.

PA participated to the 1989 European Parliament election as part of the coalition Lega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord. In 1989-1990 it took part in the process of federating the Northern regionalist parties, ahead of the regional elections. In February 1991 it merged into Lega Nord, taking the current name, and since then it is the regional section of that party in Piedmont.

In 1999 the party suffered a damaging split when Domenico Comino, at the time secretary of the party, left the party over disagreements with Umberto Bossi, federal secretary of Lega Nord, and started his own party, which was integrated into the Autonomists for Europe in 2000.

The party has since then recovered and took part to the regional government led by Enzo Ghigo (Forza Italia) from 2000 to 2005. In that period of time Roberto Cota, national secretary of the party since 2001, was President of the Regional Council of Piedmont.

Members

The current national secretary is Roberto Cota, while Mario Borghezio is national president. Cota is also floor leader of Lega Nord in the Chamber of Deputies. The party is represented in the Italian Parliament by 8 deputies (including Cota) and three senators, in the Regional Council of Piedmont by three regional deputies and in the European Parliament by Borghezio. Michelino Davico, a senator from Cuneo, is Under-Secretary of the Interior in Berlusconi IV Cabinet, while Massimo Giordano is Mayor of Novara.

Popular support

The party has its stongholds in the outer provinces of Piedmont, in rural and mountain areas. In the 2008 general election it won 19.7% in Cuneo, 19.7% in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, 19.6% in Vercelli, 17.1% in Novara and 16.4% in Biella.

The electoral results of Lega Nord Piemont in the Region are shown in the table below.

Leadership

*National Secretary: Giuseppe Farassino (1987–1996), Domenico Comino (1996–1999), Bernardino Bosio (1999–2001), Roberto Cota (2001–...)
*National President: Bernardino Bosio (1991–1999), Matteo Brigandì (1999–2001), Oreste Rossi (2001–2004), Mario Borghezio (2004–...)

External links

* [http://www.leganordpiemonte.net Official website]