Umberto Bossi

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Umberto Bossi (2012)

Umberto Bossi (born September 19, 1941 in Cassano Magnago in the province of Varese ) is an Italian politician. In 1989 he was a co-founder of the separatist northern Italian regional party Lega Nord and its chairman until his resignation in April 2012. He was elected twice to represent the Lega Nord in the European Parliament and, as a minister, was a member of two governments under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi .

Political career

After dropping out of medical and law studies, Bossi began his political career in the late 1970s after meeting Bruno Salvadori , the leader of the autonomous movement of the Aosta Valley ( Union Valdôtaine ). He was even active in groups that were striving for more autonomy or independence for northern Italy's regions and was a co-founder of the Lombard autonomy movement Lega Lombarda in the early 1980s . In 1987 he was elected to the Italian Parliament for the first time and received his nickname "il Senatur".

In 1989, the Lega Lombarda united under his leadership with other groups to form Lega Nord , of which he remained chairman until April 2012. In the same year he became a member of the European Parliament ( European elections 1989 ).

The central point of the program of the Lega Nord from the beginning was the relocation of competences of the Italian government to the regions (see Devolution ). In addition, Bossi became known for his often sharp polemics against the government in Rome as the center of corruption, against the bureaucracy and the Italian south in general. He countered this with the vision of an independent, northern Italian state "Padania" (cf. Padania ).

At the beginning of the 1990s, as a result of the collapse of the parties that had dominated the first Italian republic, the Northern League in the north became a mass party. After the election victory of the right-wing parties in 1994, Bossi's party entered the first government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . At the end of the year, however, Bossi withdrew his trust in Berlusconi (Bossi called him “Berluscaz”, from cazzo / “tail” or “Berlus Emperor”) and the government was overthrown.

In the following years Bossi intensified his separatist efforts in the opposition. In 1997 a "Padan Parliament" was created, but it had no real powers. A Padan ideology was worked out that borrowed from the ancient Celts , and a festival of the deified river Po was introduced, with whose water Bossi fills a vial every year at the source and then empties it into the sea in Venice , what the “ To symbolize purity ”of the north. Other focal points in the party program of the Lega Nord were the fight against immigration to Italy, often accompanied by controversial and racist actions, and against the European Union .

Before the 2001 parliamentary elections , Bossi again allied himself with Berlusconi and, following the victory of the center-right alliance Casa delle Libertà, joined the cabinet as Minister for Institutional Reforms .

On March 11, 2004, Bossi suffered a heart attack and a stroke . After this setback in health and a long convalescence, he finally declared that due to his health condition he was no longer able to fully carry out his government duties and left the government on July 19, 2004. Roberto Calderoli took over his ministerial office . Bossi himself withdrew increasingly into European politics after his resignation , ran for the Lega Nord in the 2004 European elections in the same year and was again a member of the European Parliament.

On May 8, 2008, after the surprising success of his party in the early parliamentary elections, he became Minister for Institutional Reforms along with three other party friends ( Maroni , Calderoli and Zaia ) again in a government led by Berlusconi ( Berlusconi IV cabinet ). With his resignation on November 12, 2011, triggered by the euro crisis , the government was dissolved.

At the beginning of 2012, investigations by the Milan Public Prosecutor for embezzlement, fraud, money laundering and illegal party financing against, among others, the treasurer of the Lega Nord , Francesco Belsito , in which the party-affiliated union Sindacato Padano and the sons of Bossi are involved, were known. Specifically, money from the party coffers, including state campaign aid, was diverted for private purposes for Bossi's family. On April 5, Bossi subsequently announced his resignation from the leadership of the Northern League . On July 24, 2017, Bossi was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for fraud and Belsito to almost 5 years.

literature

  • Carlo Ruzza, Laura Balbo: Italian Populism and the Trajectories of Two Leaders: Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi . In: Ruth Wodak , Majid KhosraviNik, Brigitte Mral (Eds.): Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse . Bloomsbury, London a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-1-78093-343-6 , p. 163 ff.

Web links

Commons : Umberto Bossi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Der Standard : Lega Nord corruption scandal spreads , April 5, 2012
  2. ^ A b Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: Italy's Northern League: New nose, new car - and then the party is broke. In: Spiegel Online. September 20, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Der Standard : Umberto Bossi stumbles upon a financial scandal at Lega Nord , April 5, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Bossi, Umberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician, MEP
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Cassano Magnago, Varese Province