Liga Severu: její postavení a role v italské stranicko–politické soustavě (1993–2002)

Lega Nord (the Northern League) has been – for more than a decade – a particular and, in a way, puzzling political phenomenon. This paper seeks to analyse briefly the most important aspects of the position and performance of the Northern League in the new Italian party system. Two key issues call for a sophisticated and theoretically–informed explanation. Firstly, there are difficulties in interpretation of the „antisystem“ properties of the League and of the compatibility of these properties with the coalitional potential gained in the 1993/1994 and regained in the 2001. Secondly, a question arises, whether the League should and could be considered a genuine regional (and/or macro–regional) party pursuing an authentic regional strategy. The Northern League has been a relevant actor within the Italian party arrangement – at least since the 1993. However, it must be reminded that it acquired the status of relevant party with a coalitional potential – at the national level – primarily due to the particular conditions created by the swift disintegration of the old party and political system. The genesis and manoeuvres of the League since the late 1994 have illustrated well the fact that, despite some electoral and political successes as a truly independent actor and as a minor “third” pole (especially in the period 1996–1998), in order to keep its relevancy the Northern League has had to subdue to the working logic of the party system, including the imperatives of alliance–making policies. The League succeeded in regaining of the coalitional potential, but the price was high: it lost the position of a minor pole within the Italian party arrangement. Finally, the paper argues the Northern League has never been a „classic“ regional or ethno–regionalist party. Lega Nord could be described as a non–state–wide populist formation designed, since the beginning, as an operational unit within a supra–regional (i.e. not just macro–regional) political landscape. It remains to be seen whether the League would be able, eventually, to undertake another „regional“ metamorphosis in a federalized Italy