Padanian nationalism

Padanian nationalism is an ideology and a regionalist movement demanding more autonomy, or even independence from Italy, for Padania.

Its main proponent is the Lega Nord, a federation of regional parties of Northern Italy, although there are some other minor Padanian nationalist parties (such as the Lega Padana and Lega Padana Lombardia) and some thinkers (such as Gilberto Oneto, Giancarlo Pagliarini and late Gianfranco Miglio) who are not part of Lega Nord. In 1996 in Veneto a short-lived separatist-Padanist movement was formed, the Padanian Independentist Movement.^[1] On the other side, not all members of Lega Nord are keen Padanists; in Veneto, for instance, the influce of Venetism is also strong enough to counter-balance Padanism.

[edit] Popular support

While support for a federal system, as opposed to a centrally administered State, receives widespread consensus within Padania, support for independence is less favoured. One poll estimated that 52.4% of Italians north of the Po river consider secession advantageous (vantaggiosa), and 23.2% both advantageous and convenient (auspicabile). ^[2] Another poll estimated that about 20% Padanians (18.3% in North-West Italy, 27.4% in North-East Italy) support secession in case Italy is not reformed into a federal State.^[3] According to a more recent poll 45% of Northerners (52% of Lombards and Venetians) support the independence of Padania.^[4]

[edit] Padania and Lega Nord

The Sun of the Alps, the proposed flag for Padania by Lega Nord

Lega Nord unilaterally proclaimed the independence of Padania on 15 September 1996 in Venice, but since then has come back to its original federalist credo, although the party constitution continues to declare that the independence of Padania is the party's final goal.^[5] In that occasion Umberto Bossi, the leader of Lega Nord, echoing the United States Declaration of Independence, proclaimed:

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.^[6][7][8]

In the following years Lega Nord installed a non-recognized Padanian Parliament near Mantua, elected in self-organized elections and a government in Venice. Currently there is the so-called "Parliament of the North" based in Vicenza, which functions as an internal structure of the party. Lega Nord proposed also a flag, the Sun of Alps, and a national anthem, the Va' Pensiero chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco, in which the exiled Hebrew slaves lament for their lost homeland.

More recently the party is trying to stress the independent status of Padania through sports and other activities. Since 1998 Lega Nord organized a Padania national football team, which took part and won 2008 VIVA World Cup. They also sponsor the beauty contest Miss Padania since 1998.^[9]

[edit] Bibliography

• Gianfranco Miglio, Come cambiare. Le mie riforme, Mondadori, Milan 1992
• Gianfranco Miglio, Henry David Thoreau, Disobbedienza civile, Mondadori, Milan 1993
• Gianfranco Miglio, Italia 1996: così è andata a finire, Mondadori, Milan 1993
• Gianfranco Miglio, Io, Bossi e la Lega, Mondadori, Milan 1994
• Gianfranco Miglio, La Costituzione federale, Mondadori, Milan 1995
• Gianfranco Miglio, Marcello Veneziani, Padania, Italia. Lo Stato nazionale è soltanto in crisi o non è mai esistito?, Le Lettere, Florence 1997
• Gianfranco Miglio, Augusto Barbera, Federalismo e secessione. Un dialogo, Mondatori, Milan 1997
• Gianfranco Miglio, Federalismi falsi e degenerati, Sperling & Kupfer, Milan 1997
• Gianfranco Miglio, L'asino di buridano, Neri Pozza, Vicenza 1999
• Gilberto Oneto, Bandiere di libertà: Simboli e vessilli dei Popoli dell'Italia settentrionale, FdF, Milan 1992
• Gilberto Oneto, Pianificazione del territorio, federalismo e autonomie locali, Alinea, Florence 1994
• Gilberto Oneto, L'invenzione della Padania, Foedus Editore, Ceresola (BG) 1997
• Gilberto Oneto, Giancarlo Pagliarini, 50 buone ragioni per l'Indipendenza, La Padania, Milan 1998
• Gilberto Oneto, Piccolo è libero, Leonardo Facco Editore, Treviglio (BG) 2005
• Gilberto Oneto, L' iperitaliano. Eroe o cialtrone? Biografia senza censure di Giuseppe Garibaldi, Il Cerchio, Rimini 2006

[edit] References