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by M. Schmöger, 15 July 2002, 24 July 2002
See also:
I do not want to say about Padania the same thing that
Metternich told about the whole Italy many years ago ("Italy
is only a geographic name") but there are people who are
excessively stressing the concept of Padania as a
"nation" different from the Italian nation. Because of
its history, Italy was really a collection of peoples with
different cultures and even idioms but after the two World Wars
Italian peoples became one nation, thanks to State schools and
radio-television. This is our last 50 years history. Now a
political party called "Lega Nord" is trying to
separate Northern Italy from the rest. They talk about a
"Northern nation" with its own culture and (first of
all) economy. The northern part of Italy is much more rich than
the southern one; maybe it is more "European" in the
sense of efficiency. The leaders of Lega Nord alternately use the
words "secession" and "federalism": while
"federalism" is a concept accepted by almost all the
other parties (Italy is today a heavily centralized State),
"secession" is of course illegal. IMHO most Northern
Italian people do not want secession, but they want to control
how our money is spent by the State, that is a federalist
taxation system.
Giuseppe Bottasini, 13 May 1996
The flag of Lega Nord is a white flag with a red cross; over
it a Medieval blue warrior. The flag (without the warrior) is the
flag of Milano, the main city of Lombardia (even if the
"capital of Padania" is Mantua, according Lega Nord),
while the blue warrior is Alberto da Giussano, the leader of
Lombardian revolt against the German Emperor. This flag is often
fluttering together with the Venetian flag (a red and gold flag
one with the St. Marc gold lion) to represent the
"other" Padanian peoples apart form Lombardians, that is
Venetians.
Giuseppe Bottasini, 13 May 1996
"LEGA NORD" is the federation of "LEGA
LOMBARDA", "LIGA VENETA" and other regional
movements of Northern Italy. As LEGA LOMBARDA is (was?) the
biggest of them, LEGA NORD uses its flag, with the only change of
the name.
Giuseppe Bottasini, 13 May 1996
Whilst watching the Austrian Grand Prix on the TV last Sunday,
I noticed a group of tifosi (supporters of the Ferrari Formula
One team) flying a "Padania" flag (white with the
"green flower(?)" symbol from the Lega nord badge)
above a Ferrari flag. This is the first time I've seen the
"Padania" flag being used outside the immediate context
of separatist political activity. Is it being used much by
separatist supporters in northern Italy?
Roy Stilling, 24 September 1997
The Northern League almost never claims ethnic reasons for the
independence of Padania, but the indigenous speeches of
Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Trentino,
northern Marches, of parts of Friuli-Venezia Giulia (on the
southern coast, in the west and the east of the region), of the
Aosta Valley (at least two non-Franco-Provençal speaking
communes: Verrès and Pont-Saint-Martin) and of northern Tuscany
(Lunigiana, Garfagnana other areas bordering with Emilia-Romagna,
and the enclave of the commune of Camaiore), plus those, spoken
outside the Italian State, of the Principality of Monaco, San
Marino, Canton Ticino, southern Grisons, Istria and in the
politically French territory from the Italian border to Monaco
are - according to scholars like H. Lausberg, whose classification of Romance
languages is the most widely accepted - dialects of one language. He called it,
obviously without meaning that it's a part of the Italian linguistic system,
"Northern Italian", using a word easy to be misunderstood, but in 1982, before
that the Northern League was born, the linguist G. Hull named it "Padanian" and
the land where it's spoken "Padania" in "The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy
and Rhaetia"(unpublished thesis presented at the University of Sydney). However
most Northern League supporters don't know this and this party puts Italian (and
other languages) speaking areas into its state project, like central and
southern Tuscany, where standard Italian originated. Moreover, here is the URL
of a site (in Italian and Padanian) where the meaning of the word "Padania" is
explained: www.reocities.com/Athens/Thebes/8042
Davide Sivero, 3 December 1999
In Znamierowski's book [zna99]
there is a mistake at p. 241: Padania's
"independence" was proclaimed in 1996, not in 1986
M. Schmoger, 16 July 2000
Note that nowadays the official name is "Lega Nord per
l'Indipendenza della Padania" (Northern League for the
Independence of Padania).
M.C., 20 October 2000
"Lega Nord" (Northern League http://www.leganord.org) -
The Lega Nord is a right-populist (with some racist tendencies)
and autonomist-to-secessionist party in the richer Northern half
of Italy. Different regional leagues had been founded in the
period of 1979-1984, the most important one being the Lega
Lombarda (led by Umberto Bossi, founded in 1984). The different
regional leagues joined together in 1989-1991 to form the Lega
Nord (led by Bossi). Although part of the first Berlusconi
government in 1994, the coalition was an uneasy one and the Lega
Nord brought about the fall of the Berlusconi government after
only seven months in office. In 1996, the Lega Nord proclaimed
the "independence" of the Northern part of Italy under
the name "Padania". For the 2001 elections, however,
the Lega Nord again became part of the coalition led by
Berlusconi, the "Casa delle Libertà". The Lega Nord
currently holds 30 out of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
(Camera dei Deputati) and 17 out of 325 in the Senato.
The symbols of the Lega Nord are described in their statute http://www.leganord.org/a_2_entrainl_statuto.htm#03:
"Art. 3 - Simbolo - Il simbolo della LEGA NORD - PER
L'INDIPENDENZA DELLA PADANIA è costituito da un cerchio
con all'interno il Sole delle Alpi, rappresentato da sei petali
disposti all'interno di un secondo cerchio e la figura di
Alberto da Giussano, così come rappresentato nel monumento
di Legnano; sullo scudo è disegnata la figura del leone
alato con spada e libro chiuso, nella parte inferiore è la
parola Padania; il tutto contornato, nella parte superiore,
dalla scritta Lega Nord. Tale simbolo è anche contrassegno
elettorale per le elezioni politiche ed europee, mentre per le
elezioni amministrative, ciascuna Sezione Nazionale può
inserire, alternativamente, in basso o sul lato sinistro
del guerriero ed in orizzontale, il nome della rispettiva Sezione
Nazionale. (...).
(The symbol of the Northern League - for the independence of
Padania consists of a circle, therein the "Sun of the
Alps", represented by six petals in a second circle, and t
he figure of Alberto da Giussano, as shown on the monument in
Legnano; on the shield is drawn the figure of the winged lion
with sword and closed book, in the lower part is the word
Padania; everything surrounded by the inscription Lega Nord in
the upper part. This symbol is also the emblem for national and
European elections, whereas for the regional elections, any
National Section can add the name of the respective National
Section horizontally, alternatively in the lower part or on the
left side of the warrior.) The symbol of the Lega Nord can be found (for
instance) at
cedweb.mininterno.it:8890.
The flag shows a red cross on white, in the center of the cross a
blue medieval warrior with sword and shield and a St Mark's lion,
the blue inscription "LEGA NORD" and the green
"Sun of the Alps", the symbol of Padania. The position of the "Sun of
the Alps" seems to differ somewhat: in one variant of the flag it is in a small
angle between sword and inscription, in a second variant it is bigger in the
lower hoist canton. The flag comes in two sizes (100x150 cm and 70x100 cm), see
www.legabg.org.
Photos of the flag at
www.giovanipadani.leganord.org/00032.jpg,
00033.jpg,
00109.jpg,
00200.jpg,
web.tiscali.it,
index.hu/roma and
www.merateonline.it.
M. Schmöger, 24 July 2002
Today the party Lega Nord (Northern League) doesn't want the
independence of Northern Italy (Padania), but more autonomy for
the Regions of Italy. The leader of that party is the
Italian vice-prime minister and some ministers of the
Italian Government are members of Northern League.
Guido Abate, 6 November 2002
image
by M. Schmöger, 18 April 2013
The flags are changing over time. One of the recent changes, that also
brought some changes in symbolism, is the transfer of the party leadership from
Umberto Bossi to Roberto Maroni in 2012.
In addition to the different
versions of the original LN flag (red cross on white, charged with the effigy of
Alberto da Giussano), the LN in recent years became more "Italian", i.e. started
using white flags with the circular logo. Up to recently, this logo usually
contained the name BOSSI in base, but the current version shows the inscription
PADANIA instead. [1,2]
image
by M. Schmöger, 18 April 2013
The slogan for the February 2013 elections was "Prima il Nord!" (The
North First!). This is also used on white flags (in green letters), together
with the well-known Alberto da Giussano. [1,2,3,4,5]
Sources:
[1]
http://www.targatocn.it/fileadmin/archivio/targatocn/tremonti_lega_nord_fossano_2013.JPG
[2]
http://www.lapadania.net/uploads/1365350738060_Pontida6.jpg
[3]
http://www.meda.leganord.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20121216-084446.jpg
[4]
http://www.maxorsatti.com/portale/images/stories/prima_il_nord_max_samu_jack.jpg
[5]
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f3B4GbL7MaE/UI7a_zbF9AI/AAAAAAAABwE/SpcEG87-foY/s1600/20121021_130921.jpg
M. Schmöger, 18 April 2013
image
by M.C. and M. Schmoger, 23 July
2002
image
by M.C. and M. Schmoger, 23 July
2002
The youth organization is the Movimento
Giovani Padani (Movement of Young Padanians), that have their
own flag. The official flag of "MOVIMENTO GIOVANI PADANI"
(Young Padanian Movement), the movement of young supporters of
Lega Nord-Padania. Official site at
www.giovanipadani.leganord.org
M.C., 6 October 2000
Flag of the "Movimento Giovani Padani" (Movement of
Young Padanians), the Youth Organization of the Lega Nord. It
obviously comes in two different ratios (4:3 and 5:4). The flag
shows on a white background a medieval warrior and the Padanian
symbol, the green "sun of the Alps", as well as
the green inscription "Giovani Padani". Fotos of this
flag in use (and of course other Lega Nord flags as well) can be found at
www.giovanipadani.leganord.org
especially
00066.jpg,
00111.jpg
and 00050.jpg.
The latter one shows the flag of the Muggio' local branch of the
MGP (called "I Sgurbat Vert").
M. Schmoger, 23 July 2002
