2023-11-30 19:04:32
They were born in 1989 as the Northern League for the Independence of Padania – evoking the name of the Po River, Padus in Latin. They unilaterally declared secession in 1996, in a demonstration in Venice led by the then leader of the party, Umberto Bossi, current federal president of the organization. And they currently have five ministers, including its greatest exponent, Matteo Salvini, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, within the coalition Executive with Fratelli (Giorgia Meloni) and Forza Italia (Antonio Tajani).
Salvini, who until not so long ago made speeches defending the secession of Northern Italy, now sits in the same Council of Ministers as Tajani, political heir to Silvio Berlusconi’s party. The same Silvio Berlusconi who already put Umberto Bossi in the Council of Ministers in 2001, just five years after he pronounced this statement on September 15, 1996: “We are firmly convinced that any further permanence of Padania within the borders of the Italian State would mean slowly extinguishing any hope of rebirth and annihilating the identity of the peoples that compose it; […] We represent, gathered here today, the last hope that the Roman colonial regime that oppresses Padania can soon come to an end; […] We, the people of Padania, solemnly proclaim: Padania is an independent and sovereign federal republic.”
On May 25, 1997, the party organized the Padania Independence referendum, with the question: “Do you want Padania to become an independent and sovereign Federal Republic?” 4,833,863 people voted and the result was 97% if it is. The Northern League installed polling stations in all the municipalities of the proclaimed Padania.
Despite this, despite the fact that Tajani’s political father, Silvio Berlusconi, included the independence leader in his government Po Valley; and despite the fact that his successor, Matteo Salvini, shares the Council of Ministers with the head of Forza Italia, the current Italian Foreign Minister tweeted this Thursday: “In Spain the extreme left governs. In Italy we have defeated it. We respect the rule of law. In Madrid too? In Italy the EPP governs; in Spain, the secessionists.”
In Spain the far left rules. In Italy we defeated it. We respect the rule of law. Does the same happen in Madrid? In Italy the government governs @EPPin Spain the secessionists
— Antonio Tajani (@Antonio_Tajani) November 30, 2023
Indeed, Tajani makes clear in his tweet that where parties with secessionist roots have ministerial portfolios is precisely in Italy with the five of the Lega; and he also forgets that the person who presides over the council of ministers in Italy is not anyone from the European PP, but the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists, Giorgia Meloni, a political family member of Vox and the Polish PiS, for example.
Salvini’s credibility and coherence are zero. Yesterday there was Padania and the insults to the South. Today, an idea of a closed and nationalist Italy.@pdnetwork pic.twitter.com/2BJw48DRMb
— PD Deputies (@Deputatipd) January 25, 2019
#Tajani #affirms #secessionists #govern #Spain #shares #Executive #asked #independence #Padania