Umberto Bossi

Umberto Bossi (born 19 September 1941) is an Italian politician, former leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania. He is married to the Sicilian Manuela Marrone[1] and has four sons (of whom one was from his first wife).

Umberto Bossi
Federal Secretary of Northern League
In office 4 December 1989 – 5 April 2012
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Roberto Maroni
Minister for Federal Reforms
In office 8 May 2008 – 16 November 2011
Prime Minister	Silvio Berlusconi
Preceded by	Vannino Chiti
Minister for Institutional Reforms and Devolution
In office 11 June 2001 – 19 July 2004
Prime Minister	Silvio Berlusconi
Preceded by	Antonio Maccanico
Succeeded by	Roberto Calderoli
Member of the Senate
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 March 2018
Constituency	Varese
In office 2 July 1987 – 22 April 1992
Constituency	Lombardy
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 29 April 2008 – 22 March 2018
Constituency	Lombardy
In office 23 April 1992 – 19 July 2004
Constituency	Milan
Member of the European Parliament
In office 19 July 1994 – 10 June 2001
Constituency	North-West Italy
In office 21 July 2004 – 28 April 2008
Constituency	North-West Italy
Personal details
Born	(1941-09-19) 19 September 1941 Cassano Magnago, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Northern League
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Spouse(s)	Manuela Marrone
Children	Riccardo, Renzo, Roberto Libertà, Eridano Sirio

Birth and education

Umberto Bossi was born in 1941 in Cassano Magnago, in the province of Varese, Lombardy. He graduated from scientific high school (liceo scientifico) and later began studying medicine at the University of Pavia, though he did not get a degree. While there, in February 1979 he met Bruno Salvadori, leader of the Valdostan Union.

Politics

See also: Ideology of the Northern League

After the death of Salvadori in a car accident during the summer of 1980, Bossi began focusing more on Lombardy. After two years, the autonomist Lombard League was born. In that period Bossi met his second wife, Manuela Marrone.

The Lega Lombarda would later seek alliances with similar movements in Veneto and Piedmont, forming the Northern League, of which he was the federal secretary until 5 April 2012. He became the undisputed and unchallenged leader of the party, a position that he maintained until 2012, even after a serious stroke. He is currently the League's federal president, an honorary title devoid of real power, and is trying to regain the leadership of the movement he founded.

When the scandals of Tangentopoli were unveiled from 1992 on, Bossi rode the wave, presenting himself as the new man in politics, and set out to sweep away corruption and incompetence. Bossi himself, however, received an eight-month suspended prison sentence, along with Northern League's treasurer at the time of the events Alessandro Patelli, for receiving a 200-million-lire bribe in a trial that also convicted many of the politicians he routinely attacked, such as Bettino Craxi, Arnaldo Forlani and others.[2] Bossi's sentence was upheld on appeal.[3]

In 1998, Bossi received a one-year suspended prison sentence for incitement of violence after he uttered the following sentence at a Lega Nord meeting: "We must hunt down these rascals [neo-fascists], and if they take votes from us, then let's comb the area house by house, because we kicked the fascists out of here once before after the war."[4]

While being Reforms minister in 2003 Bossi ordered the Navy to fire live rounds on boats holding illegal immigrants, stating "After the second or third warning, bang… we fire the cannon".[5]

Bossi was critical of the European Union, and once described it as a "nest of communist bankers".[6]

Institutional experience

Umberto Bossi (on the left) with Roberto Calderoli, Rosy Mauro, Roberto Cota and Federico Bricolo.

Bossi began his institutional career in 1987 as the only senator of the Northern League, of which he was the leader. He was then given the nickname Senatur (pron. [sena'tu:r]), senator in Lombard, which stuck even when he was later elected as an MP in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

He was instrumental in the unexpected victory of Silvio Berlusconi's coalition in 1994, but he broke the alliance after just a few months, with the first Berlusconi cabinet collapsing before Christmas 1994.

Bossi agreed to return to an alliance with Berlusconi, which ultimately led to the (this time, easily predicted) 2001 electoral victory.

He then served in Silvio Berlusconi's second cabinet as Reforms Minister. However, after suffering a stroke on 11 March 2004, which seriously impaired his speech, he quit on 19 July 2004 to take up a seat as a member of the European Parliament, where he registered an attendance to 9 per cent of the plenary sessions in his last mandate.[7] Bossi later slowly returned to active politics.

Return to political activity

On 11 January 2005 Bossi appeared on the political scene at the last house of the Lombard federalist politician Carlo Cattaneo at Lugano after 306 days from the accident. During that day, he met the Minister of Economy Giulio Tremonti (Forza Italia) with whom he constituted the political agreement called the "Alliance of the North" (Asse del Nord). He also met a representative of the Lega dei Ticinesi, a Swiss localist Movement led by the Luganese entrepreneur Giuliano Bignasca. During his speech Bossi spoke against the "Europe of Masons".

During the national elections of 2006 he signed a political agreement with the Movement for Autonomy, led by the Sicilian politician Raffaele Lombardo.

On 17 September 2006 he returned in Venice for the tenth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Padania. He declarated that the Parliament of the North must be opened again.

On 2 February 2007, in Vicenza, he officially opened the first monthly meeting of the Parliament of the North. Umberto Bossi and Lega Nord have now abandoned the idea of independence for Padania, proposed in 1996.

In September 2007, Bossi accepted an invitation by Father Florian Abrahamowicz to his celebration of a Tridentine Mass and said there were affinities between the Lega Nord and the followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.[8] Father Abrahamowicz is seen as unofficial chaplain of the party.[9]

Fourth Berlusconi cabinet

On 8 May 2008 he became Minister for Institutional Reforms again, in Silvio Berlusconi's fourth cabinet. He held the position until 16 November 2011.

Resignation as leader of Northern League

On 5 April 2012, when news broke of an alleged appropriation of party funds for the private affairs of his family, Umberto Bossi resigned as federal secretary of Northern League.[10] Italian prosecutors have alleged that Bossi used the money earmarked for his party on his house renovations and on favours for his family.[11] Following the resignation, the Lega Nord instantly gave him the honorary position of party President.[6] Leadership of the Northern League was initially entrusted to a so-called "triumvirate" composed by Roberto Maroni, Roberto Calderoli and Manuela Dal Lago. On 7 December 2013 Matteo Salvini took over as official leader of the party.[12]

With a decision of August 2019, the Supreme Court of Cassation decreed (as reported by Reuters) "that the case against former League leader Umberto Bossi and its former party treasurer had expired due to the statute of limitations, but the confiscation of the funds remained in place".[13] The ruling was published on 5 November 2019 after a Court of Appeals ruling of 26 November 2018 and initial ruling of 24 July 2017, related to the party's financial statements of 2009 and 2010.[14]

Electoral history

Election	House	Constituency	Party		Votes	Result
1987	Senate of the Republic	Lombardy		LL	15,802	Y Elected
1992	Chamber of Deputies	Milan		LL	239,798	Y Elected
1994	Chamber of Deputies	Milan		LN	46,570	Y Elected
1996	Chamber of Deputies	Milan		LN	10,179	N Defeated
					–[lower-alpha 1]	Y Elected
2001	Chamber of Deputies	Milan		LN	40,372	Y Elected
2008	Chamber of Deputies	Lombardy		LN	–[lower-alpha 1]	Y Elected
2013	Chamber of Deputies	Lombardy		LN	–[lower-alpha 1]	Y Elected
2018	Senate of the Republic	Varese		LN	–[lower-alpha 1]	Y Elected

1. Elected in a closed list proportional representation system.

First-past-the-post elections

1994 general election (C): Lombardy — Milan 1
Candidate		Coalition	Votes	%
	Umberto Bossi	Pole of Freedoms	46,570	48.7
	Franco Bassanini	Alliance of Progressives	24,305	25.4
	Gianni Rivera	Pact for Italy	11,321	11.8
	Ignazio La Russa	National Alliance	8,561	9.0
	Others		4,829	5.0
Total			95,586	100.0

1996 general election (C): Lombardy — Milan 1
Candidate		Coalition	Votes	%
	Silvio Berlusconi	Pole for Freedoms	46,098	51.5
	Michele Salvati	The Olive Tree	32,464	36.3
	Umberto Bossi	Lega Nord	10,179	11.4
	Others		766	0.9
Total			89,507	100.0

2001 general election (C): Lombardy — Milan 3
Candidate		Coalition	Votes	%
	Umberto Bossi	House of Freedoms	40,372	53.1
	Alberto Martinelli	The Olive Tree	31,454	41.3
	Others		4,266	5.6
Total			76,092	100.0

See also

• Padania
• Lega Nord

References

1. MotherJones.com
2. "Bossi Joins Craxi in Corruption Conviction". The Guardian. 1995-10-28. p. 10.
3. "Italian Court Upholds Corruption Convictions". Agence France-Presse. 1997-06-07.
4. "Italian Separatist Leader Convicted of Inciting Violence". Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 1998-02-22.
5. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12348960,00.html
6. "Italian Northern League leader Umberto Bossi resigns". BBC News. 2012-04-05.
7. Official European Parliament website
8. Bossi a messa dai lefebvriani «Mi liberano con i loro canti»
9. Angela Merkel AttacMatteo Salviniks Pope Over Holocaust Bishop
10. Stille, Alexander (2018-08-09). "How Matteo Salvini pulled Italy to the far right". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
11. Hooper, John (2012-04-05). "Umberto Bossi resigns as leader of Northern League amid funding scandal". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
12. "Lega: primarie, a Salvini l'81,66% dei voti a Bossi il 18,34%". Rome: Adnkronos. 8 December 2013.
13. Domenico Lusi (2019-08-07). "Italy's top court upholds seizure of League funds over corruption". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
14. "Sez. FERIALE PENALE, Sentenza n. 44878 del 05/11/2019 (ECLI:IT:CASS:2019:44878PEN), udienza del 06/08/2019, Presidente IZZO FAUSTO Relatore MESSINI D'AGOSTINI PIERO" (PDF) (in Italian). 2019-11-05. Annulla senza rinvio agli effetti penali la sentenza impugnata nei confronti di Bossi Umberto e Belsito Francesco in ordine ai reati loro ascritti ai capi b) e c) perché estinti per prescrizione, nonché in ordine alla disposta confisca per equivalente, che elimina, ferma restando la statuizione della stessa sentenza sulla confisca diretta. Rigetta i ricorsi di Bossi Umberto e Belsito Francesco agli effetti civili in relazione ai reati di cui ai capi b) e c).

Political offices
Preceded by Antonio Maccanico	Italian Minister for Institutional Reforms and Devolution 2001–2004	Succeeded by Roberto Calderoli
Preceded by Vannino Chiti	Italian Minister for Federal Reforms 2008–2011	Succeeded by Title abolished
Italian Senate
Preceded by Title jointly held	Senator Legislature: X 1987–1992	Succeeded by Title jointly held
Preceded by Title jointly held	Senator Legislature: XVIII 2018-	Succeeded by Title jointly held
Italian Chamber of Deputies
Preceded by Title jointly held	Deputy Legislatures: XI, XII, XIII, XIV 1992–2004	Succeeded by Title jointly held
	Deputy Legislatures: XVI, XVII 2008–2018
European Parliament
Preceded by Title jointly held	MEP 1994–2001	Succeeded by Title jointly held
	MEP 2004–2008
Party political offices
New political party	Federal Secretary of Northern League 1989–2012	Succeeded by Roberto Maroni

External links

• Official biography from the Web site of Lega Nord. (in Italian)
• The League, Bossi and what comes after, biography of Bossi and storyline of the League by the conservative magazine Ideazione. (in Italian)
• Padanian poker's last hand, biography by the left-wing newspaper L'Unità. (in Italian)