Padania

Padania (Italian Padania ) is both a geographic term to refer to the Po Valley, the most industrialized region of Italy was large after the Second World War. Furthermore, the term was occasionally used in linguistics to refer to the territory of the Gallo- Italic dialects.

On the other hand, Padania is a since the 1990s, used by the party Lega Nord propaganda term which is not limited to the Po Valley, but the entire region of northern Italy, including the Alps and Ligurian portion comprises. Thus, the Lega Nord renames the North and later in central Italy, which will be split off from the southern part.

Linguistic history

In the original geographical sense is an adjective Padano Italian and means for Po belonging. Po Valley or Val Padana ( Po valley ) refers to the Po Valley.

Historically, the term goes back to the Gallia Gallia Transpadana and Cispadana before the Roman conquest in ancient times. In modern times, a similar concept was first application in 1796, when Napoleon's French revolutionary armies founded the Cispadanische Republic. You and who also founded Transpadane Republic ( Lombardy Republic) were, however, already in 1797 together as Cisalpine Republic, which was called from 1802 Italian Republic.

Probably the first to use the term Padania poetic in the 1960s, was the Milan sports journalist Gianni Brera, which is about the Cisalpine Gaul Cato meant.

In the sixties and seventies Padania was just a synonym for geographic pianura padana ..

1975 used Guido Fanti, the then President of the Emilia -Romagna region, in the daily newspaper La Stampa, the word for the first time in the sense of a regional policy approach. Then Giuseppe De Rita and the journalist Indro Montanelli used the term. All these uses, limited to the Po Valley, did not correspond to the importance of the League should be the slogan.

Padania and the Lega Nord

In the 1990s the term Padania by Gianfranco Miglio, the chief ideologue of the party at that time occurring secessionist Lega Nord has been taken to refer to the economically strong northern Italy and underpin its separate identity. This includes the development of an ideology, the basis of the invention of a " Po valley Nation" forms, which refers, inter alia, to the Celts.

Later Padania party was internally expanded to include the regions of central Italy, with the exception of Latium. According to the ideas of the Lega Nord should include the following regions ( "nations" mentioned ) include Padania:

Together, the regions of Padania come to a gross domestic product of € 930 245 million, equivalent to a per capita income of € 28,565 ( 2005; compared to Germany and France € 27,219 € 27,348 ).

On September 15, 1996 Umberto Bossi called in Venice " officially" the " independence of the Federal Republic of Padania " from. Soon after, a parliament of Padania, but which is not recognized by the Italian by other governments or international organizations emerged.

"Parliament"

In 1997, the Northern League organized the " first elections for a padanisches Parliament " in which participated along party information almost 5 million Northern Italians. The city of Mantua was designated as the seat of the new Parliament.

Voters could choose from a variety of the Po parties:

• Matteo Salvini was the candidate of the Communist Party of the Po Valley (5 out of 210 seats);
• Roberto Maroni, Marco Formentini, Giovanni Meo Zilio ( an ex - socialist and - Partisan ), Franco Colleoni and Mariella Mazzetto founded the European Democrats - Padanian Workers' Party ( 52 seats);
• A group of Venetian Leghisti founded the Venetian Po Valley Lions ( 14 seats );
• Giuseppe Leoni and Roberto Ronchi founded the Christian Democratic Po Valley Catholics (20 seats);
• Giancarlo Pagliarini, Vito Gnutti, Roberto Cota and Massimo Zanello led the liberal-conservative, founded on the model of Forza Italia Forza Padania - Liberal Democrats (50 seats), which was one of the proponents of belonging to Silvio Berlusconi's party alliance Casa delle Libertà.
• Marco Pottino founded the Liberal Party libertarian Padania (12 seats);
• Erminio Boso led the agrarian- conservative Padanian Agricultural Union of Environment, fishing and hunting ( 5 seats );
• Enzo Flego and Walter Gherardini formed the national-conservative Padanian rights (27 seats);
• And the non - leghista and politicians of the Italian Radical Benedetto Della Vedova was elected for a libertarian - liberal list, while on the other hand, the green chamber deputies Nando Dalla Chiesa unsuccessfully stood as a candidate in Milan.

Parliament disappeared very quickly into irrelevance. However, it was reactivated under the new name "parliament of the North" ( Parlamento del Nord) in 2007 and now acts more as an internal organ of the Northern League. By 2011, it was located in Vicenza, since 2012 in Sarego.

" National Anthem "

The Lega Nord tried the song Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate, the Prisoners' Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco, as so-called " National Anthem of Padania " to collect for themselves. The song is played at all events of the party. Party leader Umberto Bossi suggested several times to make Verdi's chorus instead of Fratelli d' Italia for the new Italian national anthem, with reference to its ( controversial ) importance as a symbol of Italian national movement in the 19th century.

Development

The cleavage of the Po Valley of Italy was laid before the Italian Parliament elections in 2001 on ice.

The Lega Nord therefore since then works as a regular part of the Italian party system between 2001 to 2006 and again from 2008 even as the ruling party, in the achievement of a federal order in Italy with great power for each region and thus indirectly for the Padania autonomy. Officially, the party referred to still as the " League for the Independence of Padania North ".

In December 2011, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi called again a meeting of the " Parliament of the North" in Vicenza. At this meeting Bossi presented a map that illustrated the Padania his ideas. Thus, Padania is to be a multi-ethnic state, where both Italian and French (Savoy, which is a part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was until 1860), Swiss, Austrian and German belong ( Bavaria ). He also urge of every member of his party to join the wohlstandsseparatistischen fight. Italian media said, was Bossis idea " folklore " and more wishful thinking, yet reflects its construction of a welfare state, which is equivalent to the large euro area countries, desires and hopes of many northern Italians resist. Especially given the euro crisis and the achieved under pressure from Germany and other " Northern Euro " countries government austerity measures Monti on improving the financial situation Bossi promises opportunities for his founding of new states. However, this utopian claims are controversial even within the Lega.

Furthermore, the Lega Nord cherish not only the idea of state secession, but also have the desire to own the Po currency instead of the euro.

Others

1999 was a computer virus called " Padania " in circulation, whose source code contained per - Padanian messages. It is not related to the older and less significant MS -DOS virus of the same name.

The British weekly The Economist painted in April 2010 their own map of Europe to illustrate the political and economic situation of the continent as a result of the financial crisis. This Italy is divided into North and South. Capital of the northern state should be a Doge of Venice, the head of state.

Since 2011, the road cycling race Giro di Padania is held annually, the Erstaustragung was the occasion for some of palpable clashes between supporters of the unification of Italy and participants in the contest.