Kraftiga böter för Lega – kan tvingas byta namn

Lega Nord (LN; English: Northern League), whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (Northern League for the Independence of Padania), is a regionalist political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as Lega (League) without changing its official name in the party's statute. The party was nonetheless frequently referred to only as "Lega" even before the rebranding. The LN is often also referred to as Carroccio (a reference to a four-wheeled war altar used in the Middle Ages) by the Italian media. The LN was founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern and Central Italy, notably including Liga Veneta, Lega Lombarda, Piemont Autonomista, Uniun Ligure, Lega Emiliano-Romagnola and Alleanza Toscana. The party's founder was Umberto Bossi, federal secretary from 1991 to 2012. After an internal crisis and struggle, the LN was briefly led by Roberto Maroni. In 2013, Matteo Salvini defeated Bossi in a leadership election and became secretary. Giancarlo Giorgetti and Lorenzo Fontana are deputy secretaries. Leading members include Attilio Fontana (President of Lombardy), Luca Zaia (President of Veneto), Massimiliano Fedriga (President of Friuli-Venezia Giulia), Nicoletta Spelgatti (President of Aosta Valley), Roberto Calderoli, Gian Marco Centinaio and Massimo Bitonci. Former leading members have included Roberto Cota, Roberto Castelli, Francesco Speroni, Flavio Tosi, Giancarlo Pagliarini, Gipo Farassino, Marco Formentini, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini, Franco Rocchetta and Gianfranco Miglio. The LN advocates the transformation of Italy into a federal state, fiscal federalism and greater regional autonomy, especially for Northern regions. At times, the party has advocated the secession of the North, referred to by party members as "Padania" and consequently Padanian nationalism. However, under Salvini the party has to some extent embraced Italian nationalism and emphasised Euroscepticism, opposition to immigration and other "populist" policies while forming an alliance with right-wing populist parties such as France's National Front, the Netherlands' Party for Freedom and the Freedom Party of Austria at the European level. Salvini established a sister party in Southern Italy named Us with Salvini and for the 2018 general election restyled the party's symbol and name, dropping the word "Nord" and introducing "Salvini Premier". All these changes have been harshly criticised by Bossi and the Padanist old guard, which now operates from a minority position within the party.In the 2018 general election, the League was the third-largest party behind the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD). In the most recent regional elections, the LN was the largest party in Veneto (where Zaia was re-elected President by 50.1% of the vote in 2015), Lombardy (where Fontana was elected by 49.8% of the vote in 2018 and succeeded to Maroni) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (where Fedriga was elected by 57.1% of the vote in 2018), the second-largest in Aosta Valley (where Spelgatti was elected by the Regional Council in 2018, at the head of a coalition comprising centre-left and left-wing autonomist parties), Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, the third-largest in Liguria, Marche and Umbria, the fourth-largest in Piedmont and the fifth-largest in Trentino.