Toward North (Italian : Verso Nord, VN) is a liberal and federalist political association based in Veneto, Italy.
The group, which seeks to represent all the North by enlarging itself outside Veneto, is a keen proponent of federalism, fiscal reform, free market, competition, private enterprise and justice reform. [1] [2] Its main leader is Massimo Cacciari.
Between 2008 and 2010 Massimo Cacciari, three times mayor of Venice and leading figure of the centre-left in Veneto, called his Democratic Party (PD) to organize itself as a federalist party, with an autonomous northern wing. [3] Giancarlo Galan, President of Veneto from 1995 to 2010, made similar calls to The People of Freedom (PdL). [4] None of these calls were welcomed by the two main Italian parties and Lega Nord became a major electoral force at the 2008 general election. At the 2010 regional election Liga Veneta–Lega Nord became the largest party in Veneto and Luca Zaia was elected President of the region.
Following the rout of Rome-based parties in Veneto, a manifesto for a new liberal party representing the North was launched on 23 July 2010 in Mogliano Veneto. [5] The ten proponents of Toward North. Italy closer to Europe were: Massimo Cacciari (PD), Giuseppe Bortolussi (PD, 2010 candidate for President of Veneto), Achille Variati (PD, mayor of Vicenza), Diego Bottacin (PD, regional councillor), Maurizio Fistarol (PD, senator and former mayor of Belluno), Alessio Vianello (ApV, ex-PD, former deputy mayor of Venice), Franco Miracco (PdL, spokesman of Giancarlo Galan), Mario Bertolissi (PdL, professor of constitutional law at the University of Padua), Maria Gomierato (UDC, former mayor of Castelfranco Veneto), Francesco Giuliari (ApV, former deputy), Enrico Zardini (PD) and Enrico Zanetti (PD). [1] [2]
In October 2012 Vianello was elected president of VN, which started to be organized as a party. [6] At the same time Bottacin left the PD in order to concentrate himself to the new party. [7] Bortolussi, Bottacin, Mariangelo Foggiato (North-East Union) and the three regional councillors of the Union of the Centre formed a cross-group alliance. [8] In December Fistarol left the group of the PD in the Senate in order to become a full representative of VN. [9] [10] A third regional councillor, Andrea Causin, left the PD and joined VN soon. [11] [12] The party made inroads also in Piedmont, where MEP Gianluca Susta left the PD and became regional leader of VN. [13]
After having dropped the idea of becoming the regional section of Alliance for Italy in order to replace Alliance for Veneto, Cacciari hinted that VN may become the regional section of Future Italy (Italia Futura), a think-tank and would-be party led by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. [14] [15]
Between September 2011 and March 2012 the party formed regional wings in Piedmont (Piedmont at the Centre, led by Gianluca Susta), Lombardy (Lombards Toward North), and Emilia-Romagna. [16] In Lombardy VN was joined by three well-known former members of Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord: Alessandro Cè (a former party leader in the Chamber of Deputies and regional minister of Health), Sergio Rossi (a former senator), and Marisa Bedoni (a former deputy mayor of Milan under Marco Formentini). [17] A former leader and senator of Lega Nord Emilia, Pierluigi Copercini, joined the party in Emilia–Romagna. [18]
In March 2012 several members of VN took part to the founding of the Venetian section of Montezemolo's Future Italy. Causin was appointed regional coordinator, along with Manfredi Ravetto and Jacopo Silva, while Vianello, Bottacin and Gomierato were appointed to the regional committee. [19]
Between November 2012 and January 2013 VN, through IF, took part to the founding of Toward the Third Republic (VTR) [20] and was instrumental to the foundation of Mario Monti's Civic Choice (SC). [21] [22] At the 2013 general election SC garnered 8.3% of the vote. [23] Several VN leading members, notably including Causin, Zanetti and Susta, were elected to the Italian Parliament, [24] [25] while others, like Fistarol, failed re-election.
Lega Nord, whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania, is a right-wing, federalist, populist and conservative political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as Lega (transl. League), without changing its official name. The party was nonetheless frequently referred to only as "Lega" even before the rebranding, and informally as the Carroccio. The party's latest elected leader was Matteo Salvini.
Padania is an alternative name and proposed independent state encompassing Northern Italy, derived from the name of the Po River, whose basin includes much of the region, centered on the Po Valley, the major plain of Northern Italy.
Primary elections were first introduced in Italy by Lega Nord in 1995, but were seldom used until before the 2005 regional elections.
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Venetian nationalism is a nationalist, but primarily regionalist, political movement active mostly in Veneto, Italy, as well as in other parts of the former Republic of Venice.
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The Venetian regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010, as part of Italy's big round of regional elections.
Alliance for Italy was a centrist political party in Italy.
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Liga Veneto Autonomo was a Venetist political party active in Veneto.
Diego Bottacin is an Italian politician from Veneto.
Andrea Causin is an Italian politician from Veneto.
Future Italy was an Italian liberal-centrist think tank, formed in 2009 by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, chairman of Alitalia and former chairman of Ferrari (1991–2014), FIAT (2004–2010) and Confindustria (2004–2008).
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Giustina Mistrello Destro is an Italian politician and entrepreneur.
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Civic Choice was a centrist and liberal political party in Italy founded by Mario Monti. The party was formed in the run-up of the 2013 general election to support the outgoing Prime Minister Monti and continue his political agenda. In the election SC was part of a centrist coalition named With Monti for Italy, along with Union of the Centre of Pier Ferdinando Casini and Future and Freedom of Gianfranco Fini.
The Tosi List for Veneto was a centrist and regionalist political party in Veneto, Italy, named after its leader Flavio Tosi. The party emerged in March 2015 as a split from Liga Veneta–Lega Nord. Its members were instrumental in the establishment of Act! at the Italian level in July 2015.
Lega, whose official name is Lega per Salvini Premier, is a right-wing populist political party in Italy, led by Matteo Salvini. The LSP is the informal successor of Lega Nord and, while sharing the latter's heartland in northern Italy, it is active all around the country.