Politics, history, and legend have laid the foundations of present-day traditions, identities, and national sentiments. A clear example of this is the Pontida rally, the annual political meeting of the current Lega Salvini Premier (formerly Lega Nord). Since 1990, tens of thousands of its supporters have gathered in what is known as il pratone (“the meadow”) on il sacro suolo (“the sacred ground”) of Pontida, a small Italian municipality in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy. It was in the local Cluniac abbey there that, on April 7, 1167, the so-called Oath of Pontida took place. This was the birthplace of the Lombard League, a military alliance between the municipalities of Milan, Lodi, Ferrara, Piacenza, and Parma, whose purpose was to oppose the hegemony of Frederick Barbarossa’s Holy Roman Empire.
Over time, this struggle—which reached its climax in 1176 with the defeat of the imperial troops at the Battle of Legnano—became a symbol of the desire for freedom and sovereignty. The united free communes showed that, with sacrifice, it was possible to drive out the foreigner and rule over their own destiny. The Canto degli Italiani, the anthem of the Italian Republic, does not exaggerate when it declares that “Dall’Alpi a Sicilia, dovunque è Legnano”—From the Alps to Sicily, Legnano is everywhere.
Symbols, such as anthems, coats of arms, and flags, are fundamental in the construction of nations and states, as are the land and the places where important historical events have helped to shape a common identity. All of these elements were essential to the constitution of the party led by Matteo Salvini, which was founded by Umberto Bossi at the end of the 1980s. Il Carroccio (the medieval battle altar) and Alberto da Giussano (the legendary Guelph warrior of Legnano) are its party symbols, both of which recall the legendary origins of the Lombard League.
However, in the 21st century, Lega is not a reactionary party that looks to a mythical past, but a modern party that takes up and cares for tradition: anchored in the present, but looking to the future, and combining different sensibilities within an ideological framework that is sovereigntist, identitarian, liberal-conservative, and federalist. The Lega Salvini Premier is a national and governing party at the head of the vice-presidency of the Republic, with ministerial posts, regional presidencies, and city councils throughout the country, as well as the chair of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament. After almost 35 years, the old Lega Nord went from being a small regional party—even, at one point, with secessionist pretensions—to a national and European party: from Prima il Nord to Prima l’italiani, and from there to Cambiare questa Europa.
With the presence of Marine Le Pen on the leghisti stage, the 2023 Pontida rally has made it clear that the Lega continues in this direction. Clearly, the leader of Rassemblement National (RN) is indispensable to the formation of a European alliance that can serve as an alternative to the ‘Ursula majority’ during the next European elections in June. As Salvini told the thousands in attendance, “I thank a courageous woman like Marine Le Pen who, against all odds, represents France’s first party. And if we have to choose between Macron and Le Pen, we will have no doubt: all my life with Marine Le Pen.”
In an interview published in Libero, Matteo Salvini confessed to Mario Sechi that Marine Le Pen “is one of the oldest and most important allies of the League and, this is what the numbers say, today she represents the first party in France, it would be a mistake to say no to an alliance with her,” adding that he will do “everything possible so that no one is excluded.” Salvini then offered his thoughts on what the Italian political situation suggests about Europe:
The centre-right is winning in Italy because it has united everyone. If the centre-right wants to govern Europe, the only option is to unite everyone. If you don’t bring in the populars, the conservatives and all the identitarians, the game is lost from the start; if you bring everyone together, then there is a 50% chance of winning.
This is a warning to those who insist on a veto for RN, such as Antonio Tajani, who is the leader of Forza Italia, the Italian vice-president of the European People’s Party (EPP), and a political ally in the ruling centre-right coalition in Italy. Tajani has repeatedly stated that in Europe he will never govern with RN and Alternative for Germany (AfD)—members of the ID group in Europe—and yet he does collaborate with the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia within the context of Italian domestic politics. The resolution of this dilemma will be decisive in the next European elections if the ‘Italian model’ is to be exported to the EU.
Giorgia Meloni, president of Italy’s Council of Ministers and of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, has so far remained cautious in taking a position on the issue, but she is very close both to EPP leader Manfred Weber and to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In view of the European elections, it seems that Salvini is aiming to ally with Paris, and Meloni with Budapest, in a common strategy that has as its aim the difficult and complex objective of changing the current majorities in Brussels.
The closeness between Salvini and Meloni is clear, despite the constant attempt by their political opponents to show otherwise. In Salvini’s words:
There is harmony, first human, personal, and then political. Something that did not happen when the League entered the government with the Five Star Movement. Giorgia and I work, but we also see each other from time to time to spend Saturdays or Sundays together. Obviously we have two different movements that are part of two different alliances in Europe; one was born in Rome and the other in Milan. But as Pope John XXIII said, there is much more that unites us than divides us.
On the Pontida stage, Salvini also said, “Matteo in Pontida and Giorgia in Lampedusa are the synthesis of a common goal and a common destiny. They will not succeed in dividing us,” adding, “The Lega is the guarantor that this government will last the five years that the Italians have asked of it—not a minute less.”
Marine Le Pen’s words also carry significant weight in the current context:
You and we are engaged together in a common struggle: that of the freedom of our homelands and of our peoples. … We defend our people from the wave of organised migration, we defend our ports, as Matteo did so brilliantly with such courage and combativeness when he had the power to do so. Then the whole of Europe looked at Italy with admiration and we, as allies, are proud of you and waiting for that moment to return. … When there is a party like the Lega and a leader like Salvini you know it is the right choice, even the only possible choice. … Together we are determined and destined to win in Italy and in Europe. It will be essential to send the left home, to defend our cultural, food, economic and social model. … We have a left in Italy and in Europe that goes backwards: between bankers and workers it chooses the bankers; between multinationals and artisans it chooses the multinationals.
The Le Pen-Salvini axis, a pillar of support for ID in the European Parliament, is standing firm with the election slogan “The Europe of nations, in defence of our identities and freedoms.” What remains to be seen are results in the form of European political developments at the national and EU levels, and proposals addressing the huge problems facing the continent such as the out-of-control flood of illegal immigration, the war in Ukraine, accelerating inflation, the ECB interest rate, the ‘green’ policies stifling industry, livestock and agriculture, the ideological woke agenda, and the various limitations imposed upon citizens’ freedoms.
Concrete actions to resolve these issues can facilitate understanding between the different democratic political families which share conservative, patriotic, popular, identitarian, and sovereigntist European sensibilities. The path from Pontida’s meadow lies open; it remains to be seen who is willing to walk upon it.