Lega Alleanza Lombarda

The Lega Alleanza Lombarda (Lombard Alliance League, LAL) is a left-wing regionalist political party in Italy, based in Lombardy. The party is a long-time alternative party to Lega Nord and is led by Elidio De Paoli.

The party was founded in 1992 as Lega Alpina Lumbarda (Lombard Alpine League) by De Paoli, Angela Bossi and Pierangelo Brivio, respectively sister and brother-in-law of Umberto Bossi. De Paoli was elected senator both in the 1992 and the 1994 general election. After a row between De Paoli, on one side, and Bossi and Brivio, on the other side, the party was disbanded until 2001, when De Paoli re-organized it with the current name.

In the 2001 general election the party won 5.4% for the Senate in Lombardy^[1] (0.9% nationally^[2]), as many disgruntled voters of Lega Nord and also many people who thought they were voting for Lega Nord expressed their vote to LAL. De Paoli himself was elected senator with proportional representation, after he had won 11.5% in the constituency of Albino, stealing many votes from Roberto Calderoli, deputy for Albino since 1994 and the most voted leghista in the 1996 general election (51.9%^[3]), who was elected with a mere 44.2%.^[4]

In the 2006 general election the party was affiliated to The Union, the centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi, and was decisive for the his victory over the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition. Subsequently De Paoli was appointed Under-Secretary in Prodi II Cabinet.^[5]

In the 2008 general election LAL won 0.8% for the Senate in Lombardy, compared to the 20.7% of Lega Nord.^[6]

In 2009 the party ran its lists under the old banner of Lega Alpina Lumbarda in some Lombard provincial elections, gaining everywhere less than 1%.^[7]

Popular support

The electoral results of the party in Lombardy are shown in the table below. For general elections the results always refer to the Senate.

References