Lega Padana Lombardia (Padanian League Lombardy), briefly known as Lombardia Autonoma (Autonomous Lombardy) in 2008, is a Padanist and autonomist political party active in Lombardy, Italy.
The party emerged in 2001 as a split from Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord led by Roberto Bernardelli, a long-time member of Lega Nord, at the time regional deputy of Lombardy. The main reason why Bernardelli left that party was that he considered it to be too alike to Forza Italia, coalition partner of Lega Nord since 2000. In the 2005 regional election the party won 0.9% of the vote, despite being present only in some provinces.
In 2008 the party joined Independence Front Lombardy (leader: Max Ferrari) and Lombardy Project (leader: Giulio Arrighini) in order to form Lombardia Autonoma, a coalition of parties alternative to Lega Lombarda. In 2009 the party retook the name Lega Padana Lombardia. Max Ferrari was a candidate for the Pole of Autonomy in the 2009 European Parliament election.[1][2] In the provincial election of Brescia the party won 2.9% of the vote, while its candidate Arrighini won 3.2%.[3]
In February 2010 the party chose not to run its own lists in the 2010 regional election. In a press release Ferrari explained that the party was at 1.8–2.3% in opinion polls (below the 3% threshold needed by parties outside big coalitions to elect a regional councillor) and that the only result of their bid would have been to damage the "cousins" of Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord and to help The People of Freedom. The candidate of LPL would have been Giancarlo Pagliarini, a former minister for Lega Nord.[4][5]
In 2011 local elections the party won 2.6% of the vote in the Province of Mantova[6] and 1.5% in the Province of Pavia,[7] while its candidate for mayor of Milan, Giancarlo Pagliarini, gained just 0.6% of the vote.[8]