THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEGA NORD PARTY BETWEEN MARCH 2018 –AUGUST 2020 AND THE EFFECTS ON THE EUROPEAN POLITICAL SPECTRUM

Abstract:

The rise of parties, leaders and movements challenging the political direction of the European Union is the certainty of recent years. The large ideological variety characterizing the Member States of the Union has revealed the competition between traditional and reformist political parties, on the background of the declining confidence in the virtues of democracy to avoid the existing social and ethnic cleavages. Political radicalism, assimilated to recent pan-European political developments, is the result of the indecision of traditional parties to reach a consensus on the future of the European Union. The example of the Lega Nord in Italy is the subject of this article: the ideology, government program and strategies to consolidate the mass support implemented by this party show that some events at the European level (the economic crisis, then the refugee crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic) have long-term effects on the policy at the level of each Member State, and the anti-system behavior acquires completely new coordinates. Political changes at regional or national level have consequences for the entire European spectrum, requiring an approach to the phenomenon through democratic methods: negotiation, consensus, limited majority and ensuring citizens’ rights and freedoms.

Keywords:

far-right populism, hybrid ideologies, regionalism, European consensus, political instability.