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A Eurosceptic vision in a europhile country: The case of the Lega Nord

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Michel Huysseune
Michel Huysseune*
Affiliation:
Vesalius College/Department of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
*
∗Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

As a consequence of Italy's integration in the EMU in 1998, the Lega Nord shifted from a pro-European to a Eurosceptic position. The Lega's Eurosceptic vision combines a strong identification with Europe with a hostile attitude towards the institutions of the EU. Identification with Europe expresses in the first place the party's geopolitical view of Padania as a European and hence modern and entrepreneurial region. Its critique of the EU incorporates numerous, sometimes contradicting influences such as the neo-liberal vision of a free-trade based Europe with minimal rules and regulations, and a protectionist defence of northern Italian economic interests. It is in particular the party's institutional vision that attributes centrality to the right of Padania to autonomy and self-government which leads to its rejection of the centralism and dirigism of the European Union.

Keywords

Lega NordideologyEuroscepticism
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 63 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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