Lega Nord “has come of age”

Polls were about to close and in the bunker of viale Monterosa there was an almost surreal atmosphere of suspense. What would the result be? The question was apparently predictable, but those local elections were one of a kind. The previous year had been filled up with turnups and political chaos. In February, the socialist Mario Chiesa was arrested and the landslide “mani pulite” (investigation into political corruption) began. In April, the outcome of early elections was a fragmented Parliament. In Varese, Lega Nord became the leading party with 27.9% while DC (Christian Democratic Party) sank to 23%; PDS (Democratic Party of the Left), created the year before from the dissolution of PCI (Italian Community Party), gained little less than 10%. In the meantime, the “mani pulite” inquiry spread in Varese as well. In this atmosphere, the majority-leading PDS, decided to take part in a city Council of “emergency” with DC and PSI (Italian Socialist Party). The new local government was wrecked after only 13 days of navigation. With those records it is easy to imagine the atmosphere of suspense (and of nervousness) preceding the electoral poll of 14 December.

(in the picture, young Raimondo Fassa, first mayor of Lega Lombarda in Varese)

Around 4:30 p.m. they obtained the first data coming from the stations chosen as “sample polls”. After the first 100 scrutinised ballots, the members in charge of the collecting forwarded the results to the party’s electoral Office (the legendary centre of data processing that, like in the rest of Italy, always had to come before prefectures). A first data analysis was already enough to sense the havoc that was being caused. In fact, late at night, the ultimate data basically confirmed our first forecasts.

The results, compared to the local elections of only two years earlier, showed that Lega had become not only the leading party, but it had obtained almost twice as many votes. DC opposite collapsed to 17.6%, almost halving its votes. PSI lost about 2/3 of its electorate, sliding to 4.2%. PDS stopped at 8.1% while its Left “competitors”,  Rifondazione Comunista e Rete, got respectively 3.5% and 5.5%.

The new Council consisted of 17 councillors from Lega, 8 from DC, 3 from PDS, 2 each from Rete, Lega Alpina and PSI, 1 each from Rifondazione Comunista, PRI (Italian Republican Party), PLI (Italian Liberal Party), Verdi. (Learn more about data and comparisons between the local election of 1992 and the previous elections of 1990 on the excel chart).

Lega did not have the numbers to form a majority, but PDS’s and PRI’s generous rescue came little afterwards. The vote and the political choices of that 14 December have marked a history lasting until today. I thought it would be fair to recall it for those who were not there, but also for those who forgot it. It was the year 1992.