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Umberto Bossi, founder of the League, died. Mattarella: Italia loses a sincere democrat

He was 84 years old. He died at the Circolo hospital in Varese. Meloni: from him fundamental contribution to the formation of the first centre-right

by Rome Editorial Staff

19 March 2026

Lega, Bossi attacca Salvini. "Serve nuovo leader per questione Nord"

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Umberto Bossi, the historic founder of the League in 1984, has died. He was 84 years old. He died at the Circolo hospital in Varese where he had been admitted on Wednesday 18 March in intensive care and in critical condition. The 'defender' of Padania, the inventor of the Pontida rally, of the ritual of the ampulla on the Po, of the slogan 'Roma ladrona', which served to cement the people of the North to make the demand for federalism, his political mission, stronger, was the protagonist of a long season of politics in which he continued to tread the boards despite the stroke that struck him in 2004. His story is intertwined with that of Berlusconi, first a rival and ally, then a great friend. With the Cavaliere at Palazzo Chigi, the Senatùr became Minister twice, for Institutional Reforms and Devolution in 2001-2004, then for Reforms for Federalism in 2008-2011. After 35 consecutive years, in October 2022 his election seemed to be off, but with the recounts he won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies where he now rarely appeared due to his health condition after his serious illness in 2004.

Addio a Umberto Bossi, il Senatur fondatore della Lega
Photogallery31 foto

Still affectionately called 'capo' (leader) by the League faithful, in recent years Bossi had come into conflict with his successor Matteo Salvini, the disciple 'who betrays the North', to the point of voting Forza Italia in the 2024 European elections. Salvini had left the League to found one with his name in the symbol. Bossi became the reference point of the Committee of the North, excluded from the centre-right coalition for the regional elections in Lombardy

The reactions

There were numerous and immediate expressions of condolence from the institutions and parties. "The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, expresses his sincere condolences for the death of Umberto Bossi. Founder and animator of the Northern League, he was the protagonist of a long political season. Italia loses a passionate political leader and a sincere democrat. The President of the Republic expresses his closeness to his family and to all those who shared his commitment to his party,' reads a Quirinale note.

"The entire Lega Lega community is deeply shocked and saddened by the passing of founder Umberto Bossi and extends its affectionate and emotional support to his family. All the appointments scheduled for tomorrow are cancelled,' the party led by Matteo Salvini announced in a note letting it be known that the secretary had cancelled all the appointments scheduled for Friday 20 March to return to Milan.

For Premier Giorgia Meloni Bossi, 'with his political passion, marked an important phase in Italian history and made a fundamental contribution to the formation of the first centre-right. In this moment of great sorrow, I am close to his family and his political community. "It is not the North that must say thank you to Umberto Bossi but the whole country," said the president of the Veneto Regional Council, Luca Zaia, who was a minister with Bossi in the fourth Berlusconi government. "Without his contribution of vision, realism, and political ability," Zaia continues, "the history of the republic would have been very different, deprived of a great interpreter of the need to give answers to the demands of the citizens of the northern regions and with them solutions to the entire Italian society. In his great skill he certainly also resorted to resounding gestures, as he did when he proclaimed the secession of the North, but he always did so with the intention of fixing a point within which the objective always and only remained federalism. Politically he has been an extraordinary father to us all, we are deeply grateful to him'. 'The most dignified opponent I have ever had in my life, and in the end the one I loved the most,' wrote Pierluigi Bersani on X.

The origins of the League

Known to all as the Senatùr ever since he landed in Palazzo Madama in 1987, Bossi began his political career by founding the Lega Lombarda: in 1989 at the first congress, in front of 400 people, he hurled broadsides against black immigrants, homosexuals and 'terroni' (the people of Lombardy). Years later he also called Giorgio Napolitano a 'terùn': a year and 15 days in prison for insulting the President of the Republic, pardoned by Sergio Mattarella's pardon in 2019. But those are the tones of the ritual of the ampulla on the Po, of the oceanic gatherings at Pontida. He merged various regionalist movements into the Northern League, leading it from secretary to the limelight while Tangentopoli broke out. Far from the nerve centres of economy and culture, the League took votes away from the historic parties. At first, the secretary was with the Milan pool; on 16 March 1993, one of his deputies, Luca Leoni Orsenigo, appeared in the Chamber with a noose. A year later, however, even Bossi had to admit to an illicit financing of 200 million lire from Montedison to the League. It is rare to see him without a cigar. With the white tank top, the taunts, the raised middle finger, the cavernous voice, Bossi boasts a 'shock diplomacy'.

In government with Berlusconi

In '91 he shouts at a congress his most successful slogan: 'The League has it tough'. Two years later at Pontida he threatened a 'tax strike' to call for early elections (a tactic he used several times). Going to the polls, the League became the needle of the scales: it was Bossi's goal to make Berlusconi sweat the alliance, putting federalism and anti-trust law on the table. He broke with Gianfranco Miglio, the League's ideologue, but obtained Irene Pivetti as President of the Chamber of Deputies and five ministers. After nine months, however, the Senatùr made a U-turn and supported the technical government of Umberto Dini. Fights and appeasements alternated with Berlusconi, even when the League (after running alone in '96) joined the House of Freedom in 2001 and became minister again. "The year to come is the one in which either we do federalism or we die," he shouted from Pontida in the hot summer of 2002. Three years were needed, but the federalist reform of the constitution was then rejected by referendum.

The illness and relations with Salvini

In the meantime in 2004 he was struck down by a stroke, with a heart already at risk after an ischaemia in 1991, an illness in '96 and some troubles in 2001. He resigned as a minister, opted for a seat in the Europarliament (with him the League in Strasbourg was always in the Alde group, the one of the democrats and liberals, while now he is in the sovereignist one of Identity and Democracy), and then returned to the executive with Berlusconi in 2008. Victim of 'a conspiracy' by the 'Rome farabout that gave us this kind of magistrates', on 5 April 2012 Bossi resigned as secretary of the League, in his party they waved brooms. Meanwhile, the name Bossi disappears from the symbol, replaced by 'Padania' at the foot of Alberto da Giussano. The Senatùr remains federal president, of a party scaled and then shelved by Matteo Salvini, who creates the Lega per Salvini premier. The nostalgics, on the other hand, set up the Committee of the North. Relations between founder and successor are never very close. At the last elections, Bossi's candidature was in the balance until the very end, and only a recount averted his failure to be re-elected after 35 years.