Umberto Bossi's funeral on Sunday in Pontida

The funeral of Umberto Bossi, the founder of the League who died at the age of 84 in Varese hospital on Sunday 22 March in Pontida at 12pm. The rite will be at the abbey of San Giacomo Maggiore. The funeral will be attended not only by the leaders of the League, but also by the premier Giorgia Meloni and, on behalf of the government, by the deputy premier and foreign minister Antonio Tajani.

That of Pontida is a family choice, 'wanting to share the last step with the people of Padania and the great family of the League'. To a Radio Libertà listener, who suggested a state funeral, Carroccio secretary Matteo Salvini said he shared 'the fact that he deserves the highest honours, but these are choices we leave to his nearest and dearest affections'. "Those choices, I repeat, let us leave them to his family, let us leave them to his wife, let us leave them to his children," he noted.

The homage on X by the Lega Nord leader to the founder of the Carroccio was moving: 'Courage, genius, passion, effort, love, revolution, roots, freedom. I was 17 when I met you and you changed my life'. And again: 'Your immense people pay tribute to you and will continue to walk on the road you have traced: that of Liberty. Bye, Chief. To God'. Then, again on Radio Liberty, emphasising his 'moral, values, spiritual, battle heritage', the acknowledgement: 'We are all here thanks to an idea of yours'. Finally, the relaunch of the manifestation of 18 April in Milan, dedicated to the founder: 'For the initiative organised by the League and the European Patriots on the theme of freedom and identity we used a phrase used by Bossi, "Masters in our own home". So on Saturday 18 April, under the Madonnina, in the heart of our Lombardy, of our Italia, we will be there, we will also be there for Umberto'.

Beyond the due homage to the 'boss', relations between Salvini and Bossi have never been idyllic. Ever since 2013, when the two challenged each other for the leadership of the party, the maestro used harsh words. "The quality that the secretary must have is to hold the League together. Whoever screws up is no good,' Bossi said of the 40-year-old MEP who had just coined the slogan 'enough euro' and imagined allying himself in Europe with the right-wingers of Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and the Fpoe. "He doesn't understand anything, if we want to get out of the euro they will shoot us," shouted the founder, who prefers Scottish and Catalan independents to Le Pen-style nationalists, at the microphones of Radio Padania. The contest, however, saw Salvini triumph with 82% in what were the party's first primary elections, reserved for the 10,000 militant members.

Dthere opened a new era for the League. An era in which the founder is less and less central. Bossi did not share Salvini's national turn to the party. In 2017, for the first time, he was not on stage at the Pontida kermesse he had invented. A few months later, Salvini founded the new League with his name in the symbol. Bossi became the point of reference for the Committee of the North, which was excluded from the centre-right coalition for the regional elections in Lombardy in 2023. 'A mistake, a missed opportunity to assert the demands of Autonomy and the demands of the Northern militancy,' said the senatùr. On the occasion of the 2024 European elections, the founder of the League let it be known that he did not like General Vannacci's candidature in the ranks of the Carroccio. The words of Paolo Grimoldi, former parliamentarian and secretary of the Lombard League, were not denied: 'Bossi phoned me in a very angry voice. And he told me: 'Let it be known around that I'm voting for Reguzzoni' who, as you know, is presenting himself as an independent Forza Italia candidate'. And again: 'Bossi doesn't like Vannacci at all