Who is Matteo Luigi Bianchi, the deputy taking over Bossi's seat

Umberto Bossi's Chamber seat will be occupied by Matteo Luigi Bianchi. Born in Milan in 1979, Bianchi was a candidate in the Lombardy 2 multi-nominal constituency, the first of those not elected. A former deputy in the 18th legislature, he began his political career early. Joining Umberto Bossi's Northern League in 1995, he began his activity in Morazzone, in the province of Varese, as a municipal councillor at the age of 19. There he became the promoter of a project called 'bonus bebè', to tackle the problem of declining birth rates. Passionate about ice hockey, he was a player and referee. For three years he coached the 'Armata Brancaleone', a sledge hockey team and Paralympic discipline.

After having been councillor for culture since 2004, he was elected mayor of Morazzone on 8 June 2009. And he gained a fair amount of national visibility for a dispute with art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, who accused him on the TV programme 'Striscia la notizia' of failing to prevent the demolition of an Art Nouveau villa in the municipality. In the League he then became provincial secretary of Varese in October 2012, when the party was led by Roberto Maroni, and remained there even when Matteo Salvini took over at the head of the League (until 15 March 2021).

'Without Umberto Bossi and his Lega,' Bianchi wrote on Facebook in a long remembrance of the Lega leader, 'my story would have been different. As different as life would be without that family with whom you grow up, with whom you quarrel, with whom you get passionate and with whom you build something that remains'. Bossi, for Bianchi, 'was our leader'.

On Facebook, Bianchi says that in his bedroom 'there has always been a picture of him, with a cigar in his mouth'. The only motivation driving him, he says, 'is to do the good of my land. This was Bossi's greatest teaching: rootedness, responsibility, belonging. Then came the illness. The fear, the real fear, of losing our leader too soon. And then that voice came back, on Radio Padania. We were there, listening to it, in silence. And we were moved by hearing the voice of a wounded lion, but still alive, still ready to fight. The hard times came, too. The falls, the changes, the evolutions. And within all this, for me, also the burden today of being 'the first of the non-elect'". "Because," he says, "the truth is simple: none of us can ever be worthy to take over from Bossi. No one can really be worthy to pick up his legacy; perhaps, we should have the courage to leave that void, guarded exclusively by his memory. Because Bossi was not just a political leader. He was the leader. He who gave his all for an idea. For a people. The people of the North. Thank you Umberto!'.

In 2018, Bianchi was a candidate in the Gallarate uninominal constituency for the Chamber of Deputies for the centre-right coalition in the League quota, and was elected deputy for the 18th legislature with 49.29 per cent of the vote against 5-Star Movement candidate Alessandra Viola (23.13 per cent) and centre-left candidate Rosalba Folino (21.73 per cent). At Montecitorio he joined the parliamentary group of the Lega - Salvini Premier and was appointed first secretary and then vice-chairman of the European Union Policies Committee and member of the Parliamentary Delegation to NATO, where he was vice-chairman of the Transition and Development Subcommittee, a position he held until 15 October 2020 when he was succeeded by Giancarlo Giorgetti. He is re-elected in the elections of 25 September 2022.