Umberto Bossi, the founder of the League, has died, he was 84 years old

Umberto Bossi has died. The founder of the League, 84 years old, died in the evening in Varese, according to what AGI has learned.

The Northern League loses the “Capo”. Umberto Bossi, 84 years old, almost 50 of whom were in politics, died in hospital in Varese. For the ‘senatur’ political news, the founder of the League was, in reality, a senator only twice in his long political career, on the occasion of his first (1987) and penultimate (2018) ‘foray’ into what he defined as the “Roman swamp”.

Six times MP and three times MEP, Bossi was Minister of Reforms in the governments led by Silvio Berlusconi from 2001 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2011. And it is precisely his very strong personal and political bond with the Cavaliere, after the bumpy start in 1994, that has marked all the stages in the history of the so-called Second Republic.

Bossi was also one of the longest-serving party secretaries in Italian political history: he led the League, the federation of autonomist movements in the North, from its foundation on 8 February 1991 until 5 April 2012, when he resigned following the scandal over irregularities in electoral reimbursements. In the history of Italian politics in the 1990s and 2000s, the senatur was also a great innovator, with the customs clearance of popular language, dialect and even swearing, and of political iconography, with the use of the body as a semblance (the famous vest) and the invention of a symbolic world like that of Padania, identified in the northern territories.

The condolences of President Sergio Mattarella

The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, “expresses his sincere condolences for the passing of Umberto Bossi. Founder and leader of the Northern League, he was the protagonist of a long political season”. Thus a note released by the Quirinale. “Italy loses a passionate political leader and a sincere democrat” it is underlined. The President of the Republic “shows closeness to his family and to all those who shared his commitment to his party”.

Salvini cancels commitments, returns to Milan

After the news of Umberto Bossi’s death, Matteo Salvini canceled all appointments scheduled for tomorrow and will return to Milan on the first flight. This is what the League says.

Meloni: he gave a fundamental contribution to the first centre-right

“Umberto 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 pain, I am close to the family and his political community”. Thus, in a post on X, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Tajani, a protagonist of change in Italy

“With all of @forza_italia I mourn the passing of Umberto Bossi, historic leader and founder of the League”, writes the deputy prime minister and foreign minister Antonio Tajani on X. “A great friend of Silvio Berlusconi, a politician of great intelligence, he was a leading protagonist of change in Italy. A big hug and a prayer to his family so that he may rest in peace.”

La Russa, I lose a friend. A political giant

“With the passing of Umberto Bossi, I lose a friend, a piece of our political history. Not long ago I heard from him and promised him that I would go and see him. I didn’t have time and for me it is a worry. It is not up to me to remember the impact that Bossi, founder of the League, had on Italian politics. However one judges him, he was a giant for his ability to interpret the mood of the North and the choices useful to his political side”. Thus the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa. “I personally witnessed the many occasions of understanding between him and Berlusconi which were decisive, from 2000 onwards, in convincing him to make the League an important axis of the centre-right. I address my deepest condolences, both personally and from the Senate of the Republic, to his family and to the entire League”, he said.