ABSTRACT
The unity of the Italian state was being called into question by the Lega Nord, which could still be regarded a fringe movement, but which was drawing votes away from the traditional parties and challenging their dominance in the richest and most commercially important areas of the country. Italy's youngest ever President, Francesco Cossiga had been an unpolemical figure for most of the early part of his mandate. The initial target of Cossiga's outbursts was critics of Gladio. Elections were due in the Spring of 1992, and this fact, along with Cossiga's fulminations, shaped the course of the political debate in the Fall of 1991. Cossiga's quixotic year-long attempt to persuade the parties to reform had ended in rueful recognition that his erstwhile colleagues had neither the intention nor the will to put the country's interests ahead of their own.
