ABSTRACT
Umberto Bossi’s Northern League has become a significant political and social actor in contemporary Italy. Indeed, it plays a major role in Berlusconi’s government and in shaping its programme, especially when it comes to immigration or security. The Northern League – especially if compared with neofascist groups or parties – is often portrayed as a tolerable democratic and popular force, a harmless and mostly ‘folkloric’ phenomenon. Even if the xenophobic approach is a strong marker of the party’s ideology, of the activists’ identity, as well as of the local and national policies it formulates, Italian parties, voters, journalists and even scholars still do not classify the League as a xenophobic right-wing movement. This chapter instead shows that Bossi’s party has skilfully built an apparently inoffensive racism, which is actually a true ‘strength’ in its strategy of legitimization.
