Abstract
In the early 1990s, Italy was confronted with crises. The "First Republic" after World War Two brought down because of corruptions of traditional popular parties, a monetary crisis, the end of the Cold War and so on. This also means that in the era of globalization and integration of the EU, Italy lost its clear position in the world. This situation generated many discourses about the nation-state of Italy. In the sphere of politics, new parties were born and were going to construct the "Second Republic". The Lega Nord(Northern League)is an autonomist party which was very critical about the politics of the First Republic and rose rapidly. In the national election of 1996, which decided who was going to reform the state of Italy to enter the Economic and Monetary Union(EMU)of the EU, the Lega gained many votes. Because the Lega had changed its discourses from the "regional" to the "national" in 1996 and began to represent the quasi whole northern Italy as "Padania", the party which claimed "independence" or "secession" met with unexpected good results. In addition the Lega represented complaints about the centralism of Italy in the North-East, center of the Italian economy. Therefore Italian politicians had to negotiate with the secessionist-nationalist Lega and to solute the Northern Question for entry into the EMU. In this process, by the Lega's politics of geographical scale, the meaning of northern Italy became contested. The presentation focuses on how a few other political forces interpreted the Padanian nationalism and meanings of northern Italy.
