In Torino, at the Lega Nord’s headquarters in Piedmont, Irnask the leaders if Maroni—now ostentatiously sporting a neckrnbrace—was not overreacting. On the contrary, I am assured,rnthey have it from friends who were present that the police, afterrnknocking him to the ground, kicked Maroni repeatedly in therngroin, but Bobo is too proud to admit how badly he was hurt.rnUntil recently, I had not realized the significance of Piedmontrnto the Lega Nord. As Bossi himself explains, his firstrnsteps toward autonomism were taken under the guidance ofrnBruno Salvadori, the leader of the Union Valdotaine, who hadrndecided to preach the federalist gospel outside the borders ofrnVal d’Aosta. Later, when Bossi conceived a similar project—torncreate a Northern federalist movement not limited to Lombardiarn—he turned to Piedmontese autonomists like Gipo Farassino.rnFarassino is a well-known cantautore (singer-songwriter)rnand actor, whom the ordinarily hostile Coniere della Sera treatsrnwith a tongue-in-cheek respect, noting that he is the onlyrnfounder of the Lega Nord to remain on good terms with Bossirnand describing him as “famous cantautore, much loved byrnwomen . . . a theatrical performer who has had great success.”rnFarassino dispells any suspicions I might have that the LegarnNord is really a Lombard movement that is swallowing up thernother regions. “Autonomy is more deeply rooted in Piemonternthan in Lombardia,” he says. He is passionate about his country,rnwhich is not Italy or even Padania, but Piemonte. As a performer,rnhe has traveled all over and likes to take vacations inrnFrance but feels more alien in Southern Italy.rnEven in the wodd of instant communication, of EuropeanrnUnion and the United Nations, patriotism is a natural phenomenon.rn”It’s human nature,” he says, “when you are spinningrnthe radio dial, you stop when you hear la mia lingua” andrncites a proverb to the effect that “There is my home, where myrnheart beats.” We are a long way from Franklin’s nonsense thatrnwherever freedom existed, there was his country. In pointingrnout the differences between North and South in Italy, Farassinornis frank but not bigoted; but, he says, if Italy is ever going tornenter the European Community, it will have to recognize thatrnthere are really two economic systems, which should have tworndifferent monetary systems to reflect the difference. As it is,rnSouthern Italians take the tax dollars they receive from thernNorth and they use them to buy cheap goods manufactured inrnKorea or Taiwan. Industries are leaving Italy, because of unfairrntaxation, but the whole corrupt economic climate is unfavorablernto business. The South has great resources, he points out,rnand the people are enormously talented, but instead of usingrntheir energy and creativity to produce wealth in their own regions,rnthey enter the government and live off the taxpayers.rnI had an appointment with Gipo Farassino, but in roamingrnthrough the Lega’s offices in Torino in the company of MauriziornGotta, a very helpful young leghista, and Steve Balestra, anrnItalo-Anierican of South Italian background, who speaks fluentrnItalian, I came upon Mario Borghezio, a deputy to the Italianrnpadiament. If there were a radical faction of the Lega (Bossirnabsolutely forbids the formation of correnti), the honorablernBorghezio would be the leader. While Bossi was still playing atrnthe game of reform in Rome, Borghezio was calling for secession.rn(According to the Lega’s leaders, this was all a stratagemrnplanned in advance.) Partly as a result of his “extremism” andrnthe bluntness of his speech, the Piedmontese deputy is, next tornBossi, the Lega leader the press loves to hate. Somewhat to myrnsurprise, he is all smiles and welcomes, particulady when I tellrnhim about the activities of the Southern League in the UnitedrnStates.rnI ask the deputy and the other leghisti, what secession reallyrnmeans. The answer is somewhat unexpected. For years thernLega called for federalism and worked with any parliamentarvrngroup willing to decentralize and reform the Italian state. Theyrngot exactly nowhere. What they finally realized, in the coursernof the past year, was that reform was impossible, so long as therngame was being played according to Roman rules. But if thernNorth were independent, if only in principle, and free to controlrnthe flow of tax money to Rome, the powers-that-be wouldrnhave to negotiate in earnest. In fact, Roberto Maroni announcedrnin October that the Lega would help the citizens ofrnPadania in their efforts to resist the corrupt and oppressive taxationrnof the Italian government by providing a self-help manual.rnGiancarlo Pagliarini, one of the Lega’s most respected leaders,rncommented: “A government that says, ‘We won’trnreimburse you’ [i.e., for excess taxes paid], is morally irresponsible,’rnand the intransigent Borghezio has called for ‘moral objection’rnin the form of tax resistance” {La Stampa, October 16).rnThe Lega is playing high-risk politics but with considerablernfinesse. With at most a third of the population supportingrntheir policies, the Lega Nord claims to speak for all of Padania.rnOn the other hand, no normal North Italian, including hardworkingrnSouthern immigrants and their children, wants to continuernpaying outrageous taxes to a criminal government,rnwhich—in the words of a Lega poster—”Tells the Lombardrndonkey: ‘Shut up and pay.'”rnIf the administration of Romano Prodi had any guts, theyrnwould schedule a referendum on secession next week. ThernLega would lose, probably badly, and the government’s handrnwould be strengthened. But talk of referenda is a heady winernand dangerous to a regime that bases its power on brute forcernand corruption, and for one reason or another, Roma Ladronarnis unwilling to take the risk. Every day that the current standoffrncontinues is a victory for the Lega, because every day the citizensrnof Padania can read of new scandals in the government.rnRiding in a taxi one day in Lecco, I struck up a conversationrnwith the driver who turned out to be a leghista. Discoveringrnthat I was giornalista americano, he got out his telefonino andrnrang up a journalist friend of his in Milan, Luigi Geminiazzi,rnwho writes for the Catholic paper Avvenire. Far from being arnsympathizer with the Lega, Geminiazzi asks my untutoredrnopinion on what the future holds. I tell him that the AmericanrnB,evolution never had the support of more than a third of thernpeople in the colonies, but that revolutions are made not byrnpassive majorities but by active minorities. “Exactly,” hernreplies, and unless they can reform the government—which appearsrnto be impossible—support for the Lega and for independencernwill go from 30 to 60 percent.rnTime may be on the Senatur’s side, but it is running out forrnme. My next-to-last night, I spend in the little town of Merate,rnaddressing a meeting of the Giovani Celti Meratesi. rhe Young Celts are an outgrowth of the Lega’s youthrnmovement. Most of them are convinced that Padania is arnCeltic country, but they are just beginning their study of thernCelts, whom I describe as a nation of poets, warriors, and hardrndrinkers. “A Celt who drinks Coca,” I tell them, “is a traitor tornhis race.” Several of them hurriedly put their soft drink cansrnunder the table and go off to find a beer. I suppose my speechrncould be described as corrupting the young.rn10/CHRONICLESrnrnrn