PERSPECTIVErnCabbages and Wormsrnby Thomas FlemingrnUmberto Bossi does not like journalists. His stock epithetrnfor the gentlemen of the press—applied to them almostrnas regularly as “swift-footed” precedes Aehilles—is vermirn(worms), although he sometimes falls back on servi sciochi (idiotrnservants). Not too long ago, at a Lega Nord meeting, Bossirncaught sight of the press corps covering the event and, after revilingrnthem as liars, he had them thrown out.rnThe “leader” of the Lega Nord has reason to dislike the press.rnThey have hated him from the start and never lost an opportunityrnto predict his impending downfall or to blacken thernreputation of his movement with terms like “racist” and “fascist.”rnThe Italian press has not confined its attacks to Bossi andrnthe other leaders of the Lega Nord. The entire movement—rnhundreds of thousands of North Italians—have been stigmatizedrnas bigots for wanting to lead their own lives, preserve theirrncustoms and traditions, and regain local control over their institutions.rnThe Lega Lombarda, the nucleus of the Lega Nord, wasrnfounded in 1984. In the early years, the Lcghisti confinedrnthemselves to street demonstrations against the corrupt governmentrnin Rome {“Roma Ladrona,” Rome the thief) andrnagainst the South Italian immigrants who dominate the bureaucracy,rnthe school systems, and organized crime. For manyrnof Bossi’s followers, taxes are the symbolic issue with greatestrnappeal: North Italians work hard and pay their taxes which arernspent, disproportionately, on Mafia-controlled projects in thernSouth. As their most popular poster puts it: “The Lombardrnhen lays the eggs that are cooked in Rome and eaten in thernSouth.”rnIn 1987 the Lega Lombarda elected its first representativesrnto the Italian parliament, and Bossi was able to carry out hisrndream of creating a movement that would encompass all thernregions of Northern Italy. For a brief period, the Lega was evenrnincluded in the coalition that made Silvio Berlusconi, a financierrnwithout political experience. Prime Minister of Italy,rnbut for reasons that are still not entirely clear, Bossi broke withrnBeriuseoni and brought down the government.rnThe Lega has put together a powerful and factual indictmentrnof the entire political system in Italy. The press, however,rnhas never got around to discussing the facts. First come the denunciations.rnWho but a bigot would criticize the Mafia? Andrnif journalists can find a distinguished intellectual or religiousrnleader to do their work for them, so much the better. It is nowrnalmost routine that before any major election, the leftist-modernistrnCardinal of Milan will find some reason for tellingrn(Ilatholics not to support the Lega.rnThe Ambrosian Church, however, does not speak with onernoice, and the Bishop of Como described the Cardinal’s pronouncementsrnas “inopportune,” adding that with the familyrnand school in crisis, there are more things for Catholics tornworry about than the Lega. The real problems, says BishoprnMaggiolini, go back to the kind of Italy that was born in thernRisorgimento.rnThe Lega Nord is usually regarded as an urban populistrnmovement, but so much of the Lega’s imagery is an appeal tornthe old traditions of Lombardia that I wondered if there werernnot an agrarian nostalgia lurking beneath the surface of thisrnmovement of laborers and shopkeepers. I had always wanted torndrive the back roads of the region, if only to take a Gothic pleasurernin viewing a civilization in ruins: shopping centers squattingrnon top of Roman baths, a small corner of a garden clingingrnto life in an industrial park, otters living and breeding in a littercloggedrndrainage canal that runs along the highway.rnI spend two weeks visiting innumerable rustic shrines,rnabbeys, churches, monasteries. At Fiona, a priory at the top ofrnLago di Como, I am back in the days before Barbarossa, whenrnfishermen fortified their lakeside villages against brigands, andrnthe Church was the principal center of social order. I spend arn8/CHRONICLESrnrnrn