Institutional Experience
Bossi began his institutional career in 1987 as the only senator of the Lega Nord, of which he was the leader. He was then given the nickname Senatur (pron. ), senator in Lombard, which stuck even when he was later elected as a MP in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
He was instrumental in the unexpected victory of Silvio Berlusconi's coalition in 1994, but he broke the alliance after just a few months, with the first Berlusconi cabinet collapsing before Christmas 1994.
Bossi agreed to return to an alliance with Berlusconi, which ultimately led to the (this time, easily predicted) 2001 electoral victory.
He then served in Silvio Berlusconi's second cabinet as Reforms Minister. However, after suffering a stroke on March 11, 2004, which seriously impaired his speech, he quit on July 19, 2004 to take up a seat as a member of the European Parliament, where he registered an attendance to 9 per cent of the plenary sessions in his last mandate. Bossi later slowly returned to active politics.
Read more about this topic: Umberto Bossi
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