In Politics
The first politician to consistently use the term Padania was Guido Fanti, a leading member of the Italian Communist Party who was President of Emilia-Romagna from 1970 to 1976 (see above). In an interview to La Stampa in 1975, Fanti proposed the creation of Padania in order to go over centralism.
Since 1991 Lega Nord, a federation of Northern regionalist parties (notably including Lega Lombarda and Liga Veneta), has promoted either secession or larger autonomy for Padania, proposing also a flag and a national anthem. In 1996 the "Federal Republic of Padania" was proclaimed. Subsequently, in 1997, Lega Nord created an unofficial Padanian parliament in Mantua and organised elections for it. As national anthem, Lega Nord chose the Va, pensiero chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco, in which the exiled Hebrew slaves lament for their lost homeland.
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“If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)