Lega Padana Lombardia briefly known as Lombardia Autonoma (Autonomous Lombardy) in 2008, is a Padanist

Padanism

Padanian nationalism is an ideology and a regionalist movement demanding more autonomy, or even independence from Italy, for Padania.Its main proponent is the Lega Nord, a federation of regional parties of Northern Italy, although there are some other minor Padanian nationalist parties and some...

 and autonomist political party active in Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

The party emerged in 2001 as a split from Lega Lombarda

Lega Lombarda

Lega Lombarda is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy. Led by Giancarlo Giorgetti, the party is the second largest in the region....

–Lega Nord led by Roberto Bernardelli, a long-time member of Lega Nord, at the time regional deputy of Lombardy. The main reason why Bernardelli left that party was that he considered it to be too alike to Forza Italia

Forza Italia

Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....

, coalition partner of Lega Nord since 2000. In the 2005 regional election

Lombard regional election, 2005

The Lombard regional election of 2005 took place on 3-4 April 2005. The 8th term of the Regional Council was chosen.Roberto Formigoni was re-elected for the third time in a row President, defeating Riccardo Sarfatti.-Electoral law:...

 the party won 0.9% of the vote, despite being present only in some provinces.

In 2008 the party joined Independence Front Lombardy (leader: Max Ferrari

Max Ferrari

Massimiliano Ferrari, better known as Max Ferrari is an Italian journalist and politician.-Biography:Ferrari was born in Varese. He joined Lega Nord party in 1989 when he was just sixteen...

) and Lombardy Project (leader: Giulio Arrighini) in order to form Lombardia Autonoma, a coalition of parties alternative to Lega Lombarda. In 2009 the party retook the name Lega Padana Lombardia. Max Ferrari was a candidate for the Pole of Autonomy

Pole of Autonomy

The Pole of Autonomy is an heterogeneous electoral coalition of political parties in Italy, formed in the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament election in order to overcome the 4% threshold introduced in the electoral law in February 2009...

 in the 2009 European Parliament election

European Parliament election, 2009 (Italy)

European elections to elect 72 members of the European Parliament representing Italy were held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on December 18, 2008...

. In the provincial election of Brescia

Province of Brescia

The Province of Brescia is a Province in Lombardy, Italy. It borders with the province of Sondrio in the N and NW, the province of Bergamo in the W, province of Cremona in the SW and S, the province of Mantova to the S, and to the east, the province of Verona and Trentino .Source for statistical...

 the party won 2.9% of the vote, while its candidate Arrighini won 3.2%.

In February 2010 the party chose not to run its own lists in the 2010 regional election

Lombard regional election, 2010

The Lombard regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010. The 9th term of the Regional Council was chosen.Roberto Formigoni, who was the longest-serving President of Region in Italy along with Giancarlo Galan of Veneto, obtained a historic fourth consecutive term. His opponent was...

. In a press release Ferrari explained that the party was at 1.8–2.3% in opinion polls (below the 3% threshold needed by parties outside big coalitions to elect a regional councillor) and that the only result of their bid would have been to damage the "cousins" of Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord and to help The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....

. The candidate of LPL would have been Giancarlo Pagliarini

Giancarlo Pagliarini

Giancarlo Pagliarini is an Italian politician.Born in Milan, he was later elected to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord in 1992 and re-elected in 1994, then elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 and in 2001...

, a former minister for Lega Nord.

In 2011 local elections the party won 2.6% of the vote in the Province of Mantova and 1.5% in the Province of Pavia

Province of Pavia

The Province of Pavia is a province in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. Pavia is the capital.It has an area of 2,965 km², and a total population of 493,753...

, while its candidate for mayor of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Giancarlo Pagliarini, gained just 0.6% of the vote.

Leadership

• President: Roberto Bernardelli (2001–present)
• Secretary: Giulio Arrighini (2001–present)