La Lega “nazionale” di Salvini alla conquista elettorale del Meridione

Abstract

<jats:p>In the last European elections the League became the first party in Italy also because, for the first time, it collected a large number of votes in the South, exceeding the 20% of votes in the Southern italian regions. In this article we try to evaluate whether that success is temporary or if it will consolidate over time. In other words, the central question is whether the vote to the Leauge party in the South of Italy is weak and volatile or it represents the first moment of its establishment also in these areas of the Country. In details, we try to verify if the success of the Leauge party in the South of Italy can be related to traditional aspects of the parties’ organization, such as the territorial root and the recruitment of political personnel who obtain in the electoral competition personal votes which improve the success of the list. The analysis was conducted through out macro and micro analysis tools. The analysis of the preference vote distribution highlights the electoral contribution offered by all the candidates to the European Parliament by region and by size of the municipalities. The description of some emblematic local cases describes the dynamics through which some local candidates for the European Parliament have contributed to increase the political consensus of the League party in the South of Italy.</jats:p>