On 13 September 1996, Bossi took an ampoule of water from the springs of the Po River (called Padus in Latin, whence "Padania"), which was poured into the sea of Venice two days later as a symbolic act of birth of the new nation.

The party gave "Padania", previously referring to the Po Valley, a broader meaning covering entire Northern Italy that has steadily gained currency, at least among its followers.

However, after the 1996 election, which Lega Nord had fought outside the two big coalitions, the differences between those who supported a new alliance with Berlusconi (Vito Gnutti, Domenico Comino, Fabrizio Comencini and more) and those who preferred to enter Romano Prodi's Olive Tree (Marco Formentini, Irene Pivetti and others) re-emerged.

In March 2004, Bossi suffered a stroke that led many to question over the party's survival, but that ultimately confirmed Lega Nord's strength due to a very organised structure and a cohesive set of leaders.

The alliance that Lega Nord forged with the Movement for Autonomy (MpA) and the Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az) for the 2006 general election was not successful in convincing Southern voters to approve the reform, which was rejected in the 2006 constitutional referendum.

[56] In the aftermath of the fall of Romano Prodi's government in January 2008, which led President Giorgio Napolitano to call an early election, the centre-right was re-organised by Berlusconi as The People of Freedom (PdL), now without the support of the UDC.

[87][88] A congress was scheduled for mid December and in accordance to the new rules set for the leadership election five candidates filed their bid to become secretary: Umberto Bossi, Matteo Salvini, Giacomo Stucchi, Manes Bernardini and Roberto Stefanazzi.

[100] In the European election, the party, which ran on a "Stop the Euro" ticket, emphasised Euroscepticism and welcomed candidates from other anti-Euro and/or autonomist movements, notably including South Tyrol's Freiheitlichen,[101][102][103] obtained 6.2% of the vote and five MEPs.

The LN came third with 15.2% in Veneto (where Tosi obtained many more votes than Salvini, showing his popular support once for all and proving how the party was far from united on the anti-Euro stance),[105] ahead of the new Forza Italia (FI) and the other PdL's spin-offs; and fourth in Lombardy with 14.6%.

Salvini was triumphant, despite the party had lost Piedmont to the Democrats after Cota had been forced to resign due to irregularities committed by one of its supporting lists in filing the slates for the 2010 election and had decided not to stand.

After the 2016 local elections in which the party ran below expectations in Lombardy (while doing well in Veneto—thanks to Zaia, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany) and the NcS performed badly,[109][110][111][112] Salvini's political line came under pressure from Bossi, Maroni and Paolo Grimoldi, the new leader of Lega Lombarda.

The ticket won most of its votes in the North (including 32.2% in Veneto, 28.0% in Lombardy, 26.7% in Trentino, 25.8% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and 22.6% in Piedmont) while making inroads elsewhere, especially in central Italy (notably 20.2% in Umbria), the upper part of the South (13.8% in Abruzzo) and Sardinia (10.8%).

In the simultaneous regional election in Lombardy, LN's Attilio Fontana ran for President after Maroni, increasingly critical of Salvini,[141][142] chose not to run for a second term and step aside from politics.

[177][178] In February 2019 the Italian magazine L'Espresso had already published an investigation revealing another 3 million euro funding scheme,[179] paid for by Kremlin-linked entities and disguised as a diesel sale.

[214][citation needed] As Lega Nord, the party could be seen as a cross-class entity uniting northern Italians, whether working class or petit bourgeois, around a sense of opposition to both the powerful forces of capital and a centralising state based in Rome which redistributes resources towards southern Italy.

[232] The party usually takes a socially conservative stance on social issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, medical embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination, same-sex marriage (although there is an association called Los Padania, where "Los" stands for "free sexual orientation", linked to the party and Lega Nord was once in favour of same-sex marriage)[233] and drug use (although it did once support the legalization of marijuana along with Marco Pannella's Radicals).

In 2018 the party made a proposal to make it mandatory for crucifixes to be displayed in all public spaces, including ports, schools, embassies and prisons, with fines of up to €1,000 for failing to comply.

[266][267] The exact program of Lega Nord was not clear in the early years as some opponents claimed it wanted secession of Padania while at other times it appeared to be requesting only autonomy for Northern regions.

[273] Moreover, the peculiarity of the LN among European regionalist parties is that its main goal has long been the transformation of Italy into a federal state instead of simply demanding special rights and autonomy for Northern regions.

Outside of its European parliamentary group, Lega also has contacts with the Spanish Vox,[321] the Dutch Forum for Democracy, the Sweden Democrats, the Hungarian Fidesz,[322] and the Polish Law and Justice party.

[332] Since its foundation, Liga Veneta was instead characterised as a liberal, centrist and economically libertarian outfit due to the political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base.

[333][334] Lega Lombarda also included liberal-conservative figures such as Gianfranco Miglio and Vito Gnutti, both former Christian Democrats, while Giovanni Meo Zilio, a Socialist partisan during the Italian Resistance, was one of the founding fathers of Liga Veneta.

[212] There is a right-wing which is represented mainly by Mario Borghezio, a former Monarchist and Ordine Nuovo member who is the leader of Christian Padania, which is a key advocate of social conservatism within party ranks and has some links with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X.

The third one was led by Roberto Maroni, who tended to be more independent from Bossi and was somewhat critical of the centre-right affiliation of the party; and it included Giancarlo Giorgetti, Attilio Fontana, Matteo Salvini and Flavio Tosi.

[368] After Pontida 2011, Mauro and Reguzzoni tried to convince Bossi to remove Giorgetti from the leadership of Lega Lombarda, but this move was strongly opposed by Maroni and Calderoli, who were supported in this also by Cota and most Venetians.

[372][373][374][375] After earning resounding victories in the provincial congresses of Verona, Belluno and eastern Veneto during the first half of 2011, maroniani (with the support of calderoliani) prevailed also in Brescia and Val Camonica, defeating the candidates of the magic circle by landslides.

The League won barely all the seats in the provinces of the so-called Pedemontana, the area at the feet of the Prealps, from Udine to Cuneo, encompassing Friuli, Veneto, Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont.

[401] At the 2008 general election, Lega Nord scored 8.3% at the national level, slightly below the result of 1996: 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy, 13.0% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 12.6% in Piedmont, 9.4% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 7.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 6.8% in Liguria, 2.2% in the Marche, 2.0% in Tuscany and 1.7% in Umbria.

[402][403] At the 2009 European Parliament election, Lega Nord won 10.2% of the vote: 28.4% in Veneto, 22.7% in Lombardy, 17.5% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 15.7% in Piedmont, 9.9% in Trentino-Alto Adige, 11.1% in Emilia-Romagna, 9.9% in Liguria, 5.5% in the Marche, 4.3% in Tuscany and 3.6% in Umbria.

In the 2019 European Parliament election the party again increased its share of the vote: 34.3% in Italy, 49.9% in Veneto, 43.4% in Lombardy, 42.6% in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 37.7% in Trentino, 38.2% in Umbria, 38% in Marche, 37.1% in Piedmont, 33.9% in Liguria, 33.8% in Emilia-Romagna, 31.5% in Tuscany, as well as 15-25% in the South.