1. Umberto Bossi was born on 19 September 1941 and is an Italian politician and former leader of, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania.
18 Facts About Umberto Bossi
1. 2.
Umberto Bossi is married to the Sicilian Manuela Marrone, and has four sons, of whom one was from his first wife.
3.
Umberto Bossi graduated from scientific high school and later began studying medicine at the University of Pavia, though he did not get a degree.
4.
In that period Umberto Bossi met his second wife, Manuela Marrone.
5.
Umberto Bossi became the undisputed and unchallenged leader of the party, a position that he maintained until 2012, even after a serious stroke.
6.
Umberto Bossi is currently the League's federal president, an honorary title devoid of real power, and is trying to regain the leadership of the movement he founded.
7.
Umberto Bossi himself received an eight-month suspended prison sentence, along with Northern League's treasurer at the time of the events Alessandro Patelli, for receiving a 200-million-lire bribe in a trial that convicted many of the politicians he routinely attacked, such as Bettino Craxi, Arnaldo Forlani and others.
8.
Umberto Bossi was critical of the European Union, and once described it as a "nest of communist bankers".
9.
Umberto Bossi began his institutional career in 1987 as the only senator of the Northern League, of which he was the leader.
10.
Umberto Bossi 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.
11.
Umberto Bossi agreed to return to an alliance with Berlusconi, which ultimately led to the 2001 electoral victory.
12.
Umberto Bossi then served in Silvio Berlusconi's second cabinet as Reforms Minister.
13.
On 11 January 2005, Umberto Bossi appeared on the political scene at the last house of the Lombard federalist politician Carlo Cattaneo at Lugano after 306 days from the accident.
14.
Umberto Bossi met a representative of the Lega dei Ticinesi, a Swiss localist Movement led by the Luganese entrepreneur Giuliano Bignasca.
15.
Umberto Bossi declared that the Parliament of the North must be opened again.
16.
In September 2007, Umberto Bossi accepted an invitation by Father Florian Abrahamowicz to his celebration of a Tridentine Mass and said there were affinities between the Lega Nord and the followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
17.
On 5 April 2012, when news broke of an alleged appropriation of party funds for the private affairs of his family, Umberto Bossi resigned as federal secretary of Northern League.
18.
Italian prosecutors have alleged that Umberto Bossi used the money earmarked for his party on his house renovations and on favours for his family.