Our paper deals with the case of the Lega Nord (LN) in Italy. It explores the nature of this party (whose regionalist nature is real though contrversial) and explains how it was able to reach national positions in several Italian governments under the so-called "Second Republic". It then assesses the extent to which it has been able to put specific reforms onto the political agenda and analyses the way it reflects its regionalist orientation. The paper aims at stressing the complexity of the LN ideological influences and the necessary policy trade-offs it had to accept in order to secure governmental participation.
