How to invent a nation: Leessons from the Padanian case

This article proposes to investigate the possibility of creating new national identities in Europe by analyzing the only recent case of such a partly successful invention: Padania, as northern Italy was renamed by the Lega Nord in 1995. It argues that this identity discourse combines an affirmation of the nation‟s modernity with the development of an ethno-symbolic construction of national identity. In addition, it provides a reflection on how the Lega‟s nation-building discourse has become acceptable for a broad (but not majoritarian) constituency in northern Italy.