Rome – One of the pioneers of European right-wing populism is dead: the founder of the Italian ruling party Lega, Umberto Bossi, died on Thursday at the age of 84 in a hospital in Varese. He was partially paralyzed after a stroke in 2004. He held a senatorial post until his death. Its political rise began in the 1980s with the autonomist “Lega Lombarda”, and its breakthrough as a governing party came in 1994.
