The Ticino League ( it, Lega dei Ticinesi) is a regionalist, national-conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of

Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

. The party was founded in 1991 by entrepreneur Giuliano Bignasca and journalist Flavio Maspoli. After some public campaigning in the Sunday newspaper ' against political power and use of public money, Bignasca and Maspoli founded the Ticino League to continue the fight at the political level. Bignasca (1945–2013) was the League's "president for life". The League is one of four major parties in the canton, alongside the Liberal Radical Party (PLR), the Democratic People's Party (PPD), and the

Swiss Socialist Party The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz; SP; rm, Partida Socialdemocrata da la Svizra) or Swiss Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste suisse, it, Partito Socialista Svizzero; PS), is a polit ...

(PS). Since 1991, the party has been represented in the National Council and in the five-member cantonal executive of Ticino (the Council of State, ''Consiglio di Stato'') with two seats. In the 90-seat Ticino legislature, (the Grand Council, ''Gran Consiglio'') the party has 18 seats. At the 2011 federal election, the party won 0.8% of the national popular vote and secured 2 out of 200 seats in the National Council (the first chamber of the Swiss parliament), doubling their representation compared to the single seat they held in 2007 with 0.5% of the vote. In the 2015 election, the Ticino League slightly increased their share of the national vote to 1.0% and kept their two seats in parliament. The party is not represented in the Council of States nor on the Federal Council. The

2019 Swiss federal election Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 20 October 2019 to elect all members of both houses of the Federal Assembly. This was followed by the 2019 election to the Swiss Federal Council, the federal executive, by the United Federal Assem ...

cost the League one of its representatives in the National Council as Roberta Pantani was unable to hold her seat. Lorenzo Quadri was re-elected as the League’s sole representative in the Parliament. In the Federal Assembly, the League sits with the Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC), and commentators see it as the

Swiss Italian The Italian language in Switzerland or Swiss Italian ( it, italiano svizzero) is the variety of the Italian language taught in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. Italian is spoken natively by about 700,000 people in the canton of Ticino ...

equivalent of the UDC (although the UDC does still have some seats in the Ticino legislature as well). A more notable political position of the League is its support for banning the

Burqa A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...

, which it achieved in 2015. It is also strongly eurosceptic, supporting Swiss sovereignty and reduced immigration. The League supports continued Ticino membership in Switzerland. However, it supports the project of

Insubria Insubria ( Lombard: ''Insübria'') is a historical-geographical region which corresponds to the area inhabited in Classical antiquity by the Insubres; the name can also refer to the Duchy of Milan (1395–1810). For several centuries this name sto ...

, and it has some ties with the regional and federalist northern Italian rightist party Lega Nord.

Literature

Notes

References

External links

Official website
(in Italian) Political parties established in 1991 Regionalist parties Right-wing populism in Switzerland Conservative parties in Switzerland Eurosceptic parties in Switzerland 1991 establishments in Switzerland National conservative parties Right-wing populist parties Anti-immigration politics in Europe {{Switzerland-party-stub

Literature

See also

Notes

References

External links