League 'is new centre in Italy'

UMBERTO BOSSI, the leader of Italy's Northern League, has launched a bitter attack on Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Prime Minister, in an interview published yesterday by La Repubblica. Following the League's successes in Italian local elections last weekend, Mr Bossi accused Mr Ciampi of allowing 40 years of people's savings to be eaten up under his 13 years as governor of the Bank of Italy and warned the Prime Minister to come up with a new electoral law soon.

'There is a new centre. And it's the League,' Mr Bossi said in the interview. 'This victory of ours will count a lot. There will be changes.

'Some people say that he (the Prime Minister) is not involved. It's not right to say that. Up to now he's been the guarantee of the regime. At the League we not only substitute the DC (Christian Democrat Party) but we go further - we are not going to leave room for anybody else because we are undertaking a new project.

'From today I can see a bi-polar Italy with two alternatives: the League; and the left wing. The signal is strong, unchangeable, the country wants a radical change and asks to be ruled by another political class.'

Mr Bossi went on to attack President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro: 'These elections are also a signal for the gentleman who lives in the President's palace. Even his own city (Novara) has turned its back on him. I would like Novara to have a mayor belonging to the League. Yes, it's a very good lesson for him and for the other one, Ciampi.

'I have always said that the government was against us. Now Ciampi must speed up the new electoral bill. He is not the man who can lead the country out of the mess.

'As governor of the Bank of Italy, he allowed 40 years of Italians' savings to be eaten up. He did not pay attention to serious scandals.'

Mr Bossi also attacked the Christian Democrats, of whom he said: 'The Italians don't want to know anything more about this party. And there's no way to use them again because they're linked with the Mafia. The most the DC can do is kill some bosses to cover up its own scandals. The League, however, is a Western party, not destabilising.'

Asked whether the electorate had faced an irrevocable choice, Mr Bossi agreed, saying: 'The small men in power have reached the end of the road . . . we have won the votes of people who are fed up with this regime, who want another political class.'