Lega founders honor Umberto Bossi at Pontida with Po water ritual and olive tree
Lega co-founders and veteran militants planted an olive tree and revived the 1996 Po River water ritual near Pontida on what would have been Umberto Bossi's 85th birthday.
Memorial tribute beside the Pontida meadow
On 19 September 2026, veteran members of Italy's Lega gathered near the traditional Pontida meadow to pay tribute to party founder Umberto Bossi on what would have been his 85th birthday. The ceremony was organized by 79-year-old Lega co-founder Giuseppe Leoni and held in a park on via Leonardo da Vinci, located steps from the main rally grounds. The location has hosted the annual party assembly since its first gathering on 20 May 1990. Bossi died earlier in 2026, making this the first Pontida rally held since his passing. Several dozen longtime militants, wearing green shirts and waving early Lega Nord flags, assembled around a newly planted olive tree donated by a party member. Participants covered the roots with soil brought from different provinces across Lombardy and displayed a banner reading "Bossi and Maroni, the dream continues."
Revival of the 1996 Po water ceremony
The memorial featured prominent symbols and rituals from the early years of the Northern regionalist movement. Roberto Calderoli watered the newly planted olive tree using the original 1996 Murano glass ampoule bearing the Sun of the Alps symbol. Umberto Bossi had introduced the vessel thirty years earlier during a ceremonial initiative to delineate Padania with water collected along the Po River from the Piedmont mountains to Venice. Calderoli noted that he had kept the ampoule in a green case for decades and personally refilled it fifteen days earlier at the river's source on Mount Monviso.
This tree symbolizes Bossi, it means a great deal.
Following the watering, Calderoli joined Leoni, early graphic designer Luigi Dossena, and attendees to sing the chorus "Va, pensiero." Dossena, who designed the movement's first posters alongside Bossi, stood among the veterans honoring the former leader.
- Giuseppe Leoni becomes the first parliamentary deputy for the movement
- Lega holds its first gathering on the Pontida meadow
- Umberto Bossi establishes the Po River water ritual with a Murano glass ampoule
- Umberto Bossi is excluded from the official Pontida stage
- Founding members plant an olive tree at Pontida on Bossi's 85th birthday
Co-founders challenge current party trajectory
The separate ceremony took place alongside persistent internal tensions between original northern autonomy advocates and the current leadership under Matteo Salvini. Bossi had been excluded from speaking on the official Pontida stage since 2017, prompting veteran activists to question how current officials would address his memory from that same platform. Giuseppe Leoni, who served as the movement's first deputy in 1987 and created the Alberto da Giussano symbol with Bossi, denied that the initiative served as an official counter-rally while voicing sharp disagreements with current party policy.
We plant an olive tree for reconciliation, not only in the Lega but in the world.
Leoni criticized new party messaging regarding remigration, reiterating that the movement's foundational program was rooted in regional autonomy and federalism. Describing the current party leadership as inexperienced, Leoni warned that falling below the 4% electoral threshold in future votes would prove fatal for the party. He also predicted that Salvini would form an alliance with Roberto Vannacci in future political contests.
