Factions
Within the party there are no formal factions, yet there are some unofficial groupings.
Gian Paolo Gobbo and Luca Zaia are the leaders of the wing from Treviso, which has its roots in the original Liga Veneta and is more Venetist in character, while the Verona wing, whose standard-bearers are Flavio Tosi and Federico Bricolo, is more conservative and has strong links with Lega Lombarda. While Lighisti from Venice are usually closer to Gobbo and Zaia, those from Vicenza and Padua are set somewhere in the middle between Treviso and Vicenza.
An ideological strain worth of mention is embodied by pure Venetists who stress issues such as Venetian identity and language: they notably include Massimo Bitonci, Roberto Ciambetti, Daniele Stival, Giovanni Furlanetto and Nicola Finco.
Gobbo was re-elected secretary in 2007 due to an agreement with Tosi, who was Gobbo's strongest rival for the leadership. At the 2012 congress Tosi defeated the Venetists' standard-bearer Bitonci, who was supported by 43% of delegates and many MPs.
Many in the party were outraged when Tosi, as Mayor of Verona, announced that he was going to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification in 2011 and declared that Italian unity was a good thing. Gobbo promptly disavowed Tosi and confirmed that the party was opposed to any celebration. Tosi was criticized also by other party bigwigs, such as Francesca Martini, while Furlanetto even proposed the expulsion of Tosi from the party. In early 2012 another friction was caused by Tosi's decision to present a personal list, alongside the party's one, in the forthcoming Verona municipal election and his intention to drop its traditional ally, The People of Freedom. Not only Gobbo opposed the move by Tosi, but he also took the opportunity to describe Tosi's views on Italy and Padania as "heresy".
It is difficult to say who is more conservative or liberal between Tosi and Zaia, who often exchange their position within the party. Of course, Tosi is a more traditional conservative liberal, while Zaia, while being a centrist, resembles a green-populist position on environmental issues, nuclear power, GMOs, etc. In occasion of the 2011 referendum, Zaia declared his support for three referenda aimed at blocking the return to nuclear energy and the privatization of water services. Needless to say, Tosi declared himself a "keen nuclearist" and a supporter of the free market instead. At the federal level of the party, Tosi is very close to Roberto Maroni.
Read more about this topic: Liga Veneta