Franco Cafora (1939-2024) was a Lega Nord deputy from 2009. From 2012 to 2023, Cafora was leader of Lega Nord (succeeding Liliana Sottini and preceding Franco Alieri), but he defected to the Democratic Party of Italy in 2023 due to his leftist views.
Biography[]
Franco Cafora was born in Mirano, Veneto, Italy in 1939. Cafora was an activist for northern regionalism while also being involved in the Italian Socialist Party as a campaign manager; he was elected to the Veneto legislature in 1989 as a Lega Nord member, and he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2009. He was a member of the party's historic left-wing, supporting Democratic Party of Italy leader Gabriele Tedeschi over his own party's leader Liliana Sottini for the premiership in 2009. In 2012, when Sottini resigned as party leader due to her repeated failure to be elected Prime Minister, Cafora became the new leader of Lega Nord. Cafora presided over a party which frequently became the second-largest party in the country as populist sentiments ran high, but he gained a reputation as a perennial candidate. In 2023, after years of being Lega Nord leader, he finally decided to switch his allegiance to the Democratic Party, as Lega Nord had nearly been eliminated in recent elections, and the Democratic Party - a party which best suited his ideology - was the best avenue for opposition to M5S. He died in office in 2024.