Umberto Bossi, the founder of Italy's populist Northern League (Lega Nord)
and one of the most influential and polarising figures of Italian politics,
has died.

He was 84.

Born in Cassano Magnago, a small manufacturing town in the industrial
heartland of northern Italy, Bossi rose from modest origins to become the
architect of a political movement that reshaped Italy's post-war landscape.

From the 1980s onward, he gave voice to the growing frustrations of northern
taxpayers, channelling regional grievances into a populist project centred on
autonomy and, sometimes, outright secession from the poorer southern part of
the country.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged his "fundamental
contribution" to the formation of Italy's first modern centre-right
coalition.

His populist slogan, "Roma ladrona", or "Thieving Rome", crystallised his
critique of the central, corrupted state and became a rallying cry for a
generation of disenchanted voters.