The Southern Action League (''Lega d'Azione Meridionale'', LAM) is a regionalist

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

Italian political party active in

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

, especially in

Taranto Taranto (; ; previously called Tarent in English) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Taranto, serving as an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base. Founded by Spartans ...

. Its leader

Giancarlo Cito Giancarlo Cito (12 August 1945 – 11 May 2025)Taranto, è morto Giancarlo Cito

, former member of the

post-fascist Post-fascism is a label that identifies political parties and movements that transition from a fascist political ideology to a more moderate and mainline form of conservatism, abandoning the totalitarian traits of fascism and taking part in con ...

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

(MSI), from which he was expelled for his extreme views, and fierce anti-

Lega Nord Lega Nord (LN; ), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing politics, right-wing, federalism, federalist, populism, populist and conservatism, conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. In the run-up to the 201 ...

campaigner, was Mayor of

from 1993 to 1997. The party was represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

from 1994 to 1996 by Pietro Cerullo, who was elected in the single-seat constituency of Taranto in a close three-horse race, and from 1996 to 2001 by Giancarlo Cito himself, who took 45.9% of the votes in Taranto, beating by a large margin a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

candidate and Cerullo, who had left the party to join the

Federalists and Liberal Democrats The Federalists and Liberal Democrats (, FLD) was a liberal and federalist political party in Italy, founded in 1994 as a parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies. The bulk of FLD was renamed Liberal Federalists (''Federalisti Liberali'', ...

(FLD) and later

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

(FI). In that occasion the party came close to winning its second seat in the Chamber. The party suffered several setbacks since 2001, when Cito won only 13.9% of the votes in his constituency and failed to be re-elected. Furthermore, between 2003 and 2007, Cito was convicted for

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

crimes and the party seemed almost completely over. In 2007 the party experienced anyway a resurgence in the municipal election of Taranto, when Mario Cito, son of Giancarlo, won 20.2% of the votes as candidate for Mayor. In the 2009 provincial election of

, the party won 10.6% of the vote, while supporting the candidate for President of

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom (, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later t ...

(PdL). In the 2012 municipal election of Taranto, Mario Cito won 18.9% in the first round and 30.3% in the run-off, losing to incumbent Mayor Ippazio Stefano. In 2014 the party joined

, but later re-gained its autonomy. In the 2017 municipal election in Taranto the party won 10.8% of the vote and its candidate, Mario Cito (son of Giancarlo), 12.5%.

References

{{reflist Political parties in Apulia Conservative parties in Italy Far-right political parties in Italy Regionalist parties in Italy The Autonomy Italian leagues