Populist Northern League leader Umberto Bossi's call for a taxpayer's strike against Premier Romano Prodi's government embarrassed his allies and left centre-left parties seething on Thursday.
Speaking to supporters after a late-night party gathering in the northern League stomping ground of Ponte di Legno, Bossi said he was thinking of organising a "strong protest" in a bid to "send the Prodi government home".
Bossi first raised the proposal of a taxpayer's revolt fifteen years ago and has since bandied the idea several times.
"Let's pay our taxes to the regions instead of the state," a belligerent Bossi told party members.
"The fiscal strike will kick off in Genoa, Milan and Turin; it will be a rebellion," said Bossi stressing, however, that the idea had not yet been discussed with other parties in the centre-right House of Liberties alliance.
The League's main aim is to see powers devolved from the State to Italy's 20 regions because it views the affluent north as hampered by the underdeveloped south. Often criticised as anti-foreigner and anti-European, the formerly separatist party frequently sparks controversy.
The populist firebrand continues to head the party despite his ongoing recovery from a major stroke in 2004.
Centre-left ministers and MPs promptly blasted Bossi, accusing him of subversion and fomenting anti-democratic feelings, but his allies were just as scathing in their rebuttals.
"It's madness...it's saying he wants an end to the state. How would the state then pay for the police who protect us from criminals. Who would defend us from terrorists. How would it pay state employees' salaries and pensions?," said Rocco Buttiglione, European Union affairs minister in the former Silvio Berlusconi-led government.
Former environment minister Altero Matteoli, a leading member of the right-wing National Alliance party, also distanced himself from Bossi's idea, saying it was "legally untenable ".
"I agree that Italians ought to pay fewer taxes but we also have to abide by the (country's) constitution," he said.
Public Works Minister Antonio Di Pietro, a former graft-busting magistrate, scoffed at the proposal, which he termed "insane" as well as "illegal".
Bossi's call is "indecent," said Economy ministry Undersecretary Paolo Cento, stressing the "positive note struck by the centre right which also give it a thumbs down".
Carlo Giovanardi, a member of the centrist opposition UDC party and former minister, urged Bossi to reflect on the consequences.
"Those who live by striking shall die by strikes," said Giovanardi, paraphrasing the Bible and suggesting that the centre right needs to ponder its steps since it "will likely be returning to head the government soon".
But Northern League heavyweight Roberto Calderoli, who was reform minister in the Berlusconi government rallied to his leader's side.
"What we're examining is not a way of avoiding paying taxes, which would be an act of incivility, but rather of paying them directly into the coffers of the region instead of the state's".
According to Calderoli, people in the wealthy industrialised northern regions are growing increasingly intolerant of the Prodi government. Calderoli said the centre left sees Northern Italy as "some sort of cow that can be milked non stop".
"Well, the cow is fed up".
Bossi's struggle for greater autonomy for the northern regions gathered momentum in the early 1990s, leading his party to become part of the first Berlusconi government in 1994. It provoked the fall of that government by withdrawing its support nine months later.
Becoming more radical in the middle of the decade, when Bossi espoused the cause of secession by the north, the leader later abandoned that stance and took up the banner of devolution.
With his electoral base shrinking, Bossi joined forces with Berlusconi in the run-up to the 2001 elections.
In a boost for Prodi's government shortly after its victory in spring general elections, Italians last year voted against sweeping constitutional and devolutionary reforms drawn up by the Berlusconi government.
In a national referendum more than 61% rejected the reforms, which would have boosted the powers of the premier and introduced greater autonomy for Italy's 20 regions.
The 'no' vote won in all regions except the northern, centre-right and League strongholds of Lombardy and Veneto.
