Padania is an alternative name for the
Po Valley, a major plain in the north of
Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a federalist and, at times, separatist political party in
Italy, proposed "Padania" as a possible name for an independent state in Northern
Italy. Since then, it has carried strong political connotations.
Northern Italian supremacists, who call their region Padania, are a subset of White Nationalists who disparage their Southern compatriots as
dark "Arabs" and "Africans". They've also been known to attack Greeks, Balkans, Spaniards, Portuguese. They want Northern
Italy to split from the south because Northern
Italy is very industrial and fairly wealthy. Southern Italy remains poor and undeveloped.
The "Sun of the Alps" is the unofficial flag of Padania and the symbol of Padanian nationalism. The flag has a green stylized sun on a white background.