Is there any racism against the Southerners in the North? what about the Lega Norde? does their rhetoric contain racist connotations?
Ah, you are asking the right man ;P
Yeah there is quite some racism between Northerners and Southerners, everywhere.
Mostly it stays at just teasing level, nothing more than making fun of each other.
But sometimes it goes beyond that, especially when politics are concerned.
Lega Nord in the 90s used this intra-national racism a lot, now it's just using xenophobia against the non-Italians (especially since a lot of Southerners living in the North are now voting for Lega Nord).
What sucks is that I like the secessionist and reformist ideas of Lega Nord, but I am completely against their stupid xenophobic rhetorics. So I am very torn on where I stand politically.
Same for when it comes to the Italian right wing parties.
I very much agree with their ideas of economic liberalism, but I cannot stand them when it comes to social issues such as religion, scientific research, marriages, euthanasia, liberalization of drugs and prostitution... cause they are conservative about all those points.
On the other hand, the Italian left has NO ideas. All their political program is "Berlusconi wants to own the country, and we need to change something to improve things... (but they do not say what should be changed or how)" :S