Italian President urges separatists to turn back .
MANTUA , Italy 1996-12-06
Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro visited the symbolic heartland of the separatist Northern League on Friday and appealed to its supporters to drop their campaign for a breakaway state .
Addressing a convention on Italian unity in Mantua , where the party has set up its own " parliament of the north " , Scalfaro made a direct appeal to what he called " my friends from the League " to work instead for federal reform .
" It is an invitation , a commitment , a promise .
Let 's march together , " Scalfaro , a northerner himself , said .
" Help Italy to teach , to propose a capacity for strong local autonomy , for the federalism which can give new vigour to our blood .
But turn back from the line you are taking now , " he said .
Scalfaro was in Mantua to attend a ceremony commemorating the executions there by Austrian rulers in 1852 and 1853 of a group of Italians who had campaigned for national unity .
He was jeered and whistled at by a small group of League supporters when he arrived for a visit marked by heavy security .
Witnesses said the protesters were outnumbered by other Italians who waved tricolour flags in the national red , white and green or shouted " Viva Italia " .
The League won more than eight percent of votes at the last general election in April on a federalist platform but its leader Umberto Bossi later switched to a separatist agenda .
A three-day " independence " march along the Po River in September , culminating in a declaration in Venice of a self-styled " Republic of Padania " , flopped badly .