text: 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 .