As a songwriter Farassino produced more than 30 albums and virtually 50 singles. Most of his songs were in
Piedmontese language and were directly inspired by
French chanson and
chansonniers. Farassino, who was also active as an actor, obtained his first major success in 1968 with
Avere un amico, a collection of his most well-known songs in
Italian. Contextually, Farassino became a friend of
Fabrizio De André and started to be active in the
Italian Communist Party (PCI). Having abandoned the PCI and having endorsed more and more Piedmontese nationalism, Farassino first joined the
Piedmontese Union, founded and led by Roberto Gremmo (another former Communist), and later was the founder and leader of the "Piedmontese Autonomist Movement" in 1987. The party, which took the name of "Autonomist Piedmont", was soon involved in the formation of a federation of
Northern Italian regionalist parties,
Lega Nord, and was transformed into
Lega Nord Piemont (LNP). Farassino, who would be the "national" secretary of the LNP until 1996, was elected to the
Chamber of Deputies in the
1992 general election. Having been defeated in a
Senate single-seat constituency in the
1994 general election, he was elected to the
European Parliament in the
1994 European Parliament election. He did not stand for re-election in
1999 and briefly left politics. Farassino was finally regional minister for Piedmontese Identity from 2004 to 2005. == Discography ==