Politics of Lombardy

Lombardy

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Lombardy

Statute Regional Government President: Roberto Formigoni Vice President: Andrea Gibelli List of Cabinet members Regional Council President: Davide Boni Provinces Bergamo Brescia Como Cremona Lecco Lodi Mantua Milan Monza Pavia Sondrio Varese Elections 2000 – 2005 – 2010 Political parties The People of Freedom Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord Democratic Party Regions of Italy Politics of Italy Politics of the European Union

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The Politics of Lombardy, Italy, takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democracy, whereby the President of the Region is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in the Regional Council of Lombardy, while executive power is exercised by the Regional Government led by the President, who is directly elected by the people. The current Statute is in force since 2008. Roberto Formigoni has been President since 1995.

Although many local authorities of Lombardy, as all Italy, were ruled the Liberal-conservative coalition that governed the country prior to the rise of Fascism, the region was also the birthplace of the Italian Labour Party, forerunner of the Italian Socialist Party and its eastern and northern provinces were an early stronghold of the Italian People's Party. After World War II Lombardy became a stronghold of the Christian Democracy and later of the Italian Socialist Party, which was especially strong in Milan, where Bettino Craxi hailed from.

Traditionally, Lombardy gives centrist results during elections, reflecting the strong middle class which heavily composes its society. The Communists and their successors lost all the regional and general elections they contested, while Lombardy was one of the few regions which did not return an absolute majority to the National Fascist Party during the 1924 general election which led Italy to dictatorship.

In the 1980s Lombardy saw the organization of a new regionalist party, Lega Lombarda (later Lega Nord), that would have played a major role in Italian politics since the early 1990s. Lombardy is now a stronghold of the centre-right coalition between The People of Freedom, the largest party in the region, founded by Lombard entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi, and Lega Nord. The coalition has governed the region since 1995, although Lega Nord joined the regional government only in 2000.

Legislative branch

Main article: Regional Council of Lombardy

The Regional Council of Lombardy is composed of 80 members. 64 councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists, while 16 councillors (elected in a general ticket) come from a "regional list", including the President-elect. One seat is reserved for the candidate who comes second. If a coalition wins more than 50% of the total seats in the Council with PR, as happened during the 2000 election, only 8 candidates from the regional list will be chosen and the number of those elected in provincial constituencies will be 72. If the winning coalition receives less than 50% of votes, as happened during the 1995 election, special seats are added to the Council to ensure a large majority for the President's coalition.

The Council is elected for a five-year term, but, if the President suffers a vote of no confidence, resigns or dies, under the simul stabunt, simul cadent prevision introduced in 1999 (literally they will stand together or they will fall together), also the Council is dissolved and a snap election is called.

2010–2015 composition

Distribution of Seats in the Regional Council
Political Group	Leader	2010	Now
The People of Freedom	Paolo Valentini Puccitelli	29	29
Democratic Party	Luca Gaffuri	22	22
Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord	Stefano Galli	20	20
Italy of Values	Stefano Zamponi	4	4
Union of the Centre	Gianmarco Quadrini	3	3
Left Ecology Freedom	Chiara Cremonesi	1	1
Pensioners' Party	Elisabetta Fatuzzo	1	1

Source: Regional Council of Lombardy

Executive branch

Main article: President of Lombardy

The Regional Cabinet (Giunta Regionale) is presided by the President of the Region (Presidente della Regione), who is elected for a five-year term, and is currently composed by 17 members: the President and 16 regional assessors (Assessori, literally "aldermen"), including a Vice President (Vice Presidente), while 4 under-secretaries (Sottosegretari) help the President but have not right of vote when the cabinet meets.

2010–2015 composition

Party	Members
The People of Freedom	President and a 11 assessors
Lega Nord	5 assessors

List of Presidents

Main article: List of Presidents of Lombardy

Presidents of Lombardy
President	Party	Term	Legislature
Pietro Bassetti	DC	1970–1974	I Legislature
Cesare Golfari	DC	1974–1975	I Legislature
Cesare Golfari	DC	1975–1979	II Legislature
Giuseppe Guzzetti	DC	1979–1980	II Legislature
Giuseppe Guzzetti	DC	1980–1985	III Legislature
Giuseppe Guzzetti	DC	1985–1987	IV Legislature
Bruno Tabacci	DC	1987–1989	IV Legislature
Giuseppe Giovenzana	DC	1989–1990	IV Legislature
Giuseppe Giovenzana	DC	1990–1992	V Legislature
Fiorella Ghilardotti	PDS	1992–1994	V Legislature
Paolo Arrigoni	LL	1994–1995	V Legislature
Roberto Formigoni	CDU/FI	1995–2000	VI Legislature
Roberto Formigoni	FI	2000–2005	VII Legislature
Roberto Formigoni	FI	2005–2010	VIII Legislature
Roberto Formigoni	PDL	since 2010	IX Legislature

The current President of Lombardy is Roberto Formigoni, who is serving for his fourth consecutive term after winning the 2010 regional election.

Local government

Provinces

Lombardy is divided in twelve provinces, which are a traditional form of local administration in the region, the first ones being yet established under Habsburg rule by Maria Theresa of Austria in the 18th century. Socialist and Christian-democratic ideas had an early diffusion in quite all the provinces around World War I. After the Fascist parenthesis, left-wing parties found their strongholds in south-eastern agricoltural provinces near Emilia, especially in the Province of Mantua, while Christian Democracy obtained high scores in the northern mountainous part of the Region, where nowadays Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord gets a strong backing. The city of Milan is one of major national strongholds of The People of Freedom, although in the last municipal election the left-wing prevailed.

Province	Inhabitants	established	President		Party	Election
Milan	3,156,694	1754		Guido Podestà	The People of Freedom	2009
Brescia	1,256,025	1797		Daniele Molgora	Lega Lombarda	2009
Bergamo	1,098,740	1797		Ettore Pirovano	Lega Lombarda	2009
Varese	883,285	1927		Dario Galli	Lega Lombarda	2007
Monza and Brianza	849,636	2009		Dario Allevi	The People of Freedom	2009
Como	598,988	1786		Leonardo Carioni	Lega Lombarda	2007
Pavia	548,307	1786		Daniele Bosone	Democratic Party	2011
Mantua	415,442	1797		Alessandro Pastacci	Democratic Party	2011
Cremona	363,606	1786		Massimiliano Salini	The People of Freedom	2009
Lecco	340,167	1995		Daniele Nava	The People of Freedom	2009
Lodi	227,665	1995		Pietro Foroni	Lega Lombarda	2009
Sondrio	183,169	1797		Massimo Sertori	Lega Lombarda	2009

Municipalities

Lombardy is also divided in 1,546 comuni (municipalities), which have even more history, having been established in the Middle Ages when they were the main places of government. 15 comuni have more than 50,000 inhabitants, most of which are ruled by the centre-right.

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party	Election
Milan	1,324,110		Giuliano Pisapia	Left Ecology Freedom	2011
Brescia	193,879		Adriano Paroli	The People of Freedom	2008
Monza	122,712		Marco Mariani	Lega Lombarda	2009
Bergamo	119,551		Franco Tentorio	The People of Freedom	2009
Como	85,263		Stefano Bruni	The People of Freedom	2007
Busto Arsizio	81,760		Gianluigi Farioli	The People of Freedom	2011
Varese	81,579		Attilio Fontana	Lega Lombarda	2011
Sesto San Giovanni	81,130		Giorgio Oldrini	Democratic Party	2007
Cinisello Balsamo	74,150		Daniela Gasparini	Democratic Party	2009
Cremona	72,147		Oreste Perri	The People of Freedom	2009
Pavia	71,142		Alessandro Cattaneo	The People of Freedom	2009
Vigevano	63,700		Andrea Sala	Lega Lombarda	2010
Legnano	59,147		Lorenzo Vitali	The People of Freedom	2007
Gallarate	51,751		Edoardo Guenzani	Democratic Party	2011
Rho	50,686		Pietro Romano	Democratic Party	2011

Parties and elections

Main articles: List of political parties in Lombardy and Elections in Lombardy

Last regional election

Main article: Lombard regional election, 2010

In the last regional election, which took place on 28–29 March 2010, Roberto Formigoni of The People of Freedom, was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term as President of the Region, with the support also of Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord.

Candidates	Regional lists			Provincial lists					Total
	votes	%	seats	Parties	votes	%	swing	seats	party	group
Roberto Formigoni	2,704,364	56.1	8	The People of Freedom	1,355,133	31.8	-3.1	23	29	49
				Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord	1,117,227	26.2	+10.4	18	20
				The Right	7,008	0.2	new	-
Filippo Penati	1,603,666	33.3	1	Democratic Party	976,111	22.9	-4.2	21	22	28
				Italy of Values	267,954	6.3	+4.9	4	4
				Pensioners' Party	69,932	1.6	-1.0	1	1
				Left Ecology Freedom	59,112	1.4	new	1	1
				Federation of the Greens	35,060	0.8	-2.1	-
				Italian Socialist Party	13,415	0.3	-0.5	-
Savino Pezzotta	225,849	4.7	-	Union of the Centre	164,078	3.8	0	3	3	3
Vito Crimi	144,585	3.0	-	Five Star Movement	99,390	2.3	new	-
Vittorio Agnoletto	113,754	2.4	-	Federation of the Left	87,220	2.0	-3.7	-
Gianmario Invernizzi	27,670	0.6	-	New Force	11,281	0.3	-2.2	-
Total candidates	4,819,587	100.0	9	Total parties	4,263,025	100.0	=	71	80	80

Source: Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections

List of previous regional elections

• Lombard regional election, 1970
• Lombard regional election, 1975
• Lombard regional election, 1980
• Lombard regional election, 1985
• Lombard regional election, 1990
• Lombard regional election, 1995
• Lombard regional election, 2000
• Lombard regional election, 2005

Last general election in Lombardy

Main article: Italian general election, 2008 (Lombardy)

Chamber of Deputies

Coalitions leaders	votes	votes (%)	seats	Parties	votes	votes (%)	seats
Silvio Berlusconi	3,387,180	55.1	62	The People of Freedom	2,059,231	33.5	37
				Lega Nord	1,327,949	21.6	25
Walter Veltroni	1,972,981	32.1	32	Democratic Party	1,727,006	28.1	28
				Italy of Values	245,975	4.0	4
Pier Ferdinando Casini	261,293	4.3	5	Union of the Centre	261,293	4.3	5
Fausto Bertinotti	180,621	2.9	-	The Left – The Rainbow	180,621	2.9	-
Daniela Santanchè	130,324	2.1	-	The Right	130,324	2.1	-
Enrico Boselli	37,349	0.6	-	Socialist Party	37,349	0.6	-
Marco Ferrando	33,646	0.5	-	Workers' Communist Party	33,646	0.5	-
Giuliano Ferrara	28,439	0.5	-	Abortion? No, thanks	28,439	0.5	-
Others	110,214	1.8	-	Others	110,214	1.8	-
Total coalitions	6,142,028	100.0	98	Total parties	6,142,028	100.0	98

Source: Ministry of the Interior

Senate

Coalitions leaders	votes	votes (%)	seats	Parties	votes	votes (%)	swing	seats	change
Silvio Berlusconi	3,139,694	55.1	30	The People of Freedom	1,959,681	34.4	-3.6	19	0
				Lega Nord	1,180,013	20.7	+9.6	11	+6
Walter Veltroni	1,823,835	32.0	17	Democratic Party	1,607,928	28.2	+5.8	15	+2
				Italy of Values	215,907	3.8	+1.2	2	+2
Pier Ferdinando Casini	240,481	4.2	-	Union of the Centre	240,481	4.2	-1.7	-	-3
Fausto Bertinotti	183,061	3.2	-	The Left – The Rainbow	183,061	3.2	-8.6	-	-7
Daniela Santanchè	93,077	1.6	-	The Right	93,077	1.6	+0.5	-	-
Eva Rossi	45,622	0.8	-	Lega Alleanza Lombarda	45,622	0.8	-0.8	-	-
Enrico Boselli	30,745	0.5	-	Socialist Party	30,745	0.5	-1.7	-	-
Marco Ferrando	27,141	0.5	-	Workers' Communist Party	27,141	0.5	+0.5	-	-
Renzo Rabellino	25,866	0.5	-	Beppe Grillo's Movement	25,866	0.5	+0.5	-	-
Others	86,632	1.5	-	Others	86,632	1.5	-1.7	-	-
Total coalitions	5,696,154	100.0	47	Total parties	5,696,154	100.0	=	47	=

Source: Ministry of the Interior

External links

• Lombardy Region
• Regional Council of Lombardy
• Constitution of Lombardy