Politics of Apulia

The Politics of Apulia, Italy, takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democracy, whereby the President of Regional Government is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Regional Government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Regional Council.

Executive branch

The Regional Government (Giunta Regionale) is presided by the President of the Region (Presidente della Regione), who is elected for a five-year term, and is composed by the President and the Ministers (Assessori), who are currently ten.^[1]

List of Presidents

Legislative branch

The Regional Council of Apulia (Consiglio Regionale della Puglia) is composed of 70 members and is elected with proportional representation plus a majority premium for the winning coalition.^[2] 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 vel simul cadent clause (introduced in 1999), also the Council will be dissolved and there will be a fresh election.^[3]

Local government

Provinces and Metropolitan City

Apulia is divided into five provinces and one metropolitan city:

Province / Metropolitan City	Inhabitants	President		Party
Metropolitan City of Bari	1,261,954 #EF1C27	Antonio Decaro	Democratic Party	2015
Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani	384,293 #EF1C27	Bernardo Lodispoto	Independent (centre-left)	2019
Province of Brindisi	401,652 #EF1C27	Riccardo Rossi	Independent (centre-left)	2018
Province of Foggia	627,102 #0087DC	Nicola Gatta	Independent (centre-right)	2018
Province of Lecce	802,807 #EF1C27	Stefano Minerva	Democratic Party	2018
Province of Taranto	581,092 #0087DC	Giovanni Gugliotti	Forza Italia	2018

Municipalities

Apulia is also divided into 258 comuni (municipalities), which have even more history, having been established in the Middle Ages when they were the main places of government. There are eight provincial capital cities in Apulia, as the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani is the only province in Italy with three capital cities.

There are 258 communes in Apulia (as of January 2019):

Provincial capitals

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party
Andria	100,357 #EF1C27	Giovanna Bruno	Democratic Party	2020
Bari	311,997 #EF1C27	Antonio Decaro	Democratic Party	2019
Barletta	94,664 #0087DC	Cosimo Cannito	Independent (centre-right)	2018
Brindisi	88,482 #EF1C27	Riccardo Rossi	Independent (centre-left)	2018
Foggia	152,700 #0087DC	Franco Landella	Forza Italia	2019
Lecce	89,902 #EF1C27	Carlo Salvemini	Independent (centre-left)	2019
Taranto	198,083 #EF1C27	Rinaldo Melucci	Democratic Party	2017
Trani	55,808 #EF1C27	Amedeo Bottaro	Democratic Party	2015

Other municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party
Altamura	70,789 #EF1C27	Rosa Melodia	Independent (centre-left)	2018
Molfetta	60,272 #EF1C27	Tommaso Minervini	Democratic Party	2017
Cerignola	57,007 #DCDCDC	Franco Metta	Civic List	2015
Manfredonia	56,318 #DCDCDC	Angelo Riccardi	Civic List	2015
Bitonto	56,304 #EF3E3E	Michele Abbaticchio	Italian Left	2017
San Severo	55,297 #EF1C27	Francesco Miglio	Democratic Party	2019
Bisceglie	54,847 #DCDCDC	Angelantonio Angarano	Civic List	2018

Parties and elections

Latest regional election

In the latest regional election, which took place on 20–21 September 2020, Michele Emiliano of the Democratic Party was re-elected President with 46.8% of the vote.

20–21 September 2020 Apulian regional election results
Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seats

	Michele Emiliano	871,028	46.78	1		Democratic Party	289,188	17.25	16
						With Emiliano	110,559	6.59	6
						Populars with Emiliano	99,621	5.94	5
						Civic Sense – A New Olive Tree for Apulia	69,780	4.16	–
						Italia in Comune	64,886	3.87	–
						Solidary and Green Apulia	63,725	3.80	–
						Emiliano Mayor of Apulia	43,404	2.59	–
						Animalist Party	5,573	0.33	–
						Alternative Left	4,192	0.25	–
						Pensioners and Disabled	3,119	0.19	–
						Party of the South	1,410	0.08	–
						Thought and Action Party	1,243	0.07	–
						Independent South	1,179	0.07	–
						Christian Democracy	1,047	0.06	–
						Open Society Association – The Liberals	806	0.05	–
					Total		759,732	45.32	27
	Raffaele Fitto	724,928	38.93	1		Brothers of Italy	211,693	12.63	6
						League	160,507	9.57	4
						Forza Italia	149,399	8.91	4
						Apulia Tomorrow	141,201	8.42	3
						Union of the Centre – New PSI	31,736	1.89	–
					Total		694,536	41.43	17
	Antonella Laricchia	207,038	11.12	–		Five Star Movement	165,243	9.86	5
						Future Apulia	9,897	0.59	–
					Total		175,140	10.45	5
	Ivan Scalfarotto	29,808	1.60	–		Italia Viva	18,025	1.08	–
						Scalfarotto for President	5,062	0.30	–
						Green Future	1,888	0.11	–
					Total		24,975	1.49	–
	Mario Conca	16,531	0.89	–		Apulian Citizens	12,162	0.73	–
	Nicola Cesaria	7,222	0.39	–		Work Environment Constitution	5,880	0.35	–
	Pierfranco Bruni	3,115	0.17	–		Tricolour Flame	2,362	0.14	–
	Andrea D'Agosto	2,353	0.13	–		Reconquer Italy	1,712	0.10	–

Blank and invalid votes		149,658	7.44
Total candidates		1,862,023	100.00	2	Total parties		1,676,499	100.00	49
Registered voters/turnout		3,565,013	56.43
Source: Ministry of the Interior – Results Archived 2020-09-23 at the Wayback Machine

References

^ http://www.regione.puglia.it/index.php?page=struttura&opz=giunta&cust=1
^ La Repubblica – Regional electoral law
^ "Regional Council of Lombardy – 1999 Constitutional law" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2009.

External links

[1] ttp://www.regione.puglia.it/index.php?page=struttura&opz=giunta&cust=1

[2] La Repubblica – Regional electoral law

[3] "Regional Council of Lombardy – 1999 Constitutional law" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2009.

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