Politics of Veneto
Statute Regional Government President:Luca Zaia Vice President:Elisa De Berti Cabinet:Third Zaia government Regional Council President:Roberto Ciambetti Composition (2020–2025 term) (2005–2010;2010–2015;2015–2020) Elections Political parties Provinces (Presidents) Municipalities (Mayors of largest cities)
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Thepolitics of Veneto, one of the 20regions ofItaly, takes place in a framework of asemi-presidentialrepresentative democracy, whereby thePresident of Veneto is thehead of government, and of a pluriformmulti-party system.Executive power is exercised by theRegional Government.Legislative power is vested in both the government and theRegional Council.Veneto traces back to the history of theRepublic of Venice or Venetian Republic and its current formed is envisioned by theItalian Constitution of 1948 and was formally instituted as a region in 1970.

TheStatute of Veneto was promulgated in 1971 and largely rewritten in 2011. Article 1 defines Veneto as an "autonomous region [...] in harmony with the Italian Constitution and the principles and the system of theEuropean Union", "constituted by the Venetian people and the lands of the provinces of Belluno, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venice, Verona and Vicenza", while maintaining "bonds with Venetians in the world". Article 2 sets forth the principle of the "self-government of the Venetian people" and mandates the Region to "promote the historical identity of the Venetian people and civilisation".^[1]

Veneto is home toVenetian nationalism or Venetism, a political movement demanding more autonomy and, to some extent, independence for the region. On 22 October 2017 the so-called "autonomy referendum" took place in Veneto. Citizens were asked whether they wanted "further forms and special conditions of autonomy to be attributed to the Region of Veneto". 57.2% of Venetians participated and 98.1% voted "yes".

The current president of Veneto isLuca Zaia ofLiga Veneta–Lega, by far the largest party in the Regional Council.

Prior to the rise ofFascism, most of the deputies elected in Veneto were part of the liberal establishment (seeHistorical Right,Historical Left andLiberals), which governed Italy for decades, but also the main opposition parties, namely theRadical Party and theItalian Socialist Party, had a good sway among Venetian voters. In the1919 general election, the first held withproportional representation, theCatholic-inspiredItalian People's Party came first with 42.6% (gaining at least 10% more than in any other region) and the Socialists were in second place with 36.2%. In the1924 general election, which led Italy to dictatorship, Veneto was one of the few regions, along withLombardy andPiedmont, which did not return an absolute majority to theNational Fascist Party.^[2]

FromWorld War II to 1994 Veneto was the heartland ofChristian Democracy, which polled 60.5% in the1953 general election and steadily above 50% until the late 1970s, and led the Regional Government from its establishment in 1970 to 1993. In the 1990s Veneto became a stronghold of thecentre-rightPole/House of Freedoms coalition, which governed the region from 1995 to 2010 underGiancarlo Galan ofForza Italia. In 2010 Galan was replaced byLuca Zaia ofLiga Veneta–Lega Nord, who obtained a hefty and record-breaking 60.2% of the vote and whosecoalition government includedThe People of Freedom/Forza Italia and, since 2013, theNew Centre-Right;^[3] Liga Veneta was the largest party with 35.2% of the vote. Zaia and Liga Veneta were confirmed in 2015, with a reduced but more cohesive majority, due to the split ofTosi List for Veneto and the diminishment of Forza Italia: Zaia won 50.1% of the vote, while Liga Veneta a thumping 40.9%, largely ahead of the oppositionDemocratic Party's 20.5%.

Veneto is home toVenetian nationalism (or Venetism), a political movement that appeared in the 1970s, demanding political and fiscal autonomy for the region (which is felt by Venetists to be anation in its own right) and promoting Venetian culture,language and history. This was the background from which Liga Veneta emerged in 1980. In the 1990s and 2000s other Venetist parties (theUnion of the Venetian People, theVeneto Autonomous Region Movement,Lega Autonomia Veneta,Liga Veneta Repubblica,North-East Project, etc.) emerged, but they never touched the popularity of Liga Veneta, which was a founding member of Lega Nord in 1991. Some Venetists have campaigned for federal reform and/or autonomy, others (notably including theVenetian National Party, theParty of the Venetians,Veneto State,Venetian Independence,Veneto First,Plebiscito.eu,Venetian Left,Independence We Veneto andWe Are Veneto) for outrightindependence.

The Regional Government is led by thePresident of Veneto and composed of the President and ten Ministers (Assessori), including a Vice President.

The current regional government has been in office 16 October 2020, under the leadership of PresidentLuca Zaia ofLiga Veneta–Lega Nord.

Source:Veneto Region – Regional Government

Source:Region of Veneto

The Regional Council of Veneto (Consiglio Regionale del Veneto) is composed of 51 members. 49 councillors are elected inprovincial constituencies byproportional representation using thelargest remainder method with aDroop quota andopen lists, while the remaining two are the electedPresident and the candidate for President who comes second. The winning coalition wins a bonus of seats in order to make sure the elected President has a majority in the Council.^[4][5][6]

The Council is elected for a five-year term, but, if the President suffers a vote of no confidence, resigns or dies, under thesimul stabunt, simul cadent (literally: "they will stand together or they will fall together") clause introduced in 1999, also the Council is dissolved and a snap election is called.^[7]

Sources:Regional Council of Veneto – Groups andRegional Council of Veneto – Members

Veneto is subdivided into sevenprovinces, includingVenice which has functioned as ametropolitan city, with the mayor of Venice functioning also as metropolitan mayor, since 2015.

All the seven provinces, but especiallyVicenza,Verona andPadua, were longChristian Democratic heartlands. In the early 1990s, when the Venetian and Italian party systems experienced huge realignments,Treviso, Vicenza and Verona became strongholds ofLiga Veneta–Lega Nord, while in Padua, the region's most populated,Forza Italia/The People of Freedom/Forza Italia was the dominant political force; only two provinces, Venice andRovigo, have traditionally been the powerbases of the centre-left coalition and, more recently, theDemocratic Party, whileBelluno was long a swing province. In the2020 regional election Liga Veneta, which fielded two lists, came largely first in each and every province.

After a reform was enacted in 2014, provinces have lost most powers to the region and the municipalities, and, contextually, provincial presidents have been elected by mayors and municipal councillors, whose votes are weighted according to the population of their municipalities. In some cases, elected presidents represent bipartisan or trans-party coalitions. For instance, in 2014Enoch Soranzo was elected in Padua thanks to the decisive support of the Democratic Party, while the majority of the centre-right coalition had endorsed another candidate.^[8] Contextually,Achille Variati was endorsed both by the Democrats and Forza Italia in Vicenza^[9] and, more recently,Sergio Giordani was the joint candidate of all running parties in 2022.^[10]

In the following table, inhabitants are updated according to April 2024 ISTAT figures.^[11]

Twenty-sixcomuni, hence municipalities, of Veneto have more than 25,000 inhabitants.

Of these, seven have mayors representingLiga Veneta, five theDemocratic Party, five theBrothers of Italy and twoForza Italia. Six mayors are non-party independents: two of these are supported by the Democratic Party and its centre-left allies, two jointly by Liga Veneta, the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia, and two by local non-partisan coalitions.

In the following table, inhabitants are updated according to April 2024 ISTAT figures^[11] and, in case of non-party independent mayors supported by partisan coalitions, the party to which the mayor is closest or the largest party in the coalition is indicated in brackets.

The latest regional election took place on 20–21 September 2020.

Luca Zaia ofLiga Veneta–Lega (formerlyLega Nord) was re-elected President by a landslide 76.8% of the vote, while his main rivalArturo Lorenzoni stopped at 15.7%. Liga Veneta, which ran an official party list and a list named after Zaia, was confirmed the largest in the region with a combined 61.5% of the vote. TheDemocratic Party came second with 11.9% and theBrothers of Italy third with 9.6%. The total score ofVenetist parties was 65.6%, the highest ever.

20–21 September 2020 Venetian regional election results

Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seat
	Luca Zaia	1,883,959	76.79	1		Zaia for President	916,087	44.57	23
						League –Venetian League[12]	347,832	16.92	9
						Brothers of Italy	196,310	9.55	5
						Forza Italia	73,244	3.56	2
						Venetian Autonomy List	48,932	2.38	1
					Total		1,582,405	77.00	40
	Arturo Lorenzoni	385,768	15.72	1		Democratic Party	244,881	11.92	6
						Veneto We Want	41,275	2.01	1
						Green Europe	34,647	1.69	1
						More Veneto in Europe –Volt	14,246	0.69	–
						Venetian Left	2,405	0.12	–
					Total		337,454	16.42	8
	Enrico Cappelletti	79,662	3.25	–		Five Star Movement	55,281	2.69	1
	Paolo Girotto	21,679	0.88	–		3V Movement	14,916	0.73	–
	Antonio Guadagnini	20,502	0.84	–		Party of Venetians	19,756	0.96	–
	Paolo Benvegnù	18,529	0.76	–		Solidarity Environment Work	11,846	0.58	–
	Daniela Sbrollini	15,198	0.62	–		Italia Viva –PSI –PRI	12,426	0.60	–
	Patrizia Bertelle	14,518	0.59	–		Veneto Ecology Solidarity	9,061	0.44	–
	Simonetta Rubinato	13,703	0.56	–		Veneto for the Autonomies	12,028	0.59	–
Total candidates		2,453,518	100.00	2	Total parties		2,055,173	100.00	49
Source:Ministry of the Interior – Electoral Archive

Thecentre-right coalition (56.3%), this time dominated by theBrothers of Italy, obtained a far larger victory thanfour years before over thecentre-left coalition (23.0%),Action – Italia Viva (8.4%) and theFive Star Movement (5.8%). One third of deputies and senators were elected in single-seat constituencies and, as in 2018, the centre-right won all such constituencies. Among parties, the Brothers of Italy came largely first with 32.7% of the vote, followed by theDemocratic Party (16.3%) andLega (14.5%). The biggest turnaround happened within the centre-right, as Lega lost more than half of the votes obtained in 2018 (–17.7pp) and the Brothers of Italy jumped from 4.2% to virtually eight times that share (+28.5pp).

Chamber of Deputies

Sources:Regional Council of Veneto,Ministry of the Interior,Ministry of the Interior andCorriere della Sera

Senate

Sources:Regional Council of Veneto,Ministry of the Interior andCorriere della Sera

Source:Ministry of the Interior

• Veneto Region – Legislatures
• Regional Council of Veneto – Elections
• Cattaneo Institute – Archive of Election Data
• Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections

• Veneto Region
• Regional Council of Veneto
• Constitution of Veneto

• Politics of Veneto
• Veneto