Politics of Lombardy

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, which regulates the functioning of the regional institutions, has been in force since 2008.

Prior to the rise of Fascism, most of the deputies elected in Lombardy were part of the liberal establishment (see Historical Right, Historical Left and Liberals), which governed Italy for decades. Lombardy 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. In the 1924 general election, which led Italy to dictatorship, Lombardy was one of the few regions, along with Veneto and Piedmont, which did not return an absolute majority to the National Fascist Party. After World War II Lombardy became a stronghold of the Christian Democracy, since the 1980s in association with the Italian Socialist Party, which was especially strong in Milan.

Traditionally, Lombardy gives centrist results during elections, reflecting its strong middle class. The Communists and their successors (the Democratic Party of the Left, the Democrats of the Left and the present-day Democratic Party) never won in the region. 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 Lega Nord and The People of Freedom (PdL), founded by Lombard entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi. The coalition, which was joined by Lega Nord in 2000, has governed the region since 1995, under two Presidents, Roberto Formigoni (CDU/FI/PdL) and Roberto Maroni (Lega Nord).

Legislative branch

Main article: Regional Council of Lombardy

Palazzo Lombardia, the seat of the Regional Council, from the outside.

Composition of the Regional Council:
     LN–Maroni list (27)
     FI–NCD (19)
     PD (17)
     M5S (9)
     Ambrosoli list (5)
     FdI (2)
     PP (1)

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 clause introduced in 1999 (literally they will stand together or they will fall together), also the Council is dissolved and a snap election is called.

2013–2018 composition

Distribution of Seats in the Regional Council
Political Group	2013	Now
The People of Freedom–Forza Italia	19	10
Democratic Party	17	17
Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord	15	15
Maroni List	11	11
Five Star Movement	9	9
Ambrosoli List	4	4
Brothers of Italy	2	2
Pensioners' Party	1	1
New Centre-Right	-	9

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 16 members: the President and 15 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.

2013–2018 composition

Party	Members
Lega Nord	President and 7 assessors
The People of Freedom–Forza Italia	6 assessors
Brothers of Italy	1 assessor
New Centre-Right	1 assessor

List of Presidents

Main article: List of Presidents of Lombardy

The current President of Lombardy is Roberto Maroni, who is serving for his first term after winning the 2013 regional election.

	Name	Term of office		Political Party	Legislature
1	Pietro Bassetti	30 July 1970	27 June 1974	DC	I (1970)
2	Cesare Golfari	27 June 1974	17 June 1975	DC
		17 June 1975	1 October 1979		II (1975)
3	Giuseppe Guzzetti	1 October 1979	10 June 1980	DC
		10 June 1980	14 May 1985		III (1980)
		14 May 1985	17 July 1987		IV (1985)
4	Bruno Tabacci	17 July 1987	31 January 1989	DC
5	Giovanni Giovenzana	31 January 1989	7 May 1990	DC
		7 May 1990	12 December 1992		V (1990)
6	Fiorella Ghilardotti	12 December 1992	4 June 1994	PDS
7	Paolo Arrigoni	4 June 1994	23 April 1995	Lega Nord
8	Roberto Formigoni	23 April 1995	16 April 2000	CDU/FI/PDL	VI (1995)
		16 April 2000	5 April 2005		VII (2000)
		5 April 2005	21 April 2010		VIII (2005)
		21 April 2010	27 February 2013		IX (2010)
9	Roberto Maroni	27 February 2013	incumbent	Lega Nord	X (2013)

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 agricultural 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 latest municipal election the left-wing prevailed.

After the 2014 reform of local authorities the Province of Milan was replaced by the new Metropolitan City of Milan. Since 2014 the president of the province is no more elected directly by citizens, but is chosen by mayors and councilors of the municipalities of the province.

Province	Inhabitants	established	President		Party	Election
Metropolitan City of Milan (former Province of Milan)	3,156,694	2015 #C80815	Giuliano Pisapia	SEL	2014
Brescia	1,256,025	1797 #EF1C27	Pierluigi Mottinelli	PD	2014
Bergamo	1,098,740	1797 #EF1C27	Matteo Rossi	PD	2014
Varese	883,285	1927 #05517e	Nicola Gunnar Vincenzi	NCD	2014
Monza and Brianza	849,636	2009 #EF1C27	Pierluigi Ponti	PD	2014
Como	598,988	1786 #EF1C27	Maria Rita Livio	PD	2014
Pavia	548,307	1786 #EF1C27	Daniele Bosone	PD	2011
Mantua	415,442	1797 #EF1C27	Alessandro Pastacci	PD	2011
Cremona	363,606	1786 #EF1C27	Carlo Vezzini	PD	2014
Lecco	340,167	1995 #EF1C27	Flavio Polano	PD	2014
Lodi	227,665	1995 #EF1C27	Mauro Soldati	PD	2014
Sondrio	183,169	1797 #008000	Luca Della Bitta	LL–LN	2014

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-left.

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party	Election
Milan	1,324,110 #C80815	Giuliano Pisapia	SEL	2011
Brescia	193,879 #EF1C27	Emilio Del Bono	PD	2013
Monza	122,712 #EF1C27	Roberto Scanagatti	PD	2012
Bergamo	119,551 #EF1C27	Giorgio Gori	PD	2014
Como	85,263 #EF1C27	Mario Lucini	PD	2012
Busto Arsizio	81,760 #0087DC	Gianluigi Farioli	FI	2011
Varese	81,579 #008000	Attilio Fontana	LL–LN	2011
Sesto San Giovanni	81,130 #EF1C27	Monica Chittò	PD	2012
Cinisello Balsamo	74,150 #C80815	Siria Trezzi	SEL	2013
Cremona	72,147 #EF1C27	Gianluca Galimberti	PD	2014
Pavia	71,142 #EF1C27	Massimo Depaoli	PD	2014
Vigevano	63,700 #008000	Andrea Sala	LL–LN	2015
Legnano	59,147 #EF1C27	Alberto Centinaio	PD	2012
Gallarate	51,751 #EF1C27	Edoardo Guenzani	PD	2011
Rho	50,686 #EF1C27	Pietro Romano	PD	2011

Parties and elections

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

Latest regional election

Main article: Lombard regional election, 2013

In the latest regional election, which took place on 24–25 February 2013, Roberto Maroni of Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord was elected President of Lombardy with the support of The People of Freedom. The election was the first snap election in Lombard political history and the first one paired with a senatorial election.

Candidates	Regional candidates			Provincial lists					Total
	votes	%	seats	Parties	votes	%	swing	seats	party	group
Roberto Maroni	2,456,921	42.82	1	The People of Freedom	904,742	16.73	15.1	19	19	49
				Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord	700,907	12.96	13.2	15	16
				Maroni President	552,863	10.23	new	11	11
				Brothers of Italy	83,810	1.55	new	2	2
				Pensioners' Party	50,843	0.94	0.7	1	1
				Labour and Freedom List	27,374	0.51	new	0	0
				Ecological Alliance	8,270	0.15	new	0	0
Umberto Ambrosoli	2,194,169	38.24	1	Democratic Party	1,369,440	25.33	2.4	17	17	22
				Ambrosoli List – Civic Pact	380,241	7.03	new	4	5
				Left Ecology Freedom	97,627	1.81	0.4	0	0
				Lombard Popular Centre	63,885	1.18	new	0	0
				Ethical to Left	52,152	0.96	new	0	0
				Italy of Values	35,141	0.65	5.6	0	0
				Italian Socialist Party	16,624	0.31	0.0	0	0
Silvana Carcano	782,007	13.63	-	Five Star Movement	775,211	14.34	12.0	9	9	9
Gabriele Albertini	236,597	4.12	-	Civic Lombardy	133,435	2.47	new	0	0	-
				Union of the Centre	85,721	1.59	2.2	0	0
Carlo Pinardi	68,133	1.19	-	Act to Stop the Decline	68,469	1.27	new	0	0	-
Total candidates	5,737,827	100.00	2	Total parties	5,406,755	100.00	=	78	80	80

Source: Region Lombardy

External links

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