Politics of Sicily

The Politics of Sicily, Italy takes place in a framework of a semi-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 Sicilian Regional Assembly.

History

The oldest organised party of Sicily was the Sicilian Socialist Party, founded out from the Fasci Siciliani in 1893, but the region was primarily a stronghold of the liberal establishment (see Historical Right, Historical Left and Liberals) that governed Italy for decades. However, by the end of the 19th century, Sicily elected several deputies from left-wing parties, namely the Radical Party, the Italian Republican Party, the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Reformist Socialist Party.

After Italian Fascism (whose partisan arm, the National Fascist Party was well supported in the region) and the Allied invasion of Sicily during the World War II, Sicily increasingly became a stronghold of Christian Democracy, in opposition to the Italian Communist Party. Sicilians had also a penchant for conservative/nationalist politics, represented mainly by the Monarchist National Party and the Italian Social Movement.

After the dissolution of these parties, in the early 1990s, the region was long governed by a "center-right coalition", notably including the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, whose regional leader, Salvatore Cuffaro, served as President of Sicily from 2001 to 2008, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the post-fascist National Alliance. Cuffaro's Christian Democrats have since been the main party of government in Sicily as they had been part both of the administrations of Raffaele Lombardo of the Movement for the Autonomies (2008–2012) and that of Rosario Crocetta of the Democratic Party (since 2012).

Legislative branch

Main article: Sicilian Regional Assembly

The Sicilian Regional Assembly is composed of 90 members (or deputies). 80 deputies are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists, while 10 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.

The Assembly 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 2001 (literally they will stand together or they will fall together), also the Assembly is dissolved and a snap election is called

Executive branch

Main article: President of Sicily

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 11 members: the President and 10 regional assessors (Assessori, literally "aldermen"), including a Vice President (Vice Presidente).

Originally appointed by the Sicilian Regional Assembly, since 2001 de jure, he is elected by popular vote every five years under universal suffrage: the candidate who receives a plurality of votes, is elected.

His office is connected to the Regional Assembly (ARS), which is elected contextually: one fifth of the assembly seats are generally reserved to his supporters, which are wholesale elected concurrently with the President. The Assembly and the President are linked by an alleged relationship of confidence: if the President resigns or he is dismissed by the Assembly, a snap election is called for both the legislative and the executive offices, because in no case the two bodies can be chosen separately. The popular election of the President and the relationship of confidence between him and the legislature, allow to identify the Sicilian model of government as a particular form of semi-presidential system.

The President of Sicily promulgates regional laws and regulations. He can receive special administrative functions by the national government. The President is one of the 90 members of the Regional Assembly and, in this capacity, he can propose new laws. He appoints and dismiss the Regional Cabinet (called Giunta Regionale in Italian). The Cabinet is composed by regional assessors (assessori, literally "aldermen") who can be members of the Council at the same time. Assessors should not be confused with the ministers: according to Italian administrative law, assessors only receive delegations from the President to rule a bureau or an agency, the Region being a single legal person, not divided in ministries. One assessor can be appointed Vice President. The President can also appoint four under-secretaries (sottosegretari) to help the President in his functions.

The Regional Cabinet prepares the budget, appoints the boards of public regional agencies and companies, manages assets, develops projects of governance, and resorts to the Constitutional Court of Italy if it thinks that a national law may violate regional powers. The President and the Cabinet are two different authorities of the Region: in matters within its competence, the Cabinet has the power to vote to give its approval.

List of Presidents

Main article: List of Presidents of Sicily

The current President of Sicily is Rosario Crocetta, who is serving for his first term after winning the 2012 regional election.

	Name	Term of office		Political Party	Legislature
1	Giuseppe Alessi	30 May 1947	13 June 1949	DC	I (1947)
2	Franco Restivo	13 June 1949	20 July 1951	DC
		20 July 1951	4 June 1955		II (1951)
(1)	Giuseppe Alessi	4 June 1955	4 April 1956	DC	III (1955)
3	Giuseppe La Loggia	4 April 1956	13 May 1958	DC
4	Silvio Milazzo	13 May 1958	12 August 1959	DC
		12 August 1959	23 February 1960		IV (1959)
5	Benedetto Della Nicchiara	23 February 1960	8 September 1961	DC
6	Giuseppe D'Angelo	8 September 1961	25 July 1963	DC
		25 July 1963	4 August 1964		V (1963)
7	Francesco Coniglio	4 August 1964	11 August 1967	DC
8	Vincenzo Carollo	11 August 1967	20 September 1969	DC	VI (1967)
9	Mario Fasino	20 September 1969	10 August 1971	DC
		10 August 1971	22 December 1972		VII(1971)
10	Vincenzo Giummara	22 December 1972	26 March 1974	DC
11	Angelo Bonfiglio	26 March 1974	13 August 1976	DC
		13 August 1976	20 March 1978		VIII(1976)
12	Piersanti Mattarella	20 March 1978	6 January 1980	DC
13	Mario D'Acquisto	6 January 1980	7 August 1981	DC
		7 August 1981	23 December 1982		IX(1981)
14	Calogero Lo Giudice	23 December 1982	19 October 1983	DC
15	Santi Nicita	19 October 1983	21 March 1984	DC
16	Modesto Sardo	21 March 1984	1 February 1985	DC
17	Rino Nicolosi	1 February 1985	12 August 1986	DC
		12 August 1986	12 August 1991		X(1986)
18	Vincenzo Leanza	12 August 1991	16 July 1992	DC	XI(1991)
19	Giuseppe Campione	16 July 1992	21 December 1993	DC
20	Francesco Martino	21 December 1993	16 May 1995	PLI
rowspan=1 style="background:Template:Italian People's Party (1994-2002)/meta/color;" |21	Matteo Graziano	16 May 1995	16 June 1996	PPI
22	Giuseppe Provenzano	16 June 1996	21 November 1998	FI	XII(1996)
23	Angelo Capodicasa	21 November 1998	26 July 2000	DS
(18)	Vincenzo Leanza	26 July 2000	17 July 2001	FI
24	Salvatore Cuffaro	17 July 2001	28 May 2006	UDC	XIII(2001)
		28 May 2006	18 January 2008		XIV(2006)
25	Raffaele Lombardo	28 April 2008	10 November 2012	MpA/UDC	XV(2008)
26	Rosario Crocetta	10 November 2012	incumbent	PD	XVI(2012)

Local government

Provinces

Sicily was divided in nine provinces, which were a traditional form of local administration in the region. 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 central agricultural provinces, especially in the Province of Enna, but they didn't succeeded in local elections, while Christian Democracy obtained high scores in others parts of the Region.

On 19 March 2013 the Sicilian Regional Assembly decided to turn them into Free Associations of Municipalities (Liberi consorzi tra comuni). Finally, on 30 July 2015 the Regional Assembly approved a law which put into force the Free Associations of Municipalities, regulating their functions and abolishing definitively the nine historical provinces. The same law created the new Metropolitan Cities of Palermo, Messina and Catania.

Province	Inhabitants	established	current status
Palermo	1,250,296	1860	Metropolitan City
Catania	1,167,006	1860	Metropolitan City
Messina	651,921	1860	Metropolitan City
Agrigento	453,416	1860	Free Association of Municipalities
Trapani	436,459	1860	Free Association of Municipalities
Syracuse	404,271	1860	Free Association of Municipalities
Ragusa	320,003	1927	Free Association of Municipalities
Caltanissetta	270,102	1927	Free Association of Municipalities
Enna	171,921	1927	Free Association of Municipalities

Municipalities

Sicily is also divided in 390 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.

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party	Election
Palermo	654,121 #DCDCDC	Leoluca Orlando	Independent	2012
Catania	291,274 #EF1C27	Enzo Bianco	PD	2013
Messina	241,310 #DCDCDC	Renato Accorinti	Independent	2013
Syracuse	123,376 #EF1C27	Giancarlo Garrozzo	PD	2013
Marsala	82,933 #EF1C27	Alberto Di Girolamo	PD	2015
Gela	77,335 #FFEB3B	Domenico Messinese	M5S	2015
Ragusa	73,030 #FFEB3B	Federico Piccitto	M5S	2013
Trapani	69,182 #0087DC	Vito Damiano	FI	2012
Caltanissetta	63,290 #EF1C27	Giovanni Ruvolo	PD	2014
Vittoria	63,002 #EF1C27	Giuseppe Nicosia	PD	2011
Agrigento	59,645 #87CEFA	Calogero Firreto	UdC	2015

Parties and elections

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

Latest regional election

Main article: Sicilian regional election, 2012

The latest regional election, for the renewal of the Regional Assembly and the election of the President of Sicily, was held on 28 October 2012. Rosario Crocetta (Democratic Party), who had the support of the Union of the Centre, won over Nello Musumeci (The Right), who led a centre-right coalition including The People of Freedom. Crocetta won just 30.5% of the vote in a highly fragmented political landscape and the centre-left coalition obtained 39 regional deputies, 6 short of majority.

Candidates	Regional lists			Provincial lists					Total
	votes	%	seats	Parties		votes	%	seats	group
Rosario Crocetta	617,073	30.47	9		Democratic Party	257,274	13.42	14	39
					Union of the Centre	207,827	10.84	11
					The Megaphone – Crocetta List (incl. ApI and PSI)	118,346	6.17	5
					Democratic Union for Consumers	100	0.00	0
Nello Musumeci	521,022	25.73	1		The People of Freedom	247,351	12.91	12	21
					Popular Construction	112,169	5.85	4
					Musumeci List (incl. The Right)	107,397	5.60	4
					Alliance of the Centre	5,017	0.26	0
Giancarlo Cancelleri	368,006	18.17	–		Five Star Movement	285,202	14.88	15	15
Gianfranco Micciché	312,112	15.41	–		Party of the Sicilians	182,737	9.53	10	15
					Great South	115,444	6.02	5
					Future and Freedom	83,891	4.37	0
					Thought Action Party	959	0.05	0
Giovanna Marano	122,633	6.10	–		Italy of Values	67,738	3.53	0	–
					Left Ecology Freedom–FdS–Greens	58,753	3.06	0
Mariano Ferro	31,390	1.55	–		The People of Pitchforks	23,965	1.20	0	–
Cateno De Luca	25,058	1.23	–		Sicilian Revolution	23,966	1.20	0	–
Gaspare Sturzo	19,248	0.95	–		Sturzo President	14,929	0.77	0	–
Giacomo Di Leo	4,495	0.22	–		Workers' Communist Party	2,031	0.10	0	–
Lucia Pinsone	3,659	0.18	–		Voluntaries for Italy	2,278	0.11	0	–
Total candidates	2,024,696	100.00	10	Total parties		1,915,830	100.00	80	90

Source: Sicilian Region

External links

• Sicilian Region
• Sicilian Regional Assembly
• Constitution of Sicily