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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 Workers' Party, forerunner of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), 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 PSI, which was especially strong in Milan.[1]

Traditionally, Lombardy gives centrist results in 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 prevailed.[1] In the 1980s Lombardy saw the organisation of a new regionalist party, the Lombard League (LL), then merged into the Northern League (LN) in the 1990s.

Lombardy is now a stronghold of the "centre-right coalition" composed of the LN and the liberal conservative Forza Italia (FI), founded by Lombard entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi. The coalition, which was joined by the LN in 2000, has governed the region since 1995, under three Presidents, Roberto Formigoni (CDU/FI/PdL), Roberto Maroni (LN) and Attilio Fontana (LN).

On 22 October 2017 an autonomy referendum took place in Lombardy: 38.3% of Lombards participated and 95.3% voted "yes".

Legislative branch

Main article: Regional Council of Lombardy
Composition of the Regional Council since 2023:
  FdI (22)
  PD (18)
  Lega (14)
  FI (6)
  Fontana List (5)
  Moratti List (4)
  M5S (3)
  A–IV (3)
  Majorino List (2)
  AVS (1)
  NM (1)
Composition of the Regional Council by coalition since 2023:
  Centre-right (49)
  Centre-left (24)
  Action – Italia Viva (7)

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.[2][3][4]

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.[5][6]

2023–2028 composition

Distribution of Seats in the Regional Council
Political Group 2023 Now
Brothers of Italy 22 22
Democratic Party 18 18
Lombard League–Lega 14 14
Forza Italia 6 6
Ideal Lombardy–Fontana for President 5 5
Moratti for President 4 4
Five Star Movement 3 3
Action–Italia Viva 3 3
Civic Pact–Majorino for President 2 2
Greens and Left Alliance 1 1
Us Moderates 1 1

Source: Regional Council of Lombardy

Executive branch

Main article: President of Lombardy
Palazzo Lombardia in Milan is the seat of the Regional Government

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, including a Vice President (Vice Presidente), while 4 under-secretaries (Sottosegretari) help the President but have no voting rights in the cabinet meetings.[7]

Current composition

Party Members
Lega Lega President
Forza Italia FI
Brothers of Italy FdI

List of presidents

Main article: List of presidents of Lombardy

The current President of Lombardy is Attilio Fontana, who is serving for his first term after winning the 2018 regional election.


President Term of office Party Administration Coalition Legislature
Duration in years, months and days
Presidents elected by the Regional Council (1970–1995)
1 Piero Bassetti
(Born 1928) 		29 July
1970 		27 June
1974 		DC Bassetti DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI I
(1970)
3 years, 10 months and 30 days
2 Cesare Golfari
(1932–1994) 		27 June
1974 		1 October
1979 		DC Golfari I DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI
Golfari II DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI II
(1975)
5 years, 3 months and 5 days
3 Giuseppe Guzzetti
(Born 1934) 		1 October
1979 		17 July
1987 		DC Guzzetti I DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI
Guzzetti II DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI • PLI III
(1980)
Guzzetti III DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI • PLI IV
(1985)
7 years, 9 months and 17 days
4 Bruno Tabacci
(Born 1946) 		17 July
1987 		31 January
1989 		DC Tabacci DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI • PLI
1 year, 6 months and 15 days
5 Giuseppe Giovenzana
(Born 1940) 		31 January
1989 		12 December
1992 		DC Giovenzana I DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI • PLI
Giovenzana II DC • PSI • PSDI • PRI • PLI V
(1990)
3 years, 10 months and 13 days
6 Fiorella Ghilardotti
(1946–2005) 		12 December
1992 		4 June
1994 		PDS Ghilardotti DC • PDS • PSI • FdV • PSDI
1 year, 5 months and 24 days
7 Paolo Arrigoni
(1957–2022) 		4 June
1994 		27 June
1995 		LN Arrigoni PPI • LN • PDS
1 year and 24 days
Directly-elected presidents (since 1995)
8 Roberto Formigoni
(Born 1947) 		27 June
1995 		18 March
2013 		CDU Formigoni I Pole for Freedoms
(FI • AN • CDU • CCD) 		VI
(1995)
FI Formigoni II House of Freedoms
(FI • LN • AN • CDU • CCD) 		VII
(2000)
Formigoni III House of Freedoms
(FI • LN • AN • UDC) 		VIII
(2005)
PdL Formigoni IV PdL • LN IX
(2010)
17 years, 8 months and 20 days
9 Roberto Maroni
(1955–2022) 		18 March
2013 		26 March
2018 		LN Maroni LN • FI • FdI X
(2013)
5 years and 9 days
10 Attilio Fontana
(Born 1952) 		26 March
2018 		Incumbent Lega Fontana I Lega • FI • FdI XI
(2018)
6 years, 9 months and 2 days Fontana II FdI • Lega • FI XII
(2023)


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 the Lega Lombarda–Lega gets a strong backing.

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 President Party Election
Metropolitan City of Milan
(former Province of Milan) 		3,237,101 Giuseppe Sala
(metropolitan mayor) 		Independent[a] 2021
Brescia 1,254,322 Emanuele Moraschini Independent 2023
Bergamo 1,102,670 Pasquale Gandolfi Democratic Party 2021
Varese 878,059 Marco Magrini Independent 2023
Monza and Brianza 870,112 Luca Santambrogio Lega 2019
Como 594,657 Fiorenzo Bongiasca Independent[b] 2022
Pavia 534,691 Giovanni Palli Lega 2021
Mantua 404,440 Carlo Bottani Independent[c] 2021
Cremona 351,287 Paolo Mirko Signoroni Democratic Party 2019
Lecco 332,435 Alessandra Hofmann Forza Italia 2021
Lodi 227,064 Fabrizio Santantonio Democratic Party 2022
Sondrio 178,208 Davide Menegola Independent 2023
  1. ^ Close to Democratic Party.
  2. ^ Close to Democratic Party.
  3. ^ Close to Forza Italia.

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. There are twelve provincial capital cities in Lombardy and twenty-four comuni have more than 40,000 inhabitants, most of which are ruled by the centre-left.

Provincial capitals

Municipality Inhabitants Mayor Party Election
Milan (list) 1,371,498 Giuseppe Sala Independent[a] 2021
Brescia (list) 196,850 Emilio Del Bono Democratic Party 2018
Monza (list) 122,099 Paolo Pilotto Democratic Party 2022
Bergamo (list) 120,207 Giorgio Gori Democratic Party 2019
Como (list) 83,626 Alessandro Rapinese Independent 2022
Varese (list) 78,875 Davide Galimberti Democratic Party 2021
Pavia (list) 71,159 Fabrizio Fracassi Lega 2019
Cremona (list) 70,943 Gianluca Galimberti Democratic Party 2019
Mantua (list) 48,648 Mattia Palazzi Democratic Party 2020
Lecco (list) 47,060 Mauro Gattinoni Democratic Party 2020
Lodi (list) 44,793 Andrea Furegato Democratic Party 2022
Sondrio (list) 21,180 Marco Scaramellini Lega 2018
  1. ^ Close to Democratic Party.

Others with 40,000+ inhabitants

Municipality Inhabitants Mayor Party Election
Busto Arsizio 82,981 Emanuele Antonelli Brothers of Italy 2021
Sesto San Giovanni 79,732 Roberto Di Stefano Lega 2022
Cinisello Balsamo 74,534 Giacomo Ghilardi Lega 2018
Vigevano 62,384 Andrea Ceffa Lega 2020
Legnano 59,816 Lorenzo Radice Democratic Party 2020
Gallarate 52,826 Andrea Cassani Lega 2021
Rho 50,604 Pietro Romano Democratic Party 2021
Paderno Dugnano 47,084 Ezio Casati Democratic Party 2019
Cologno Monzese 46,790 none[a]
Lissone 46,142 Laura Borella Lega 2022
Seregno 44,832 Alberto Rossi Democratic Party 2018
Desio 41,635 Simone Gargiulo Democratic Party 2021
Rozzano 41,437 Gianni Ferretti Forza Italia 2019
  1. ^ Special Commissioner since 2022.

Parties and elections

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

Latest regional election

Main article: 2023 Lombard regional election

In the latest regional election, which took place on 12–13 February 2023, Attilio Fontana (Lega Lombarda–Lega) was re-elected President of Lombardy with the support of centre-right coalition.

12–13 February 2023 Lombard regional election results
Candidates Votes % Seats Parties Votes % Seats
Attilio Fontana 1,774,477 54.67 1
Brothers of Italy 725,402 25.18 22
League – Lombard League 476,175 16.53 14
Forza Italia 208,420 7.23 6
Fontana for President 177,387 6.16 5
Us Moderates – Renaissance 33,711 1.17 1
Total 1,621,095 56.27 48
Pierfrancesco Majorino 1,101,417 33.93 1
Democratic Party 628,774 21.82 17
Five Star Movement 113,229 3.93 3
Civic Pact – Majorino for President 110,126 3.82 2
Greens and Left Alliance 93,019 3.23 1
Total 945,148 32.80 23
Letizia Moratti 320,346 9.87 – Moratti for President 152,652 5.30 4
Action – Italia Viva 122,356 4.25 3
Total 275,008 9.55 7
Mara Ghidorzi 49,514 1.53 – People's Union 39,913 1.39 –
Total candidates 3,245,754 100.00 2 Total parties 2,881,164 100.00 78
Source: Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections

References

  1. ^ a b Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009
  2. ^ "Regional Council of Lombardy – Electoral law". Archived from the original on 2008-06-07. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
  3. ^ "Regional Council of Lombardy – Scheme for allocation of seats" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-05. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  4. ^ Ministry of the Interior – Electoral Archive
  5. ^ "Regional Council of Lombardy – 1999 Constitutional Law" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
  6. ^ "Regional Council of Lombardy – Autonomy Statute". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
  7. ^ Lombardy Region – Regional Cabinet
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