Politics of Tuscany

The Politics of Tuscany, Italy takes place in the 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 Tuscany, 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 2005.

Prior to the rise of Fascism, most of the deputies elected in Tuscany were part of the liberal establishment (see Historical Right, Historical Left and Liberals), which governed Italy for decades. Florence and the southern provinces of the region were anyway an early stronghold of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). At the 1924 general election, which opened the way to the Fascist authoritarian rule, Tuscany was one the regions which where the National Fascist Party (PNF) obtained more than 70% of the vote.

After World War II, Tuscany became a stronghold of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which was especially strong in rural areas. The PCI and its successors have governed the region since 1970. The region is now a stronghold of the "centre-left coalition" led by the Democratic Party (PD). The coalition has governed the region since 1995, under President Enrico Rossi since 2010.

Legislative branch

Main article: Regional Council of Tuscany

The Regional Council of Tuscany is composed of 41 members.

Councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method. The Florence constituency is further divided into 4 sub-constituencies. Preferential voting is allowed: a maximum of two preferences can be expressed for candidates of the same party list and provided the two chosen candidates are of different gender. In this system parties are grouped in alliances, supporting a candidate for the post of President of Tuscany. The candidate receiving at least 40% of the votes is elected to the post and his/her list (or the coalition) is awarded a majority in the Regional Council. If no candidate gets more than 40% of the votes, a run-off is held fourteen days after, with only the two top candidates from the first round allowed. The winning candidate is assured a majority in the Regional Council.

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.

Executive branch

Main article: President of Tuscany

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 currently composed by ten members: the President and 9 regional ministers or assessors (Assessori), including a Vice President (Vice Presidente).

List of Presidents

Main article: List of Presidents of Tuscany

The current President of Tuscany is Enrico Rossi, who is serving his first term after winning the 2010 regional election.

Local government

Provinces

Tuscany is divided in ten provinces, which are a traditional form of local administration in the region.

Socialist and communist 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 eastern rural provinces, especially Siena and Arezzo, while Christian Democracy used to be strong in the north-western part of the Region.

The city of Florence is now one of major national strongholds of Democratic Party. The Province of Siena is also called the "red province of Italy", because the Italian Communist Party has always governed it with the 60% of the votes since 1945 to its dissolution in 1991.

Province	Inhabitants	established	President		Party	Election
Arezzo	348,327	1826 #EF1C27	Roberto Vasai	Democratic Party	2009
Florence	991,862	1848 #EF1C27	Andrea Barducci	Democratic Party	2009
Grosseto	227,063	1766 #EF1C27	Leonardo Marras	Democratic Party	2009
Livorno	341,453	1861 #EF1C27	Giorgio Kutufà	Democratic Party	2009
Lucca	392,182	1849 #EF1C27	Stefano Baccelli	Democratic Party	2011
Massa	203,642	1859 #EF1C27	Osvaldo Angeli	Democratic Party	2008
Pisa	414,154	1849 #EF1C27	Andrea Pieroni	Democratic Party	2009
Pistoia	292,108	1927 #EF1C27	Federica Fratoni	Democratic Party	2009
Prato	248,174	1992 #EF1C27	Lambarto Nazzareno Gestri	Democratic Party	2009
Siena	270,333	1849 #EF1C27	Simone Bezzini	Democratic Party	2009

Municipalities

Tuscany is also divided in 287 comuni (municipalities), which have even more history, having been established in the Middle Ages when they were the main places of government. 13 comuni have more than 50,000 inhabitants, of which all but one are ruled by the centre-left.

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party	Election
Florence	370,702 #EF1C27	Dario Nardella	Democratic Party	2014
Prato	187,994 #EF1C27	Matteo Biffoni	Democratic Party	2014
Livorno	161,084 #FFEB3B	Filippo Nogarin	Five Stars Movement	2014
Arezzo	100,140 #EF1C27	Giuseppe Fanfani	Democratic Party	2011
Pistoia	90,226 #EF1C27	Samuele Bertinelli	Democratic Party	2012
Pisa	88,332 #EF1C27	Marco Filippeschi	Democratic Party	2008
Lucca	84,928 #EF1C27	Alessandro Tambellini	Democratic Party	2012
Grosseto	82,284 #EF1C27	Emilio Bonifazi	Democratic Party	2011
Massa	71,006 #EF1C27	Alessandro Volpi	Democratic Party	2013
Carrara	65,612 #DC143C	Angelo Zubbani	Italian Socialist Party	2012
Viareggio	64,564 #EF1C27	Leonardo Betti	Democratic Party	2013
Siena	54,561 #EF1C27	Bruno Valentini	Democratic Party	2013
Scandicci	50,304 #EF1C27	Sandro Fallani	Democratic Party	2014

Parties and elections

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

Latest regional election

Main article: Tuscan regional election, 2015

In the latest regional election, which took place on 31 May 2015, Enrico Rossi of the Democratic Party was re-elected for a second term. Claudio Borghi of Lega Nord came distant second. The Democrats were by far the largest party with 46.3% of the vote.

Candidates	Regional lists			Provincial lists					Total
	votes	%	seats	Parties	votes	%	swing	seats	party	group
Enrico Rossi	656,920	48.0	1	Democratic Party	614,869	46.3	+4.1	24	25	25
				Tuscan People–Reformists 2020 (incl. PSI)	22,760	1.7	new	-
Claudio Borghi	273,795	20.0	2	Lega Nord Toscana	214,430	16.2	+9.7	4	6	7
				Brothers of Italy	51,152	3.9	new	1	1
Giacomo Giannarelli	205,818	15.0	1	Five Star Movement	200,771	15.1	new	4	5	5
Stefano Mugnai	124,432	9.1	1	Forza Italia	112,658	8.5	-18.6	1	2	2
				Tuscan League–More Tuscany	7,996	0.6	new	-
Tommaso Fattori	85,870	6.3	1	Left Ecology Freedom	83,187	6.3	+2.5	1	2	2
Giovanni Lamioni	17,146	1.3	-	Popular Area	15,837	1.2	new	-		-
Gabriele Chiurli	3,621	0.3	-	Direct Democracy	3,319	0.3	new	-		-
Total candidates	1,367,602	100.0	5+1	Total parties	1,326,979	100.0	=	35	40+1	40+1

Source: Tuscany Region

External links

• Tuscany Region
• Regional Council of Tuscany
• Constitution of Tuscany