Politics of Lombardy

The politics of Lombardy, a region of 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)
  LI (5)
  Moratti List (4)
  M5S (3)
  A–IV (3)
  PC (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

Party		Seats	Status
	Brothers of Italy (FdI)	22 / 80	Government
	Democratic Party (PD)	18 / 80	Opposition
	Lega – Lombard League	14 / 80	Government
	Forza Italia (FI)	6 / 80	Government
	Ideal Lombardy (LI)	5 / 80	Government
	Moratti for President	4 / 80	Opposition
	Five Star Movement (M5S)	3 / 80	Opposition
	Action – Italia Viva (A–IV)	3 / 80	Opposition
	Civic Pact (PC)	2 / 80	Opposition
	Greens and Left Alliance (AVS)	1 / 80	Opposition
	Us Moderates – Renaissance (NM)	1 / 80	External support

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 17 members: the President and 16 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

Attilio Fontana was officially sworn in for a second term as President on 1 March 2023. ^[8] Current executive was officially sworn in on 10 March 2023. ^[9]

Current composition

Party			Members
	Lega	Lega	President and 5 assessors
	Brothers of Italy	FdI	Vice President and 6 assessors
	Forza Italia	FI	2 assessors
	Ideal Lombardy	LI	2 assessors

Assessor	Party		Delegate for
Marco Alparone (vice president)		FdI	Finance and budget
Guido Bertolaso		LI	Healthcare and welfare
Giorgio Maione		LI	Environment and climate
Claudia Terzi		Lega	Public infrastructures
Franco Lucente		FdI	Public transports and sustainable mobility
Romano La Russa		FdI	Public security and Civil Protection
Simona Tironi		FI	Education and labour
Alessandro Fermi		Lega	University and research
Guido Guidesi		Lega	Economic development
Elena Lucchini		Lega	Family, social policies, disability and equal opportunities
Paolo Franco		FdI	Social housing
Barbara Mazzali		FdI	Tourism, marketing and fashion
Massimo Sartori		Lega	Local authorities and mountains
Francesca Caruso		FdI	Cultural heritage
Alessandro Beduschi		FdI	Agricolture, food policies and food sovereignty
Gianluca Comazzi		FI	Regional parks and territory

List of presidents

Main article: List of presidents of Lombardy

The current President of Lombardy is Attilio Fontana, who is serving his second term after winning the 2023 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)
			7 years, 2 months and 21 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 (Forza Italia)	2023
Bergamo	1,102,670		Pasquale Gandolfi	Democratic Party	2021
Varese	878,059		Marco Magrini	Independent (Democratic Party)	2023
Monza and Brianza	870,112		Luca Santambrogio	Lega	2019
Como	594,657		Fiorenzo Bongiasca	Independent (Democratic Party)	2022
Pavia	534,691		Giovanni Palli	Lega	2021
Mantua	404,440		Carlo Bottani	Independent (Forza Italia)	2021
Cremona	351,287		Roberto Mariani	Democratic Party	2024
Lecco	332,435		Alessandra Hofmann	Forza Italia	2021
Lodi	227,064		Fabrizio Santantonio	Democratic Party	2022
Sondrio	178,208		Davide Menegola	Independent (Forza Italia)	2023

1. Close to Democratic Party.

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 (Democratic Party)	2021
Brescia (list)	196,850		Laura Castelletti	Independent (Democratic Party)	2023
Monza (list)	122,099		Paolo Pilotto	Democratic Party	2022
Bergamo (list)	120,207		Elena Carnevali	Democratic Party	2024
Como (list)	83,626		Alessandro Rapinese	Independent	2022
Varese (list)	78,875		Davide Galimberti	Democratic Party	2021
Pavia (list)	71,159		Michele Lissia	Democratic Party	2024
Cremona (list)	70,943		Andrea Virgilio	Democratic Party	2024
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	2023

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	2023
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		Anna Varisco	Democratic Party	2024
Cologno Monzese	46,790		Stefano Zanelli	Democratic Party	2023
Lissone	46,142		Laura Borella	Lega	2022
Seregno	44,832		Alberto Rossi	Democratic Party	2023
Desio	41,635		Simone Gargiulo	Democratic Party	2021
Rozzano	41,437		Gianni Ferretti	Forza Italia	2019

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. 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
8. LombardiaNotizie Online (1 March 2023). "La Corte d'Appello di Milano ha proclamato Fontana presidente della Lombardia" [Milan's Court of Appeal has proclaimed Fontana as President of Lombardy] (in Italian). Retrieved 3 March 2023.
9. LombardiaNotizie Online (10 March 2023). "Fontana bis, ecco la nuova Giunta della Regione Lombardia" [Fontana bis, here's the next executive of Lombardy Region] (in Italian). Retrieved 10 March 2023.

External links

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