The Statute of Veneto was promulgated in 1971 and largely rewritten in 2011. Article 1 defines Veneto as an "autonomous region [...] in harmony with the Italian Constitution and the principles and the system of the European Union", "constituted by the Venetian people and the lands of the provinces of Belluno, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venice, Verona and Vicenza", while maintaining "bonds with Venetians in the world". Article 2 sets forth the principle of the "self-government of the Venetian people" and mandates the Region to "promote the historical identity of the Venetian people and civilisation".[1]
Veneto is home to Venetian nationalism or Venetism, a political movement demanding more autonomy and, to some extent, independence for the region. On 22 October 2017 the so-called "autonomy referendum" took place in Veneto. Citizens were asked whether they wanted "further forms and special conditions of autonomy to be attributed to the Region of Veneto". 57.2% of Venetians participated and 98.1% voted "yes".
From World War II to 1994 Veneto was the heartland of Christian Democracy, which polled 60.5% in the 1953 general election and steadily above 50% until the late 1970s, and led the Regional Government from its establishment in 1970 to 1993. In the 1990s Veneto became a stronghold of the centre-rightPole/House of Freedoms coalition, which governed the region from 1995 to 2010 under Giancarlo Galan of Forza Italia. In 2010 Galan was replaced by Luca Zaia of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord, who obtained a hefty and record-breaking 60.2% of the vote and whose coalition government included The People of Freedom/Forza Italia and, since 2013, the New Centre-Right;[3] Liga Veneta was the largest party with 35.2% of the vote. Zaia and Liga Veneta were confirmed in 2015, with a reduced but more cohesive majority, due to the split of Tosi List for Veneto and the diminishment of Forza Italia: Zaia won 50.1% of the vote, while Liga Veneta a thumping 40.9% (combined score of party list and Zaia's personal list), largely ahead of the opposition Democratic Party's 20.5%. Zaia and Liga Veneta were again confirmed in 2020: the first won a record-breaking 76.8% of the vote, while the party 61.5% (combined score of party list and Zaia's personal list). In 2025 Alberto Stefani of Liga Veneta was elected president with 64.4% of the vote, succeeding Zaia, who was term-limited and led the party in all seven provinces, winning 36.3% of the vote (Zaia's personal list did not run because of coalition agreements with the Brothers of Italy, Liga Veneta's junior partner in the regional government and Lega's senior partner in the Italian government) and 203,054 (write-in) personal preferences, the all-time record in Italian regional elections.
The Regional Government (Giunta Regionale) is presided by the President of the Region (Presidente della Regione) or President of the Regional Government (Presidente della Giunta Regionale), who is elected for a five-year term, and is currently composed by nine members: the President and eight Assessors (Assessori), i.e. regional ministers, including a Vice President (Vice Presidente).
Current composition
The current government will be formed by Alberto Stefani within 10 days from his proclamation, on 5 December 2025.
The Regional Council of Veneto (Consiglio Regionale del Veneto) is composed of 51 members. 49 councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists, while the remaining two are the elected President and the candidate for President who comes second. The winning coalition wins a bonus of seats in order to make sure the elected President has a majority in the Council.[5][6][7]
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 (literally: "they will stand together or they will fall together") clause introduced in 1999, also the Council is dissolved and a snap election is called.[8]
Veneto is subdivided into seven provinces, including Venice which has functioned as a metropolitan city, with the mayor of Venice functioning also as metropolitan mayor, since 2015.
All the seven provinces, but especially Vicenza, Verona and Padua, were long Christian Democratic heartlands. In the early 1990s, when the Venetian and Italian party systems experienced huge realignments, Treviso, Vicenza and Verona became strongholds of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord, while in Padua, the region's most populated, Forza Italia/The People of Freedom/Forza Italia was the dominant political force; only two provinces, Venice and Rovigo, have traditionally been the powerbases of the centre-left coalition and, more recently, the Democratic Party, while Belluno was long a swing province. In the 2020 regional election Liga Veneta, which fielded two lists, came largely first in each and every province.
After a reform was enacted in 2014, provinces have lost most powers to the region and the municipalities, and, contextually, provincial presidents have been elected by mayors and municipal councillors, whose votes are weighted according to the population of their municipalities. In some cases, elected presidents represent bipartisan or trans-party coalitions. For instance, in 2014 Enoch Soranzo was elected in Padua thanks to the decisive support of the Democratic Party, while the majority of the centre-right coalition had endorsed another candidate[9]Achille Variati was endorsed both by the Democrats and Forza Italia in Vicenza.[10] More recently, in 2022 Sergio Giordani was the unopposed joint candidate of all running parties in Padua[11] and Andrea Nardin, who would later join the Brothers of Italy, was supported by a cross-bench coalition composed mainly by Liga Veneta and the Democratic Party, formed against the official candidate of the Brothers of Italy, in Vicenza.[12]
In the following table, inhabitants are updated according to April 2024 ISTAT figures[13] and, in case of non-party independent presidents supported by partisan coalitions, the party to which the mayor is closest or the largest party in the coalition is indicated in brackets.
Twenty-six comuni, hence municipalities, of Veneto have more than 25,000 inhabitants.
Of these, seven have mayors representing Liga Veneta, five the Democratic Party, five the Brothers of Italy and two Forza Italia. Six mayors are non-party independents: two of these are supported by the Democratic Party and its centre-left allies, two jointly by Liga Veneta, the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia, and two by local non-partisan coalitions.
In the following table, inhabitants are updated according to April 2024 ISTAT figures[13] and, in case of non-party independent mayors supported by partisan coalitions, the party to which the mayor is closest or the largest party in the coalition is indicated in brackets.
The latest regional election took place on 23–24 November 2025.
Alberto Stefani of Liga Veneta–Lega (formerly Lega Nord) was elected President by a landslide 64.4% of the vote, with his main rival Giovanni Manildo and Riccardo Szumski obtaining 28.9% and 5.1%, respectively. Liga Veneta was confirmed the largest in the region with 36.3% of the vote, while the combined score of Venetian nationalist and/or regional parties was 45.0%. Brothers of Italy came second with 18.7% and the Democratic Party third with 16.6%. The outgoing and term-limited president, Luca Zaia, who had been elected for this third term in 2020 with a record-breaking 76.8% of the vote, headed the electoral slates of Liga Veneta in all seven provinces and obtained 203,054 (write-in) preferences, the all-time record in Italian regional elections.
23–24 November 2025 Venetian regional election results
The centre-right coalition (56.3%), this time dominated by the Brothers of Italy, obtained a far larger victory than four years before over the centre-left coalition (23.0%), Action – Italia Viva (8.4%) and the Five Star Movement (5.8%). One third of deputies and senators were elected in single-seat constituencies and, as in 2018, the centre-right won all such constituencies. Among parties, the Brothers of Italy came largely first with 32.7% of the vote, followed by the Democratic Party (16.3%) and Lega (14.5%). The biggest turnaround happened within the centre-right, as Lega lost more than half of the votes obtained in 2018 (–17.7pp) and the Brothers of Italy jumped from 4.2% to virtually eight times that share (+28.5pp).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
