The politics of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, Italy take place in the framework of a

semi-presidential A semi-presidential republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a ...

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represe ...

, whereby the President of the Region is the

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, ...

, and of a pluriform

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in ...

Legislative power A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known a ...

is vested in the Regional Council of Tuscany, while

executive power The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state. In political systems b ...

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 Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

, most of the deputies elected in Tuscany were part of the liberal establishment (see Historical Right,

Historical Left The Left group ( it, Sinistra), later called Historical Left ( it, Sinistra storica) by historians to distinguish it from the left-wing groups of the 20th century, was a liberal and reformist parliamentary group in Italy during the second half of ...

and Liberals), which governed Italy for decades.

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and the southern provinces of the region were anyway an early stronghold of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

(PSI). At the 1924 general election, which opened the way to the Fascist authoritarian rule, Tuscany was one of the regions where the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. Th ...

(PNF) obtained more than 70% of the vote.Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, ''Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia'', Zanichelli,

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

2009 After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Tuscany became a stronghold of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

(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 The centre-left coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-sinistra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy active, under several forms and names, since 1995 when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left ...

" led by the Democratic Party (PD), like the other regions of the so-called " Red belt". The centre-left coalition has governed the region since 1995, under President Eugenio Giani since 2020.

Legislative branch

The Regional Council of Tuscany is composed of 41 members. Councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

using the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest ...

. 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 bonus 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.

2020–2025 composition

Executive branch

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 nine members: the President and 8 regional ministers or assessors (''Assessori''), including a Vice President (''Vice Presidente'').

Current composition

The current Regional Government was sworn in on 21 October 2020.

List of presidents

The current President of Tuscany is Eugenio Giani, who is serving his first term after winning the 2020 regional election.

Local government

Provinces

is divided in ten

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, which are a traditional form of local administration in the region. The four main functions devolved to the provinces are: * local planning and zoning; * maintenance of public high school buildings; * provision of

local police Municipal police, city police, or local police are law enforcement agencies that are under the control of local government. This includes the municipal government, where it is the smallest administrative subdivision. They receive funding ...

and

fire services A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

; * transportation regulation (car registration, maintenance of local roads, etc.). From 1945 to 1995 presidents of the provinces were chosen by the members of the Provincial Councils, legislative bodies elected every five years by citizens. From 1995 to 2014, under provisions of the 1993 local administration reform, presidents of the provinces of Tuscany were chosen by popular election, originally every four, then every five years. On 3 April 2014, the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical funct ...

gave its final approval to the Law n.56/2014 which involved the transformation of the Italian provinces into "institutional bodies of second level". According to the 2014 reform, now each province is headed by a President (or Commissioner) assisted by a legislative body, the Provincial Council, and an executive body, the Provincial Executive. President (Commissioner) and members of Council are elected together by mayors and city councillors of each municipality of the province respectively every four and two years. The Executive is chaired by the President (Commissioner) who appoint others members, called '' assessori''. Since 2015, the President (Commissioner) and other members of the Council do not receive a salary.

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and communist ideas had an early diffusion in quite all the provinces around

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the Fascist parenthesis,

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

parties found their strongholds in eastern rural provinces, especially

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

and Arezzo, while Christian Democracy used to be strong in the north-western part of the Region. The Province of

is now one of the major national strongholds of Democratic Party. The Province of Siena is also called the "red province of Italy", because the

has always governed it with the 60% of the votes since 1945 to the dissolution of the party in 1991.

Municipalities

Tuscany is also divided in 287 ''

comuni The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

), which have even more history, having been established in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

when they were the main places of government. 18 ''comuni'' (10 provincial capitals) have more than 45,000 inhabitants, a large majority of which are ruled by the centre-left coalition. Provincial capitals: Other municipalities with more than 45,000 inhabitants:

Parties and elections

Latest regional election

In the latest regional election, which took place on 20–21 September 2020, Eugenio Giani of the Democratic Party (PD) was elected President, by beating Susanna Ceccardi of Lega Nord 48.6% to 40.5%. The PD was by far the largest party with 34% of the vote.

References

External links

Tuscany RegionRegional Council of TuscanyConstitution of Tuscany
{{DEFAULTSORT:Politics of Tuscany Tuscany