Politics of Calabria

The Politics of Calabria, Italy takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democracy, whereby the President of Regional Government is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Regional Government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Regional Council.

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 composed by the President and the Ministers (Assessori), who are currently 11, including a Vice President (Vice Presidente).^[1]

List of presidents

Presidents elected by the Regional Council (1970–2000)

#	Name	Term of office		Political party	Legislature
1	Antonio Guarasci (1918–1974)	9 June 1970	2 October 1974	DC	I (1970)
2	Aldo Ferrara (1921–1997)	2 October 1974	17 June 1975	DC	I (1970)
3	Pasquale Perugini (1926–1996)	17 June 1975	1 January 1976	DC	II (1975)
(2)	Aldo Ferrara (1921–1997)	1 January 1976	10 June 1980	DC	II (1975)
4	Bruno Dominijanni (1922–2004)	10 June 1980	14 May 1985	PSI	III (1980)
5	Francesco Principe (1918–2008)	14 May 1985	30 December 1987	PSI	IV (1985)
6	Rosario Olivo (b. 1940)	30 December 1987	7 May 1990	PSI	IV (1985)
6	Rosario Olivo (b. 1940)	7 May 1990	1 February 1992	PSI	V (1990)
7	Guido Rhodio (1935–2023)	1 February 1992	10 August 1994	DC
8	Donato Veraldi (b. 1941)	10 August 1994	14 June 1995	PPI
9	Giuseppe Nisticò (b. 1941)	14 June 1995	9 May 1998	FI	VI (1995)
10	Giovanbattista Caligiuri (b. 1944)	11 August 1998	22 January 1999	FI
11	Luigi Meduri (b. 1942)	22 January 1999	18 May 2000	PPI

Directly-elected presidents (since 2000)

N.	President	Term of office		Tenure (Years and days)		Composition	Legislature
12	Giuseppe Chiaravalloti (1934–)	18 May 2000	2 May 2005	4 years, 349 days	Forza Italia	FI–AN–CDC–CDU–PS	VII (2000)
13	Agazio Loiero (1940– )	2 May 2005	12 April 2010	4 years, 345 days	The Daisy / Democratic Party	DS–DL–UDEUR–SDI–PRC–PdCI	VIII (2005)
14	Giuseppe Scopelliti (1966–)	12 April 2010	29 May 2014^[a]	4 years, 47 days	The People of Freedom	PdL–UDC–NPSI–UDEUR	IX (2010)
15	Mario Oliverio (1953– )	9 December 2014	15 February 2020	5 years, 77 days	Democratic Party	PD–ApI–SEL	X (2014)
16	Jole Santelli (1968–2020)	15 February 2020	15 October 2020^[b]	241 days	Forza Italia	FI–Lega–FdI–UDC	XI (2020)
17	Roberto Occhiuto (1969–)	29 October 2021	incumbent	2 years, 313 days	Forza Italia	FI–FdI–Lega–CI–UDC	XII (2021)

^ Resigned after a corruption scandal. His deputy Antonella Stasi (PdL) held the office till a new regional election was called.
^ Died in office. Her deputy Antonino Spirlì (League) held the office till a new regional election was called.

Legislative branch

The Regional Council of Calabria (Consiglio Regionale della Calabria) is composed of 50 members. 40 councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists, while 10 councillors (elected in bloc) 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, only 5 candidates from the regional list will be chosen and the number of those elected in provincial constituencies will be 45. If the winning coalition receives less than 40% of votes, special seats are added to the council to ensure a large majority for the President's coalition. Parties obtaining less than 4% receive no seats, no matter if they are in coalition with larger parties or not.^[2]

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.^[3]

Local government

Provinces

Municipalities

Calabria is also divided in 404 comuni (municipalities), which have even more history, having been established in the Middle Ages when they were the main places of government.

Provincial capitals

Municipality	Inhabitants		Party	Election
Catanzaro	89,364	Sergio Abramo	Forza Italia	2017
Cosenza	69,484	Mario Occhiuto	Independent (centre-right)	2016
Crotone	58,881	Vincenzo Voce	Civic List	2020
Reggio Calabria	180,817	Giuseppe Falcomatà	Democratic Party	2014
Vibo Valentia	33,357	Maria Limardo	Forza Italia	2019

Other municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants

Municipality	Inhabitants		Party	Election
Corigliano-Rossano	74,848	Flavio Stasi	Independent (centre-left)	2019
Lamezia Terme	70,336	Paolo Mascaro	Independent (centre-right)	2015
Rende	33,555	Marcello Manna	Civic List	2019
Castrovillari	22,515	Domenico Lo Polito	Independent (centre-left)	2015
Acri	21,458	Pino Capalbo	Democratic Party	2017
Gioia Tauro	20,089	Aldo Alessio	Independent (centre-left)	2019

Parties and elections

Latest regional election

In the latest regional election, which took place on 26 January 2020, Jole Santelli of Forza Italia was elected president by a landslide, after that in the previous election in 2014 the Democratic Party had won by a landslide.

26 January 2020 Calabrian regional election results
Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seats

	Jole Santelli	449,705	55.29	1		Forza Italia	96,067	12.34	5
						League	95,400	12.25	4
						Brothers of Italy	84,507	10.85	4
						Jole Santelli for President	65,816	8.45	2
						Union of the Centre	53,250	6.84	2
						House of Freedoms	49,778	6.39	2
					Total		444,818	57.13	19
	Filippo Callipo	245,154	30.14	1		Democratic Party	118,249	15.19	5
						Io Resto in Calabria	61,699	7.92	3
						Progressive Democrats	47,650	6.12	2
					Total		227,598	29.23	10
	Francesco Aiello	59,796	7.35	–		Five Star Movement	48,784	6.27	–
						Civic Calabria	8,544	1.10	–
					Total		57,328	7.36	–
	Carlo Tansi	58,700	7.22	–		Treasure Calabria	40,299	5.18	–
						Free Calabria	5,329	0.68	–
						Clean Calabria	3,230	0.41	–
					Total		48,858	6.28	–

Blank and invalid votes		27,208	3.24
Total candidates		840,563	100.00	2	Total parties		778,602	100.00	29
Registered voters/turnout		1,895,990	44.33
Source: Ministry of the Interior – Election in Calabria Archived 2020-01-26 at the Wayback Machine