Mayor of Venice

Mayor of Venice
Incumbent
Luigi Brugnaro

since 15 June 2015
Style No courtesy, title or style
Appointer Electorate of Venice
Term length 5 years, renewable once
Inaugural holder Daniele Renier (1806)
Succession June 2020
Website Comune di Venezia

The Mayor of Venice is an elected politician who, along with the Venice’s City Council of 36 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Venice in northern Italy.

Since 15 June 2015 the center-right businessman Luigi Brugnaro has been mayor of Venice. Previously, the position was held by Giorgio Orsoni, who resigned on 13 June 2014 after a corruption scandal.[1]

Overview

Ca' Loredan is Venice's City Hall.

According to the Italian Constitution, the Mayor of Venice is member of the Venice's City Council. Although the title Mayor is not held by the heads of the six boroughs of Venice, because they do not actually preside over self-governmental municipalities.

The Mayor is elected by the population of Venice. Citizens elect also the members of the City Council, which also controls Mayor's policy guidelines and is able to enforce his resignation by a motion of no confidence. The Mayor is entitled to appoint and release the members of his government.

Since 1993 the Mayor is elected directly by Florence's electorate: in all mayoral elections in Italy in cities with a population higher than 15,000 the voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally.

The seat of the City Council is the city hall Ca' Loredan on the Canal Grande.

List of Mayors of Venice

Podestà (1806-1866)

Podestà of Venice were appointed since 1806 to 1866 by the rulers of the city during the early- to mid-19th century: Napoleon and the Habsburgs.

Kingdom of Italy (1866-1946)

In 1860, the nascent Kingdom of Italy created the office of the Mayor of Venice (Sindaco di Venezia), chosen by the City council:

  Mayor Term start Term end Party
1 Giambattista Giustinian 1866 1868 Historical Right
2 Giuseppe Giovanelli 1868 1870 Historical Right
3 Antonio Fornoni 1870 1875 Historical Right
(1) Giambattista Giustinian 1875 1878 Historical Right
4 Dante Di Serego Alighieri 1878 1888 Historical Right
5 Lorenzo Tiepolo 1888 1890 Historical Right
6 Riccardo Selvatico 1890 1895 Historical Left
7 Filippo Grimani 1895 1919 Historical Right
8 Davide Giordano 1919 1924 ANI
Fascist Podestà (1926-1945)
1 Pietro Orsi 1924 1929 PNF
2 Ettore Zorzi 1929 1930 PNF
3 Mario Alverà 1930 1938 PNF
4 Giovanni Marcello 1938 1943 PNF
5 Giovanni Battista Dall'Armi 1943 1945 PFR
Liberation (1945-1946)
9 Giovanni Ponti 1945 1946 DC

Republic of Italy (1946-present)

From 1946 to 1993, the Mayor of Venice was chosen by the City Council:

      Centrist (DC);       Center-left (DC and allies);       Leftist (PCI, PSI and allies).

  Mayor Term start Term end Party   Coalition
1 Giovanni Battista Gianquinto 1946 1951 PCI PSI - PCI
2 Angelo Spanio 1951 1955 DC DC
3 Roberto Tognazzi 1955 1960 DC DC
4 Giovanni Favaretto Fisca 1960 1970 DC DC - PSDI (1960–64)
DC - PSDI - PSI (1964–70)
5 Giorgio Longo 1970 1975 DC DC - PSDI - PSI
6 Mario Rigo 1975 1985 PSI PSI - PCI
7 Nereo Laroni 1985 1987 PSI PSI - PCI - PRI
8 Antonio Casellati 1987 1990 PRI PSI - PCI - PRI
9 Ugo Bergamo 1990 1993 DC DC - PSDI - PSI

Since 1993, under provisions of new local administration law, the Mayor of Venice is chosen by popular election, originally every four, and later every five years:


Mayor of Venice Took office Left office Party Coalition
10 Massimo Cacciari 5 December 1993 25 January 2000[2] Independent PDS - PRC - Greens
5 December 1993 – 17 November 1997
DS - PRC - Greens
17 November 1997 – 25 January 2000
Corrado Scivoletto 25 January 2000 30 April 2000 Special Commissioner
11 Paolo Costa 30 April 2000 18 April 2005 DL DS - DL - PdCI
30 April 2000 – 18 April 2005
(10) Massimo Cacciari 18 April 2005 30 March 2010 PD PD
18 April 2005 – 30 March 2010
12 Giorgio Orsoni 30 March 2010 13 June 2014[3] PD PD - PRC - Greens
30 March 2010 – 13 June 2014
Vittorio Zappalorto 13 June 2014 15 June 2015 Special Commissioner
13 Luigi Brugnaro 15 June 2015 incumbent Independent FI - AP
and others center-right Independents
since 15 June 2015

Timeline

Luigi Brugnaro Giorgio Orsoni Massimo Cacciari Paolo Costa Massimo Cacciari

Elections

Mayoral and City Council election, 1993

The election took place in two rounds: the first on 21 November and the second on 5 December 1993.

For the first time under the new electoral law citizens could vote directly the mayor; before this choice was made by the City Council. For the first time a center-left coalition, composed by the ex-communist Democratic Party of the Left and some other progressives party (such as the new-born Federation of the Greens and the Communist Refoundation Party), presented its candidate: Massimo Cacciari. He was an independent venetian philosopher, who had been a member of the Italian Communist Party.

The main opposition to Cacciari's coalition was represented by Aldo Mariconda; Mariconda was a businessman and member of the regionalist Lega Nord-Liga Veneta, which combined Venetian nationalism and a strong support for fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta, as regional faction of the national Lega Nord party, had a liberal, centrist and economically libertarian outfit due to the political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base.

Although the political crisis, Christian Democracy presented its candidate: Giovanni Castellani.

On 5 December 1993, Cacciari won the election and became the first elected mayor of Venice.

Venice Mayoral Election Results 1993
Name Party 1st Round
(21 November)
% 2nd Round
(5 December)
%
Massimo Cacciari Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) 89,048 42.3 107,497 55.4
Aldo Mariconda Lega Nord-Liga Veneta 55,816 26.5 86,643 44.6
Giovanni Castellani Christian Democracy (DC) 49,224 23.4
Bruno Canella Italian Social Movement (MSI) 6,048 2.9

Mayoral and City Council election, 1997

The election took place on 16 November 1997.

The main candidates were the outgoing mayor Massimo Cacciari, supported by Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left coalition The Olive Tree, and Mauro Pizzigati, supported by Silvio Berlusconi's party Forza Italia.

Venice Mayoral Election Results 1997
Name Party 1st Round
(16 November)
%
Massimo Cacciari Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) 116,751 64.6
Mauro Pizzigati Forza Italia (FI) 37,436 20.7
Giovanni Fabris Lega Nord-Liga Veneta 18,489 10.2

Mayoral and City Council election, 2000

The election took place in two rounds: the first on 16 April and the second on 30 April 2000.

The snap election was held in April 2000 after the incumbent mayor Massimo Cacciari resigned in January to run as center-left candidate for the regional elections.

The main candidates were Paolo Costa, a member of the center-left Italian People's Party and former Minister of Public Works (1996-1998), and Renato Brunetta, a center-right MEP.

Venice Mayoral Election Results 2000
Name Party 1st Round
(16 April)
% 2nd Round
(30 April)
%
Paolo Costa Italian People's Party (PPI) 62,755 37.7 68,229 56.0
Renato Brunetta Forza Italia (FI) 64,956 39.0 53,686 44.0
Goffredo Bettin Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) 27,086 16.3

Mayoral ad City Council election, 2005

These elections were held on two separate dates: the first round on 3–4 April, the second round on 17–18 April 2005.

The candidates were in total eleven, but only four were supported by political parties (all the others were supported by independent lists): the philosopher and former mayor Massimo Cacciari, which were supported by the center-left party The Daisy, the magistrate Felice Casson, who was supported by a broad center-left coalition, the businessman Cesare Campa, who was supported by Forza Italia and Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, and Alberto Mazzonetto, who was supported by Lega Nord.

After a hard battle, to the second round went Massimo Cacciari, who represented the moderate left, and Felice Casson, who represented some of the extreme left parties. Despite the first round had a lot of votes, Casson lost because many of the center-right voters voted for Cacciari.

After two years, however, when Democrats of the Left and The Daisy merged into the Democratic Party, Cacciari had a majority even greater in the City Council.

Venice Mayoral Election Results 2005
Name Party 1st Round
(3–4 April)
% 2nd Round
(17–18 April)
%
Massimo Cacciari Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL) 37,488 23.2 64,315 50.5
Felice Casson Democrats of the Left (DS) 60,837 37.7 62,974 49.5
Cesare Campa Forza Italia (FI) 32,726 20.7
Raffaele Speranzon National Alliance (AN) 10,021 6.2

Mayoral and City Council election, 2010

These elections were held on 28–29 March 2010.

There were nine candidates (two supported by important coalition and seven supported by different independent lists); the most important candidates were Giorgio Orsoni and the minister Renato Brunetta, who tried for a second time to become the mayor (in fact he was candidate for this position in 2000). Giorgio Orsoni was supported by a center-left coalition formed by Democratic Party, Italy of Values, Communist Refoundation Party-Federation of the Greens and the Italian Socialist Party; Renato Brunetta was supported by a center-right coalition formed by The People of Freedom and Lega Nord.

Unexpectedly, Orsoni won the election in the first round making did not go to vote for a possible second round, as it has happened in the elections of 2000 and of 2005.

Venice Mayoral Election Results 2010
Name Party 1st Round
(28–29 March)
%
Giorgio Orsoni Democratic Party (PD) 75,403 51.1
Renato Brunetta People of Freedom (PdL) 62,833 42.6
Marco Gavagnin Five Star Movement (M5S) 4,608 3.1

Mayoral and City Council election, 2015

These elections were held on two different dates: the first round on 31 May, the second round on 14 June 2015.

These elections occurred after a year during which the city were governed by a special commissioner after the incumbent mayor Giorgio Orsoni resigned in June 2014 amid a wider investigation into alleged corruption over new flood barriers MOSE Project. The official candidate of the center-left coalition was the left-wing magistrate and senator Felice Casson, who failed the election in 2005. Cause of his opposition to Matteo Renzi's political line, Casson was generally considered as a representative of the extreme left parties, and based his campaign on the break with the old and corrupted politicians who were investigated the past year.

The main opposition to Casson's coalition was the center-righ independent Luigi Brugnaro, a businessman and president of the Reyer Venezia Mestre basketball club. Brugnaro was sustained by a coalition between Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the conservative Popular Area alliance.

Although Casson was ahead after the first round, on 14 June Brugnaro won the election and became the first directly-elected conservative mayor of the city. However, the victory of Brugnaro occurred thanks to his great popularity across the city: his own independent list Brugnaro for Mayor resulted the first party in the city and gained 17 of 36 seats in the City Council, while Forza Italia and Popular Area obtained together no more than 5% of the votes.

After the election, Brugnaro said he considered himself as an independent, totally free from parties' influence, and a supporter of Matteo Renzi's policy.[4]

Venice Mayoral Election Results 2015 [5]
Name Party 1st Round
(31 May)
% 2nd Round
(14 June)
%
Luigi Brugnaro Independent 34,790 28.6 54,405 53.2
Felice Casson Democratic Party (PD) 46,298 38.0 47,838 46.8
Davide Scano Five Star Movement (M5S) 15,348 12.6
Angelo Bellati Lega Nord 14,482 12.0
Francesca Zaccariotto Brothers of Italy (FdI) 8,292 6.8
Venice Council Election 2015 - Parties
Coalition votes % seats Party votes % seats
Center-left (Casson) 44,068 37.6 8 Felice Casson for Mayor List
Democratic Party
Left Ecology Freedom-Greens
Others (3)
19,991
19,667
1,845
2,545
17.1
16.8
1.6
2.1
5
3
-
-
Center-right (Brugnaro) 33,445 28.6 21+1 Luigi Brugnaro for Mayor List
Forza Italia
Popular Area
Others (2)
24,352
4,405
1,870
2,838
20.8
3.8
1.6
2.4
17
3
1
-
Five Star Movement (Scano) 15,009 12.8 3 Five Star Movement 15,009 12.8 3
Lega Nord (Bellati) 13,997 11.9 2 Lega Nord
Others (3)
10,760
3,237
9.2
2.7
2
-

References

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