Regions of Italy

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Italian Republic

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The Regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state. There are 20 Regions, 5 of them are autonomous regions with a special statute.

[edit] Status

Every region has a statute – a regional constitution. 15 regions have an ordinary statute, 5 of them have a special statute.

[edit] Regions with ordinary statute

These regions, whose statute is approved by the regional council, were created in the 1970s, even though the Italian Constitution dates back to 1947. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they are granted an important power in terms of legislation, not only in terms of administration as previously, but financially they are still heavily dependent on the central state.

Regional autonomy (Federalism) has been made an issue in Italian politics in recent years, aided^{[citation needed]} by the emergence of parties such as the Lega Nord.

In 2005 the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi proposed a new reform of the constitution which would have entailed greatly increasing the powers of the regions in areas such as health and education. In June 2006, the proposals, which had been particularly associated with Berlusconi’s partners in government the Northern League, and seen by some as leading the way to a federal state, were rejected in a referendum by a margin of 61.7% to 38.3%.

[edit] Autonomous regions with special statute

Five regions (namely Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Aosta Valley established 1948 and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, created in 1963) have been granted a special status of autonomy. Their statute is a constitutional law approved by the Italian Parliament, granting very large powers in terms of legislation and administration, but also a very large financial autonomy. Consider that they keep between 60% and 100% of all taxes and decide what to do with such huge resources.

These regions became autonomous in order to take into account that some of them host linguistic minorities (German-speaking in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, French-speaking in Aosta Valley, Slovenians in Friuli-Venezia Giulia) or are geographically isolated (the two islands, but also Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which was at the border with the iron curtain).

Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol constitutes an additional exception: in fact the region is nearly powerless. Indeed the special statute more properly regards the two autonomous provinces of Trent and Bolzano. The region has more and more a coordinating role.

[edit] Institutions

Each region has an elected parliament, called Consiglio Regionale (literally regional council) and a regional government, called Giunta Regionale (literally executive committee) headed by the regional president, who is elected directly by the citizens living in the region. Indeed the president is very powerful: he can nominate the members of his government and decide over their destitution; if he resigns, new elections are to be immediately called.

[edit] See also

• Groups of Italian regions
• Regional Council (Italy)
• Presidents of Regions of Italy
• Provinces of Italy
• Municipalities of Italy
• Flags of regions of Italy

[edit] External links

• CityMayors article
• (Italian)Regional Governments of Italy on Italia.gov.it
• (Italian)Regional Governments of Italy on Governo.it

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