Politics of Molise

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The politics of Molise, a region of Italy, takes place in the framework of an "anomalous presidential"^[1]^[2] representative democracy or prime-ministerial system with an executive presidency, 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.^[3]

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 8.^[4]

List of presidents

More information No., President ...

No.		Took office	Left office	Tenure	Political party	Legislature (Election)
Elected by the Regional Council (1970–2000)
1	Carlo Vitale (1930–1973)	1970	1973^[†]	2–3 years	Christian Democracy (DC)	I (1970)
2	Giustino D'Uva (1924–1984) 1st time	23 January 1973	16 June 1975	2 years, 144 days	Christian Democracy (DC)	I (1970)
3	Florindo D'Aimmo (1928–2013)	16 June 1975	30 March 1982	6 years, 287 days	Christian Democracy (DC)	II (1975)
3	Florindo D'Aimmo (1928–2013)	16 June 1975	30 March 1982	6 years, 287 days	Christian Democracy (DC)	III (1980)
(2)	Giustino D'Uva (1924–1984) 2nd time	30 March 1982	9 October 1984^[†]	2 years, 193 days	Christian Democracy (DC)
4	Ulderico Adolfo Colagiovanni (1917–1996)	5 November 1984	13 May 1985	189 days	Christian Democracy (DC)
5	Paolo Nuvoli (1935–2025)	13 May 1985	16 January 1988	2 years, 248 days	Christian Democracy (DC)	IV (1985)
6	Fernando Di Laura Frattura (1932–2015)	16 January 1988	27 July 1990	2 years, 192 days	Christian Democracy (DC)	IV (1985)
7	Enrico Santoro (born 1932)	27 July 1990	3 August 1992	2 years, 7 days	Christian Democracy (DC)	V (1990)
8	Luigi Di Bartolomeo (1943–2022)	3 August 1992	22 December 1993	1 year, 141 days	Christian Democracy (DC)
9	Giovanni Di Giandomenico (born 1941)	15 March 1994	7 June 1995	1 year, 84 days	Christian Democracy (DC)
10	Marcello Veneziale (born 1941) 1st time	7 June 1995	20 November 1998^[a]	3 years, 166 days	Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	VI (1995)
11	Angelo Michele Iorio (born 1948) 1st time	20 November 1998	11 May 1999^[b]	172 days	Forza Italia (FI)
(10)	Marcello Veneziale (born 1941) 2nd time	11 May 1999	20 May 2000	1 year, 9 days	Democrats of the Left (DS)
Directly-elected presidents (2000–present)
12	Giovanni Di Stasi (born 1950)	20 May 2000	21 November 2001^[c]	1 year, 185 days	Democrats of the Left (DS)	VII (2000)
(11)	Angelo Michele Iorio (born 1948) 2nd time	21 November 2001	30 November 2006	11 years, 117 days	Forza Italia (FI) (2001–2009) The People of Freedom (PdL) (2009–2013)	VIII (2001)
		30 November 2006	15 November 2011			IX (2006)
		15 November 2011	18 March 2013^[d]			X (2011)
13	Paolo Di Laura Frattura (born 1962)	18 March 2013	8 May 2018	5 years, 51 days	Democratic Party (PD)	XI (2013)
14	Donato Toma (born 1957)	8 May 2018	6 July 2023	5 years, 59 days	Forza Italia (FI)	XII (2018)
15	Francesco Roberti (born 1967)	6 July 2023	Incumbent	3 years, 21 days	Forza Italia (FI)	XIII (2023)

^† Died in office

[a]
Resigned after losing the majority in the Regional Council, which then elected the leader of the opposition Angelo Michele Iorio (FI) as the new President.
[b]
Resigned after losing the majority in the Regional Council, which then re-elected the former President Marcello Veneziale to the office.
[c]
In 2001, the Administrative Regional Court (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale or TAR) found some irregularities in the 2000 election and ordered a recall election.
[d]
In 2012, the Administrative Regional Court (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale or TAR) found some irregularities in the 2011 election and ordered a recall election.

Legislative branch

The Regional Council of Molise (Consiglio Regionale del Molise) is composed of 30 members. 24 councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists, while 6 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 3 candidates from the regional list will be chosen and the number of those elected in provincial constituencies will be 26. 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

Current composition

The Regional Council of Molise is currently composed of the following political groups:^[7]

More information Party, Seats ...

	Seats	Status
Brothers of Italy (FdI)	4 / 21	In government
Forza Italia (FI)	3 / 21	In government
Democratic Party (PD)	3 / 21	In opposition
Us Moderates (NM)	2 / 21	In government
Molise We Want (McV)	2 / 21	In government
Five Star Movement (M5S)	2 / 21	In opposition
Lega	1 / 21	In government
Populars for Italy (PpI)	1 / 21	In government
Roberti for President (RP)	1 / 21	In government
Building Democracy (CD)	1 / 21	In opposition
Gravina for President (GP)	1 / 21	In opposition

By coalition:

More information Coalition, Seats ...

Coalition		Seats	Status
	Centre-right coalition	14 / 21	Government
	Centre-left coalition	7 / 21	Opposition

Local government

Provinces

More information Province, Inhabitants ...

Province	Inhabitants	President		Party	Election
Campobasso	223,871		Giuseppe Puchetti	Ind. (centre-left)	2023
Isernia	84,548		Daniele Saia	Italian Socialist Party	2023

Municipalities

More information Municipality, Inhabitants ...

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party	Election
Campobasso	49,148		Marialuisa Forte	Ind. (centre-left)	2024
Isernia	21,654		Piero Castrataro	Ind. (centre-left)	2021

Parties and elections

Latest regional election

More information Candidates, Votes ...

25–26 June 2023 Molise regional election results
Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seats

	Francesco Roberti	94,770	62.24	1
						Brothers of Italy	26,649	18.85	4
						Forza Italia	16,924	11.97	3
						Molise we want	13,971	9.88	2
						Molise in Good Hands – Us Moderates	10,582	7.48	2
						Populars for Molise	9,666	6.84	1
						League	8,481	6.00	1
						Union of the Centre–DC–NDC	5,005	3.54	0
					Total		91,278	64.55	13
	Roberto Gravina	55,308	36.32	1
						Democratic Party	17,031	12.04	3
						Five Star Movement	10,044	7.10	2
						Building Democracy	8,105	5.73	1
						Greens and Left Alliance–Territorial Equity	6,742	4.77	0
						Gravina for President–Progress Molise	5,928	4.19	0
						Democratic and Socialist Molise	1,086	0.77	0
					Total		48,936	34.61	6
	Emilio Izzo	2,191	1.44	0		I don't vote for the usual	1,197	0.85	0

Blank and invalid votes		4,912	3.13
Total candidates		152,269	100.00	2	Total parties		141,411	100.00	19
Registered voters/turnout		327,805	47.95
Source: Elezioni Molise 2023

References

[1]
Palermo, Francesco (31 October 2019). "The Erosion of Italian Regionalism". Verfassungsblog. doi:10.17176/20191031-163150-0. ISSN 2366-7044. The attention given to the regional elections in Umbria didn't change when the direct election of regional presidents was introduced in 1995 (and constitutionalized in 1999), making Italy the only European country with a presidential system at regional level. For the past two decades, the only electoral thrill in the region was the amount of votes and the broader or smaller margin in favour of the presidential candidate from the leftist coalition.
[2]
Vampa, Davide (2021). "Translating votes into seats and offices: Changing representation and government in the Italian Regions (2018-2020)". Contemporary Italian Politics. 13 (4): 485–505. doi:10.1080/23248823.2021.1969490. The rationale of the index is the same as that of the general ENP, with a score of 1 meaning that the opposition is formed by just one party, 2 meaning that there are two opposition parties of exactly the same size, and so on. In this article the same index is also applied to the ruling coalition to determine whether it is more or less fragmented than its opposition. In an anomalous presidential system like the one existing in Italian regions, government formation is still linked to parliamentary dynamics (i.e.the composition of regional councils). Therefore, rather than focusing on vote shares, this time we only consider how seats are distributed within the government and opposition camps (ENPSM; ENPSO).
[3]
Albanese, Valentina Erminia; Mastrostefano, Giada (14 April 2023). "Rappresentazione, narrazione e identità territoriali: il Molise e la mitopoiesi della non-esistenza". Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana: 65–77. doi:10.36253/bsgi-1672. hdl:11383/2154111. ISSN 2974-5780.
[4]
"Componenti della Giunta, Attribuzioni".
[5]
La Repubblica – Regional electoral law
[6]
"Regional Council of Lombardy – 1999 Constitutional law" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
[7]
"Gruppi consiliari XXII LEGISLATURA | Consiglio Regionale del Molise". consiglio.regione.molise.it (in Italian). Retrieved 4 July 2019.