Elections in Veneto

[2] After World War II, Veneto was a stronghold of Christian Democracy, which was by far the largest party, successively won all the elections from 1946 to 1992 and continuously held the helm of the Regional Government from its establishment in 1970 to 1993.

In the 1980s Veneto saw the rise of Venetian nationalism and Liga Veneta, a regionalist party which was a founding member of Lega Nord in 1991.

In fact, since 1995, Christian Democracy's hegemony was replaced by that of the centre-right Pole/House of Freedoms coalition and especially Forza Italia, whose regional leader Giancarlo Galan was President of Veneto for 15 years.

After a decline in term of votes and a resurgence, in 2010 Liga Veneta gained control of the Regional Government with Luca Zaia as President and the support of The People of Freedom, a broad centre-right party resulted from the merger of Forza Italia and National Alliance.

Source: Regional Council of Veneto In the 1953 general election DC lost some ground, however gaining a convincing 53.4% of the vote (62.2% in Vicenza, 59.9% in Treviso and 59.6% in Padua).

The PSI got its best results in the provinces of Venice (21.6%), Rovigo (19.8%) and Verona (18.2%), but not in the traditional Socialist stronghold of Belluno, where it was passed by the PSDI (12.3 against 11.0%).

Source: Regional Council of Veneto Since 1980 DC experienced a steady decline in term of votes, largely due to the rise of Liga Veneta (LV) and other Venetist parties.

In the 1990 regional election DC was still the largest party of Veneto (42.4%), but suffered the competition of the LV in its heartlands.

Venetist parties were fairly strong in Vicenza (11.4%) and Verona (10.8%), while the PSI and the PCI retained their strongholds (Belluno with 23.8% and Rovigo with 29.0%, respectively).

The 1992 general election was a realigning one in Italy, due to the rise of Lega Nord, a federation of northern regionalist parties of which the LV was a founding member.

The LV gained ground in the Pedemontana, that is to say the provinces at the feet of the mountains, most of which had long been DC's heartlands: 21.5% in Treviso, 20.6% in Verona and 19.5% in Vicenza.

= Other Venetists, including LAV, UPV and MVRA.Source: Regional Council of Veneto The 1994 general election marked a full-scale realignment in Venetian electoral politics.

In a highly fragmented party system, FI came first with 23.6%, the LV second with 21.6% and the PPI (along with Patto Segni, a small centrist ally) third with 20.2%.

Curiously enough FI was stronger in a centre-left province, Venice (26.7%), while the LV did better in Belluno (32.4%) and in formerly DC's heartlands, Treviso (28.5%) and Vicenza (28.1%).

* = Including Patto Segni.Source: Regional Council of Veneto The 1996 general election saw a huge success of the LV, which was by far the largest party with 29.2%.

FI was reduced to 22.7% and was no longer Veneto's largest party, as it was passed by The Olive Tree (including the DS and the successor of the PPI, DL) and its allies, which got 29.0% regionally.

= Other Venetists, including INV, IV, UNE, PVA and VSC.Source: Regional Council of Veneto The 2020 regional election was a triumph for the LV, which obtained an unprecedented 61.5% of the vote (combined result of official party list and President Luca Zaia's personal list, 16.9% and 44.6%, respectively).

Luca Zaia of Liga Veneta–Lega (formerly Lega Nord) was re-elected President by a landslide 76.8% of the vote, while his main rival Arturo Lorenzoni stopped at 15.7%.

The biggest turnaround happened within the centre-right, as Lega lost more than half of the votes obtained in 2018 (–17.7pp) and the Brothers of Italy jumped from 4.2% to virtually eight times that share (+28.5pp).