Politics of Sicily

The Politics of Sicily, Italy takes place in a framework of a semi-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 Sicilian Regional Assembly.

History

The oldest organized party of Sicily was the Sicilian Socialist Party, founded out from the Fasci Siciliani in 1893, but the region was primarily a stronghold of the liberal establishment (see Historical Right, Historical Left and Liberals) that governed Italy for decades. However, by the end of the 19th century, Sicily elected several deputies from left-wing parties, namely the Radical Party, the Italian Republican Party, the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Reformist Socialist Party.

After Italian Fascism (whose partisan arm, the National Fascist Party was well supported in the region) and the Allied invasion of Sicily during the World War II, Sicily increasingly became a stronghold of Christian Democracy, in opposition to the Italian Communist Party. Sicilians had also a penchant for conservative/nationalist politics, represented mainly by the Monarchist National Party and the Italian Social Movement.

After the dissolution of these parties, in the early 1990s, the region was long governed by a " center-right coalition", notably including the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, whose regional leader, Salvatore Cuffaro, served as President of Sicily from 2001 to 2008, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the post-fascist National Alliance. Cuffaro's Christian Democrats have since been the main party of government in Sicily as they had been part of both of the administrations of Raffaele Lombardo of the Movement for the Autonomies (2008–2012) and that of Rosario Crocetta of the Democratic Party (since 2012). 3

Legislative branch

Main article: Sicilian Regional Assembly

The Sicilian Regional Assembly is composed of 90 members (or deputies). 80 deputies 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 a general ticket) come from a "regional list", including the President-elect. One seat is reserved for the candidate who comes second.

The Assembly 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 2001 (literally they will stand together or they will fall together), also the Assembly is dissolved and a snap election is called.

Executive branch

Main article: President of Sicily

The Regional Cabinet (Giunta Regionale) is presided by the President of the Region (Presidente della Regione), who is elected for a five-year term, and is currently composed by 11 members: the President and 10 regional assessors (Assessori, literally "aldermen"), including a Vice President (Vice Presidente).

Originally appointed by the Sicilian Regional Assembly, since 2001 de jure, he is elected by popular vote every five years under universal suffrage: the candidate who receives a plurality of votes, is elected.

His office is connected to the Regional Assembly (ARS), which is elected contextually: one fifth of the assembly seats are generally reserved to his supporters, which are wholesale elected concurrently with the President. The Assembly and the President are linked by an alleged relationship of confidence: if the President resigns or he is dismissed by the Assembly, a snap election is called for both the legislative and the executive offices, because in no case the two bodies can be chosen separately. The popular election of the President and the relationship of confidence between him and the legislature, allow to identify the Sicilian model of government as a particular form of semi-presidential system.

The President of Sicily promulgates regional laws and regulations. He can receive special administrative functions by the national government. The President is one of the 90 members of the Regional Assembly and, in this capacity, he can propose new laws. He appoints and dismiss the Regional Cabinet (called Giunta Regionale in Italian). The Cabinet is composed by regional assessors (assessori, literally "aldermen") who can be members of the Council at the same time. Assessors should not be confused with the ministers: according to Italian administrative law, assessors only receive delegations from the President to rule a bureau or an agency, the Region being a single legal person, not divided in ministries. One assessor can be appointed vice president. The President can also appoint four under-secretaries (sottosegretari) to help the President in his functions.

The Regional Cabinet prepares the budget, appoints the boards of public regional agencies and companies, manages assets, develops projects of governance, and resorts to the Constitutional Court of Italy if it thinks that a national law may violate regional powers. The President and the Cabinet are two different authorities of the Region: in matters within its competence, the Cabinet has the power to vote to give its approval.

List of presidents

Main article: List of presidents of Sicily

The current President of Sicily is Renato Schifani, who is serving for his first term after winning the 2022 regional election.

Elected by the Regional Council (1947–2001)

№	Name	Term of office		Political party		Legislature
1	Giuseppe Alessi	30 May 1947	13 June 1949		DC	I (1947)
2	Franco Restivo	13 June 1949	20 July 1951		DC
		20 July 1951	4 June 1955			II (1951)
(1)	Giuseppe Alessi	4 June 1955	4 April 1956		DC	III (1955)
3	Giuseppe La Loggia	4 April 1956	13 May 1958		DC
4	Silvio Milazzo	13 May 1958	12 August 1959		DC
		12 August 1959	23 February 1960			IV (1959)
5	Benedetto della Nicchiara	23 February 1960	8 September 1961		DC
6	Giuseppe D'Angelo	8 September 1961	25 July 1963		DC
		25 July 1963	4 August 1964			V (1963)
7	Francesco Coniglio	4 August 1964	11 August 1967		DC
8	Vincenzo Carollo	11 August 1967	20 September 1969		DC	VI (1967)
9	Mario Fasino	20 September 1969	10 August 1971		DC
		10 August 1971	22 December 1972			VII (1971)
10	Vincenzo Giummarra	22 December 1972	26 March 1974		DC
11	Angelo Bonfiglio	26 March 1974	13 August 1976		DC
		13 August 1976	20 March 1978			VIII (1976)
12	Piersanti Mattarella	20 March 1978	6 January 1980		DC
13	Mario D'Acquisto	6 January 1980	7 August 1981		DC
		7 August 1981	23 December 1982			IX (1981)
14	Calogero Lo Giudice	23 December 1982	19 October 1983		DC
15	Santi Nicita	19 October 1983	21 March 1984		DC
16	Modesto Sardo	21 March 1984	1 February 1985		DC
17	Rino Nicolosi	1 February 1985	12 August 1986		DC
		12 August 1986	12 August 1991			X (1986)
18	Vincenzo Leanza	12 August 1991	16 July 1992		DC	XI (1991)
19	Giuseppe Campione	16 July 1992	21 December 1993		DC
20	Francesco Martino	21 December 1993	16 May 1995		PLI
21	Matteo Graziano	16 May 1995	18 July 1996		PPI
22	Giuseppe Provenzano	18 July 1996	20 January 1998		FI	XII (1996)
23	Giuseppe Drago	20 January 1998	21 November 1998		CCD
24	Angelo Capodicasa	21 November 1998	26 July 2000		DS
(18)	Vincenzo Leanza	26 July 2000	17 July 2001		FI

Directly-elected presidents (since 2001)

N.	President		Term of office		Tenure (Years and days)	Party		Coalition	Legislature
25		Salvatore Cuffaro (1958– )	17 July 2001	15 June 2006	6 years, 193 days		CCD / UDC	FI–AN–CDC–CDU–NPSI	XIII (2001)
			15 June 2006	26 January 2008				FI–UDC–MpA–AN	XIV (2006)
26		Raffaele Lombardo (1950– )	28 April 2008	10 November 2012	4 years, 196 days		MpA	PdL–MpA–UDC	XV (2008)
27		Rosario Crocetta (1951– )	10 November 2012	18 November 2017	5 years, 7 days		PD	PD–UDC–IM–SF–CpS	XVI (2012)
28		Nello Musumeci (1955– )	18 November 2017	13 October 2022	4 years, 329 days		DB	FI–MpA–UDC–DB–FdI	XVI (2017)
29		Renato Schifani (1950– )	13 October 2022	Incumbent	2 years, 48 days		FI	FdI–FI–Lega–MpA–DC	XVII (2022)

Local government

Provinces

Sicily was divided in nine provinces, which were a traditional form of local administration in the region. Socialist and Christian-democratic ideas had an early diffusion in quite all the provinces around World War I. After the Fascist parenthesis, left-wing parties found their strongholds in central agricultural provinces, especially in the Province of Enna, but they didn't succeed in local elections, while Christian Democracy obtained high scores in others parts of the Region.

On 19 March 2013 the Sicilian Regional Assembly decided to turn them into Free Associations of Municipalities (Liberi consorzi tra comuni). Finally, on 30 July 2015 the Regional Assembly approved a law which put into force the Free Associations of Municipalities, regulating their functions and abolishing definitively the nine historical provinces. The same law created the new Metropolitan Cities of Palermo, Messina and Catania.

Province	Inhabitants	established	current status
Palermo	1,250,296	1860	Metropolitan City
Catania	1,167,006	1860	Metropolitan City
Messina	651,921	1860	Metropolitan City
Agrigento	453,416	1860	Free Association of Municipalities
Trapani	436,459	1860	Free Association of Municipalities
Syracuse	404,271	1860	Free Association of Municipalities
Ragusa	320,003	1927	Free Association of Municipalities
Caltanissetta	270,102	1927	Free Association of Municipalities
Enna	171,921	1927	Free Association of Municipalities

Municipalities

Sicily is also divided in 390 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	Mayor		Party	Election
Agrigento	58,323		Francesco Miccichè	Independent (Centre-right coalition)	2020
Caltanissetta	61,711		Roberto Gambino	Five Star Movement	2019
Catania	293,902		Salvo Pogliese	Brothers of Italy	2018
Enna	27,894		Maurizio Dipietro	Italia Viva	2020
Messina	243,262		Cateno De Luca	Independent (centre)	2018
Palermo	657,651		Roberto Lagalla	Union of the Centre	2022
Ragusa	73,543		Giuseppe Cassì	Independent (right-wing)	2018
Syracuse	118,385		Francesco Italia	Action	2018
Trapani	69,241		Giacomo Tranchida	Democratic Party	2018

Others with 50,000+ inhabitants

Municipality	Inhabitants	Mayor		Party	Election
Marsala	80,218		Massimo Grillo	Union of the Centre	2020
Gela	75,668		Lucio Greco	Independent (centre-left)	2019
Vittoria	63,002		Giovanni Moscato	Independent (centre-right)	2016
Modica	54,324		Ignazio Abbate	Union of the Centre	2018
Bagheria	54,257		Patrizio Cinque	Five Star Movement	2014
Acireale	51,456		Stefano Alì	Five Star Movement	2018

Parties and elections

Main articles: List of political parties in Sicily and Elections in Sicily

Latest regional election

Main article: 2022 Sicilian regional election

Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seats
	Renato Schifani	887,215	42.05	7
						Brothers of Italy	282,345	15.10	11
						Forza Italia	275,736	14.75	11
						Italy First – League	127,454	6.80	4
						Populars and Autonomists	127,096	6.80	3
						Christian Democracy	121,691	6.51	4
					Total		934,322	49.96	33
	Cateno De Luca	505,386	23.95	1
						South calls North	254,453	13.61	7
						Sicilia Vera	50,877	2.72	–
						Sicilian Pride	18,165	0.97	–
						Land of Love	3,390	0.18	–
						Young Sicilians	3,042	0.16	–
						Sicilian Autonomy	3,042	0.16	–
						Sicily Feat	2,702	0.14	–
						Work in Sicily	1,793	0.10	–
						Enough Mafias	1,356	0.07	–
					Total		336,390	18.11	7
	Caterina Chinnici	341,252	16.17	–
						Democratic Party	238,761	12.77	11
						One Hundred Steps for Sicily	55,599	2.97	–
					Total		294,360	15.74	11
	Nuccio di Paola	321,142	15.22	–		Five Star Movement	254,974	13.64	11
	Gaetano Armao	43,835	2.08	–		Action – Italia Viva	39,788	2.13	–
	Eliana Esposito	10,973	0.52	–		Free Sicilians	7,654	0.41	–
Blank and invalid votes		140,596	6.25
Total candidates		2,250,399	100.00	8	Total parties		1,869,863	100.00	62
Registered voters/turnout		4,609,984	48.82
Source: Regione Sicilia

External links

• Sicilian Region
• Sicilian Regional Assembly
• Constitution of Sicily