Luca Zaia joined Liga Veneta–Lega Nord in the early 1990s, after having met Gian Paolo Gobbo, and was first elected to public office in 1993, when he became municipal councillor of Godega di Sant'Urbano. Two years later, in 1995, he successfully ran for provincial councillor and, after the election, was appointed provincial minister of Agriculture. In the 1998 provincial election, Zaia was elected President of the Province of Treviso with 60.0% of the vote in the second round, after arriving ahead in the first round with 41.4% and refusing to accept the support of any other party other than his own. At the time, he was the youngest provincial president of Italy. In 2002 he was re-elected with a landslide 68.9% of the vote in the second round and continued to govern the province with the sole support of his party. In May 2005, Zaia was appointed Vice President of Veneto and regional minister of Agriculture and Tourism in Galan III Government, but left in May 2008 in order to take office as federal Minister of Agriculture in Berlusconi IV Cabinet. In December 2009, The People of Freedom determined that the coalition candidate in the 2010 regional election would be a member of Lega Nord. Subsequently, the national council of Liga Veneta nominated Zaia for President of the region.
President of Veneto
In March 2010, Zaia was elected President of Veneto in a landslide, winning 60.2% of the vote against 29.1% of his foremost opponent, Giuseppe Bortolussi of the Democratic Party. The election was a triumph for the LV, which was by far the largest party in the region with 35.2% of the vote, up from 14.7% of five years before, and won 20 seats in the Regional Council, up from 11. Zaia also gained the highest proportion of votes for President of Veneto since direct election was introduced in 1995. In 2012, Zaia polled as the most popular regional president in Italy. In May 2015 Zaia was re-elected President of Veneto with 50.1% of the vote in the 2015 regional election.
Social issues
In early times of his administration, Zaia tried to limit the abortive pill RU-486. However, the AIFA declared that his position was unconstitutional in view of how the question is regulated by the Law 194 of 1978. In 2011, during the abrogative referendums, he voted "4 Yes". He called for more transparency and demanded more citizens' supervision of public administration. In 2013, Zaia spoke against the LGBT adoption, saying: "I have nothing against gays, but the possibility of adoption seems to me to be an extreme measure with unpredictable effects."
Economic issues
In August 2010, an anti-globalization group demonstrated in Vivaro against the planting of genetically modified organisms. The demonstration was supported by Zaia, who demanded a "return to legality", even though his predecessor Giancarlo Galan, a member of his coalition, was in favour of GMOs. After a flood in 2010, Zaia and his coalition changed a regional law to permit the reconstruction of rural ruins up to 800 cubic metres. The Democratic Party claimed that this was an attempt at "cementification". The National Association of Building Constructors also called the law a "bad choice". Zaia was criticized when, after the flood, he asked for more funds for the reconstruction, saying, "It's a shame spending €250,000,000 for four stones in Pompei."
In March 2014, Zaia supported the plebiscite on Venetian independence. Zaia has compared the status of the Veneto within Italy to that of Crimea within Ukraine, which voted to secede from Ukraine following a plebiscite.
In February 2020, Zaia apologized after claiming that the Chinese eat live mice. During the outbreak his decisions have been an example for other Italian regions, particularly for the comparison between Veneto and the nearby region of Lombardy, where the initial situation seemed comparable, who suffered heavy losses during the pandemic. The decisions of the regional government in Lombardy have the subject of national controversy with Zaia’s action in Veneto been praised as more effective. As of June 2020 it is not clear whether the situation of the regions was comparable at the beginning of the outbreak.
Personal life
Luca Zaia was born on 27 March 1968 in the Province of Treviso. In 1993, he received a degree in the science of animal production at the veterinary college of the University of Udine before attending a managerial course. In 1998, Zaia married Raffaella Monti. The couple has no children. In August 2006, when was Vice President of Veneto, Zaia saved an Albanian citizen who was wedged in a burning car. He refused the title of "hero".
