Mayor of Venice


The Mayor of Venice is an elected politician who, along with the Venice's City Council of 36 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Venice in northern Italy.
Since 15 June 2015 the conservative businessman Luigi Brugnaro has been mayor of Venice. Previously, the position was held by Giorgio Orsoni, who resigned on 13 June 2014 after a corruption scandal.

Overview

According to the Italian Constitution, the Mayor of Venice is member of the Venice's City Council. Although the title Mayor is not held by the heads of the six boroughs of Venice, because they do not actually preside over self-governmental municipalities.
The Mayor is elected by the population of Venice. Citizens elect also the members of the City Council, which also controls Mayor's policy guidelines and is able to enforce his resignation by a motion of no confidence. The Mayor is entitled to appoint and release the members of his government.
Since 1993 the Mayor is elected directly by Venice's electorate: in all mayoral elections in Italy in cities with a population higher than 15,000 the voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally.
The seat of the City Council is the city hall Ca' Loredan on the Canal Grande.

List of Mayors of Venice

Podestà (1806–1866)

Podestà of Venice were appointed since 1806 to 1866 by the rulers of the city during the early- to mid-19th century: Napoleon and the Habsburgs.
In 1860, the nascent Kingdom of Italy created the office of the Mayor of Venice, chosen by the City council:

Republic of Italy (since 1946)

From 1946 to 1993, the Mayor of Venice was chosen by the City Council:
MayorTerm startTerm endPartyCoalitionElection
1:it:Giovanni Battista Gianquinto|Giovanni Battista Gianquinto25 June 194621 January 1951PCI
PCI PSI
1946
2:it:Angelo Spanio |Angelo Spanio21 January 195113 January 1955DC
DC
1951
3:it:Roberto Tognazzi|Roberto Tognazzi13 January 195528 May 1960DC
DC PSDI
1956
4:it:Giovanni Favaretto Fisca|Giovanni Favaretto Fisca28 May 196012 May 1970DC
DC PSDI
1960
4:it:Giovanni Favaretto Fisca|Giovanni Favaretto Fisca28 May 196012 May 1970DC
DC PSI PSDI
1964
5:it:Giorgio Longo|Giorgio Longo12 May 197021 December 1975DC
DC PSI PSDI
1970
6:it:Mario Rigo|Mario Rigo21 December 197518 January 1985PSI
PCI PSI
1975
1980
7Nereo Laroni18 January 198511 March 1987PSI
PCI PSI PRI
1985
8:it:Antonio Casellati|Antonio Casellati11 March 198711 May 1990PRI
PCI PSI PRI FdV
1985
9:it:Ugo Bergamo|Ugo Bergamo11 May 19901 June 1993DC
DC PSI PSDI
1990
-Giovanni Troiani1 June 19939 December 1993-Special prefectural commissioner

;Notes
Since 1993, under provisions of new local administration law, the Mayor of Venice is chosen by direct election, originally every four, and later every five years:

Timeline


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PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20
AlignBars = late
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1945 till:01/01/2021
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1945
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id:ind value:rgb
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barset:PM
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from: 27/04/1945 till: 25/06/1946 color:skyblue text:"Ponti" fontsize:10
from: 25/06/1946 till: 21/01/1951 color:red text:"Gianquinto" fontsize:10
from: 21/01/1951 till: 13/01/1955 color:skyblue text:"Spanio" fontsize:10
from: 13/01/1955 till: 16/11/1960 color:skyblue text:"Tognazzi" fontsize:10
from: 16/11/1960 till: 12/05/1970 color:skyblue text:"Favaretto Fisca" fontsize:10
from: 12/05/1970 till: 21/12/1975 color:skyblue text:"Longo" fontsize:10
from: 21/12/1975 till: 18/01/1985 color:red text:"Rigo" fontsize:10
from: 18/01/1985 till: 11/03/1987 color:red text:"Laroni" fontsize:10
from: 11/03/1987 till: 11/05/1990 color:green text:"Casellati" fontsize:10
from: 11/05/1990 till: 01/06/1993 color:skyblue text:"Bergamo" fontsize:10
from: 05/12/1993 till: 25/01/2000 color:red text:"Cacciari" fontsize:10
from: 30/04/2000 till: 25/04/2005 color:pink text:"Costa" fontsize:10
from: 25/04/2005 till: 08/04/2010 color:red text:"Cacciari" fontsize:10
from: 08/04/2010 till: 13/06/2014 color:red text:"Orsoni" fontsize:10
from: 15/06/2015 till: 21/07/2020 color:blue text:"Brugnaro" fontsize:10

Elections

City Council elections, 1946–1990

Number of votes for each party:
ElectionDCPCIPSIPLIPRIPSDIMSIOthersTotal
Election
24 March 194655,260
40,947
37,069
2,251
7,555
--6,967
150,049
27 May 195168,070
54,752
16,884
8,331
1,637
10,546
10,693
9,194
180,107
27 May 195673,394
41,022
41,088
6,629
1,574
13,877
10,062
6,724
194,370
6 November 196075,936
49,920
45,640
7,020
2,531
13,277
10,294
7,544
212,463
22 November 196474,411
55,364
31,474
18,286
-13,277
8,733
16,529
219,798
7 June 197074,057
62,263
27,339
13,113
8,101
18,759
9,705
18,765
232,102
15 June 197573,351
85,203
40,243
7,409
9,036
15,466
10,956
6,619
248,283
8 June 198073,492
77,223
40,685
7,409
7,000
10,607
8,454
12,820
237,072
12 May 198566,071
73,652
41,819
4,964
11,889
10,404
11,704
21,159
241,662
6 May 199057,800
52,575
39,333
3,295
7,452
7,039
6,579
48,855
222,928

Number of seats in the City Council for each party:
ElectionDCPCIPSIPLIPRIPSDIMSIOthersTotal
Election
24 March 1946231615-3--360
27 May 1951311244-52260
27 May 19562413132-43160
6 November 19602314132-43-60
22 November 1964211595-42-60
7 June 1970211773252360
15 June 19751822101242160
8 June 19802021111132160
12 May 19851719111323460
6 May 1990171511-2211260

Mayoral and City Council election, 1993

The election took place in two rounds: the first on 21 November and the second on 5 December 1993.
For the first time under the new electoral law citizens could vote directly the mayor; before this choice was made by the City Council.
For the first time a center-left coalition, composed by the former communist Democratic Party of the Left and some other progressives party, presented its candidate: Massimo Cacciari. He was an independent venetian philosopher, who had been a member of the Italian Communist Party. The main opposition to Cacciari's coalition was represented by Aldo Mariconda. Mariconda was a businessman and member of the regionalist Lega Nord-Liga Veneta, which combined Venetian nationalism and a strong support for fiscal federalism. Liga Veneta, as regional faction of the national Lega Nord party, had a liberal, centrist and economically libertarian outfit due to the political upbringing of its early leaders and a more conservative electoral base.
Despite the strong performance of Mariconda on the first round, Cacciari managed to win the election on the second round gaining the support of the moderate and centrist voters of the agonizing Christian Democracy party.
On 5 December 1993 Cacciari won the election and became the first directly-elected mayor of Venice.
Summary of the 1993 Venice City Council election results
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="text-align:left;" | Parties and coalitions
! colspan="1" | Votes
! colspan="1" | %
! colspan="1" | Seats

Mayoral and City Council election, 1997

The election took place on 16 November 1997.
The outgoing mayor Massimo Cacciari, supported by Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left coalition, heavily defeated Mauro Pizzigati, supported by Silvio Berlusconi's center-right alliance.
Summary of the 1997 Venice City Council election results
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="text-align:left;" | Parties and coalitions
! colspan="1" | Votes
! colspan="1" | %
! colspan="1" | Seats

Mayoral and City Council election, 2000

The election took place in two rounds: the first on 16 April and the second on 30 April 2000.
The snap election was held in April 2000 after the incumbent mayor Massimo Cacciari resigned in January to run as the main center-left candidate for the regional elections. While on the first round about 72% of the venetian voters went to the polls, thanks to the fact that the election took place the same day of the regional elections, on the second round the turnout was extremely low, probably because the election occurred on the first Sunday after Easter, immediately before the International Workers' Day, and most of voters were outside Venice.
The main candidates were Paolo Costa, a member of the center-left Italian People's Party and former Minister of Public Works, and Renato Brunetta, a center-right venetian MEP. Gianfranco Bettin, a notorious environmental activist, run as the main candidate of a leftist coalition. For the first time the regionalist Lega Nord party decided to not present its own mayoral candidate and to be a part of the center-right alliance.
In the first round of the election, Brunetta got 39% of the votes and Costa 38%. Then on the second round Bettin, who got 16% of the votes on the first round, decided to officially sustain Costa and signed a pre-electoral alliance with him just a week before the run-off. On 30 April Costa easily defeated Brunetta and, since on the first round no coalition obtained more than the 50% of the votes, the majority bonus granted by the electoral law was given to the center-left coalition and its fresh leftist allies despite the center-right had received more votes.
Summary of the 2000 Venice City Council election results
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="text-align:left;" | Parties and coalitions
! colspan="1" | Votes
! colspan="1" | %
! colspan="1" | Seats

Mayoral and City Council election, 2005

The election took place on two rounds: the first on 3–4 April, the second on 17–18 April 2005.
The candidates were in total eleven, some supported by independent lists. The main candidates were: the philosopher and former mayor Massimo Cacciari, who were supported by the center-left moderate party The Daisy; the magistrate Felice Casson, who was supported by a broad center-left coalition; and the businessman Cesare Campa, who was supported by a center-right alliance between Forza Italia and Union of Christian and Centre Democrats. Differently from the precedent election, both the main coalitions were completely divided: the former center-right coalition was now fragmented between three different candidates, while the center-left was broken in two part, one moderate and one radical.
After a hard battle, Massimo Cacciari was able to obtain 23% of the votes, overtaking Campa in order to participate in the run-off election with Casson. Despite the first round result, after a shocking vote counting, Casson was narrowly defeated by Cacciari who probably gained the support of the center-right voters. Two years later, however, when Democrats of the Left and The Daisy merged into the Democratic Party, Cacciari had a majority even greater in the City Council.
Summary of the 2005 Venice City Council election results
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="text-align:left;" | Parties and coalitions
! colspan="1" | Votes
! colspan="1" | %
! colspan="1" | Seats

Mayoral and City Council election, 2010

The election took place on 28–29 March 2010.
Giorgio Orsoni, supported by a center-left coalition formed by Democratic Party, Italy of Values, Federation of the Left, Federation of the Greens and the Italian Socialist Party, challenged the minister Renato Brunetta, supported by the center-right governmental coalition formed by The People of Freedom and Lega Nord.
Unexpectedly, Orsoni won the election on the first round.
Summary of the 2010 Venice City Council election results
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="text-align:left;" | Parties and coalitions
! colspan="1" | Votes
! colspan="1" | %
! colspan="1" | Seats

Mayoral and City Council election, 2015

These elections were held on two rounds: the first on 31 May the second on 14 June 2015.
These elections occurred after a year during which the city were governed by a special commissioner after the incumbent mayor Giorgio Orsoni resigned in June 2014 amid a wider investigation into alleged corruption over new flood barriers MOSE Project.
The official candidate of the center-left coalition was the left-wing magistrate and senator Felice Casson, who failed to win the election in 2005. Cause of his opposition to Matteo Renzi's political line, Casson was generally considered as a representative of the extreme left parties, and based his campaign on the break with the old and corrupted politicians who were investigated the past year. The main opposition to Casson's coalition was the center-right independent Luigi Brugnaro, a businessman and president of the Reyer Venezia Mestre basketball club. Brugnaro was sustained by a coalition between Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the conservative Popular Area alliance.
Although Casson was ahead after the first round, on 14 June Brugnaro won the election and became the first directly-elected conservative mayor of the city. However, the victory of Brugnaro occurred thanks to his great popularity across the city: his own independent list resulted the first party and gained 17 of 36 seats in the City Council, while Forza Italia and Popular Area obtained together no more than 5% of the votes.
After the election, Brugnaro said he considered himself as an independent, totally free from parties' influence, and a supporter of Matteo Renzi's policy.
Summary of the 2015 Venice City Council election results
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="text-align:left;" | Parties and coalitions
! colspan="1" | Votes
! colspan="1" | %
! colspan="1" | Seats

Mayoral and City Council election, 2020

These elections were scheduled to take place on 31 May 2020 but has been postponed to 20–21 September 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.