The Venetian regional election of 2005 took place on 3–4 April 2005.

Giancarlo Galan Giancarlo Galan (born 10 September 1956) is an Italian politician. Career Born in Padua, Galan was an activist of the Italian Liberal Party in the 1970s and the 1980s. He was not fully active in politics until he joined Forza Italia since its ...

(

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

House of Freedoms The House of Freedoms (, CdL) was a major centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, led by Silvio Berlusconi. History The CdL was the successor of the Pole of Freedoms/ Pole of Good Government and the Pole for Freedoms. The former ...

) was re-elected for the third time in a row President of the Region, but the support for him was diminished by the presence of a third candidate, Giorgio Panto, who picked votes both from the centre-right and the Venetist camps, and of a fourth candidate representing the

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

Roberto Bussinello Roberto Bussinello (4 October 1927 – 24 August 1999) was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 10 September 1961. He scored no championship points. He also participated ...

. Although

remained the largest party in the Council and also in the Region as a whole ( The Olive Tree was only an electoral alliance at the time and the three parties which were part of it formed separate groups in the Council), it suffered a serious decline in term of votes, from 30.3% of

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

to 22.7%. Venetist parties had a very good result: the combined score of

Liga Veneta Liga Veneta (; ; abbr. LV), whose complete name is (), is a regionalist political party active in Veneto. The LV, whose ideology combines Venetian nationalism and support for fiscal federalism, was established in 1979 under the slogan "farthe ...

(14.7%), North-East Project (5.4%) and Liga Fronte Veneto (1.2%) was 21.3%, up from the 15.6% of 2000 (Liga Veneta 12.0%, Veneti d'Europa 2.4% and

Fronte Marco Polo The Marco Polo Front (, FMP) was an autonomist and Venetist political party active in Veneto, named after explorer Marco Polo. Fabio Padovan, leader of the European Federalist Free Entrepreneurs (LIFE) and former deputy of Liga Veneta–Lega ...

1.2%).

Electoral system

Regional elections in Veneto were ruled by the "Tatarella law" (approved in 1995), which provided for a mixed electoral system: four fifths of the regional councilors were elected in provincial constituencies by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

, using the

largest remainder method Party-list proportional representation Apportionment methods The quota or divide-and-rank methods make up a category of apportionment rules, i.e. algorithms for allocating seats in a legislative body among multiple groups (e.g. parties or f ...

with a

droop quota In the study of Electoral system, electoral systems, the Droop quota (sometimes called the Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff, Hagenbach-Bischoff, Britton, or Newland-Britton quota) is the Infimum, minimum number of votes a party or candidate needs to rece ...

and

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...

s, while the residual votes and the unassigned seats were grouped into a "single regional constituency", where the whole ratios and the highest remainders were divided with the Hare method among the provincial party lists; one fifth of the council seats instead was reserved for regional lists and assigned with a

majoritarian system A winner-take-all (or winner-takes-all) electoral system is one where a voting bloc can win all seats in a legislature or electoral district, denying representation to any political minorities. Such systems are used in many major democracies. Suc ...

: the leader of the regional list that scored the highest number of votes was elected to the presidency of the Region while the other candidates were elected regional councilors. A threshold of 3% had been established for the provincial lists, which, however, could still have entered the regional council if the regional list to which they were connected had scored at least 5% of valid votes. The ''

panachage Panachage (, from French meaning "blend, mixture") is a mixed single vote variant of list proportional representation. In panachage, voters support individual candidates (rather than parties). Voters have multiple votes, which they can split betw ...

'' was also allowed: the voter can indicate a candidate for the presidency but prefer a provincial list connected to another candidate.

Parties and candidates

Results

Council composition

Aftermath

After the election,

formed his third government. Due to the new strength of Liga Veneta, which received about 2/3 of the vote for Forza Italia, the coalition balance was clearly changed in favour of Liga Veneta. This party had both the post of President of the Regional Council for Marino Finozzi and the most important ministry, the Health ministry, for Flavio Tosi (who was replaced by

Francesca Martini Francesca Martini (born 31 August 1961 in Verona)http://www.governo.it/Governo/Biografie/sottosegretari/martini_francesca.html is a Venetist politician. She is a member of Liga Veneta-Lega Nord. She was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies ...

in 2007). Also the post of Vice President of Veneto went to a ''lighista'',

Luca Zaia Luca Zaia (born 27 March 1968) is an Italian politician, who has been President of Veneto since 2010, and a historical member of Lega Nord, other than being the most Progressivism in the United States, progressive member of his own party. Suppor ...

, in place of Fabio Gava (Forza Italia), who had been also Minister of Health in second term. Forza Italia was indeed far less strong than in

, when it won 30.3% of the vote: in comparison with 2000, Forza Italia lost three regional deputies, while Liga Veneta had a net gain of four.

References

{{Elections in Veneto Elections in Veneto 2005 elections in Italy