Politics of Italy - Administrative Division

Administrative Division

The Italian State has twenty regions and about a hundred provinces. The constitution of Italy provides for twenty regions with extended powers. Regions are further divided in provinces. Provinces also have their own local elections. For each of the provinces, a prefect is appointed by and responds to the central government, which he locally represents. While the number of regions is somewhat stable (the only modification to the original set is the separation of Molise from Abruzzo), there has been a tendency in later years to create new provinces, such as Crotone, Verbania, Lodi, Biella, Lecco and others.

Five regions (Aosta Valley, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) have special charters granting them varying degrees of autonomy. The raisons d'être of these charters is in most cases the presence of significant linguistic and cultural minorities, but in the case of Sicily it was to calm down separatist movements. The other 15 regions were in practice established in 1970, even if their ideation had been a much earlier idea.

Parties

PdL PD Lega Nord SEL UV UpT