History
Mere administrative district of the central of the state during the Kingdom of Italy, regions were granted political autonomy by the 1948 Constitution of the Italian Republic. The original draft list comprised the Salento region (which was eventually included in the Apulia), Friuli and Venezia Giulia were separated regions and Basilicata was named Lucania. Abruzzo and Molise were different regions in the first draft, they were later merged into Abruzzo e Molise, and separated again in 1963. Nevertheless, the actual implementation of regional autonomy was postponed until the first Regional Elections of 1970.
Regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a constitutional reform in 2001 (brought about by a centre-left government and confirmed by popular referendum), granting them with residual policy competence. A further federalist reform was proposed by the regionalist party Lega Nord and in 2005, the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi proposed a new reform of the Constitution that would have greatly increased the power of regions. In June 2006 the proposals, which had been particularly associated with Lega Nord, and seen by some as leading the way to a federal state, were rejected in a referendum by 61.7% to 38.3%. The results varied considerably from one region to another, ranging to 55.3% in favour in Veneto to 82% against in Calabria.
Read more about this topic: Regions Of Italy
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“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
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—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)