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This page gathers the results of elections in Veneto.
Veneto has always been characterised by the big role played by the Catholic Church and centrist politics, but was also an early stronghold of the Radical Party and the Italian Socialist Party.[1] In 1919, in the first election with male universal suffrage, the Catholic-inspired Italian People's Party won 42.6% of the vote and the Italian Socialist Party 36.2%.[2]
After World War II, Veneto was a stronghold of Christian Democracy, which was by far the largest party, successively won all the elections from 1946 to 1992 and continuously held the helm of the Regional Government from its establishment in 1970 to 1993. In 1994 the party was disbanded and its main successor, the new Italian People's Party, was much weaker.
In the 1980s Veneto saw the rise of Venetian nationalism and Liga Veneta, a regionalist party which was a founding member of Lega Nord in 1991. Liga Veneta almost replaced Christian Democracy in its heartlands, but was not initially able to gain regional power. In fact, since 1995, Christian Democracy's hegemony was replaced by that of the centre-right Pole/House of Freedoms coalition and especially Forza Italia, whose regional leader Giancarlo Galan was President of Veneto for 15 years.
After a decline in term of votes and a resurgence, in 2010 Liga Veneta gained control of the Regional Government with Luca Zaia as President and the support of The People of Freedom, a broad centre-right party resulted from the merger of Forza Italia and National Alliance. Liga Veneta and Zaia were confirmed in 2015, with a more cohesive majority.
On 22 October 2017 an autonomy referendum took place in Veneto: 57.2% of Venetians participated and 98.1% voted "yes".