Politics of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Statute Regional government President: Arno Kompatscher First vice president: Giulia Zanotelli Vice president: Franz Thomas Locher Regional Council President: Roberto Paccher Autonomous provinces Trentino South Tyrol Politics of Trentino President: Maurizio Fugatti Vice President: Francesca Gerosa President of the Provincial Council: Claudio Soini Elections and political parties Politics of South Tyrol Governor: Arno Kompatscher First Vice President: Rosmarie Pamer Vice Presidents: Marco Galateo, Daniel Alfreider President of the Provincial Council: Arnold Schuler Elections and political parties
Regions of Italy Politics of Italy Politics of the European Union
Other countries
v t e

The Politics of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy) takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, whereby the President of Regional Government is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Regional Government and Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Regional Council. However, since a constitutional reform in 1972, almost all the executive and legislative powers are devolved to the two provinces of which the region is composed: Trentino and the South Tyrol.

The politics of Trentino takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democracy, whereby the governor is heads of government, while the politics of South Tyrol retains a parliamentary system, in which the governor is usually the most voted provincial deputy and heads the provincial government.

The Regional Government (Giunta Regionale, Landesregierung) is presided by the President of the Region (Presidente della Regione, Landeshauptmann) and is composed by the President and the Ministers (Assessori), who are currently 5, including two Vice Presidents. Since 2001, the Presidents of the two Provinces alternate as President of the Region, with the one who's not in charge serving as First Vice President.

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (October 2023)

The Regional Council of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol is composed of 70 members, 35 from Trentino and 35 from South Tyrol. The regional deputies are elected separately as provincial deputies. In practice the Regional Council is the meeting of the two Provincial Councils.

The Region has actually two different system of parties: one for each Province. Since the constitutional reform of 2001, regional elections are nothing more than two separate provincial elections and the Region does not provide anymore vote totals region-wide.

This is the list of presidents of Trentino (Italian: Presidente, German: Landeshauptmann) since 1948.

President			Term of office		Party	Administration	Coalition	Legislature
			Duration in years, months and days
1		Giuseppe Balista (1901–1977)	20 December 1948	19 December 1952	DC	Balista I	DC	I (1948)
			4 years			Balista II
2		Remo Albertini (1920–2005)	19 December 1952	14 December 1956	DC	Albertini	DC	II (1952)
			3 years, 11 months and 26 days
3		Riccardo Rosa (1902–1970)	14 December 1956	30 December 1960	DC	Rosa	DC	III (1956)
			4 years and 17 days
4		Bruno Kessler (1924–1991)	30 December 1960	13 March 1974	DC	Kessler I	DC	IV (1960)
						Kessler II	DC • PSI	V (1964)
			13 years, 2 months and 14 days			Kessler III	DC	VI (1968)
5		Giorgio Grigolli (1927–2016)	13 March 1974	15 March 1979	DC	Grigolli I	DC • PSDI • PRI	VII (1973)
			5 years and 3 days			Grigolli II	DC
6		Flavio Mengoni (1929–2013)	15 March 1979	30 October 1985	DC	Mengoni I	DC • PRI	VIII (1978)
						Mengoni II	DC • PRI
						Mengoni III	DC • PSDI • PLI
						Mengoni IV	DC • PSDI • PLI
			6 years, 7 months and 16 days			Mengoni V	DC • PRI • PLI	IX (1983)
7		Pierluigi Angeli (born 1938)	30 October 1985	16 February 1989	DC	Angeli	DC • PSI • PRI
			3 years, 3 months and 18 days
8		Mario Malossini (born 1947)	16 February 1989	4 June 1992	DC	Malossini	DC • PSI	X (1988)
			3 years, 3 months and 20 days
9		Gianni Bazzanella (born 1940)	4 June 1992	4 March 1994	DC	Bazzanella	DC • PSI • PSDI
			1 year, 9 months and 1 day
10		Carlo Andreotti (born 1943)	4 March 1994	24 February 1999	PATT	Andreotti	PATT • PRI • PSDI	XI (1993)
			4 years, 11 months and 21 days
11		Lorenzo Dellai (born 1959)	24 February 1999	29 December 2012	DL	Dellai I	The Olive Tree (DL • DS • FdV)	XII (1998)
						Dellai II	The Olive Tree (DL • DS)	XIII (2003)
					UpT	Dellai III	PD • UpT • PATT	XIV (2008)
			13 years, 10 months and 6 days
-		Alberto Pacher[1] (born 1956)	29 December 2012	9 November 2013	PD	Pacher	PD • UpT • PATT
			10 months and 12 days
12		Ugo Rossi (born 1963)	9 November 2013	2 November 2018	PATT	Rossi	PD • UpT • PATT	XV (2013)
			4 years, 11 months and 25 days
13		Maurizio Fugatti (born 1972)	2 November 2018	Incumbent	LT	Fugatti I	LT • FI • CT	XVI (2018)
			6 years, 1 month and 17 days			Fugatti II	LT • FdI • PATT	XVII (2023)

The politics of South Tyrol is conducted through a parliamentary, democratic autonomous province with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised collectively by the Landesregierung, which is led by the Governor, referred to as "Landeshauptmann" in German. Legislative power is vested in the Landtag primarily, and secondarily on the provincial government. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislative branches. South Tyrol has been an autonomous province within the Italian Republic since 1948, when the Gruber – De Gasperi Agreement was agreed upon between Austria and Italy. The current Landeshauptmann is Arno Kompatscher.

The local government system is based upon the provisions of the Italian Constitution and the Autonomy Statute of the Region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.^[1] The 1972 second Statute of Autonomy for Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol devolved most legislative and executive competences from the regional level to the provincial level, creating de facto two separate regions.

The executive powers are attributed to the provincial government (German: Landesregierung; Italian: Giunta Provinciale) headed by the Landeshauptmann Arno Kompatscher, who has been in power since 2014. He belongs to the South Tyrolean People's Party.

Governors of South Tyrol
Governor		Portrait	Party	Term		Coalition	Legislature	Election
	Karl Erckert (1894–1955)		SVP	20 December 1948	19 December 1952	SVP  • DC  • PSDI  • UI[a]	I Legislature	1948
				20 December 1952	15 December 1955[b]	SVP  • DC	II Legislature	1952
	Alois Pupp (1900–1969)		SVP	7 January 1956	14 December 1956
				15 December 1956	30 December 1960		III Legislature	1956
	Silvius Magnago (1914–2010)		SVP	31 December 1960	3 February 1965		IV Legislature	1960
				4 February 1965	16 February 1969		V Legislature	1964
				17 February 1969	14 May 1970		VI Legislature	1968
				15 May 1970	14 March 1974	SVP  • DC  • PSI
				15 March 1974	10 April 1979		VII Legislature	1973
				11 April 1979	26 April 1984	SVP  • DC  • PSDI	VIII Legislature	1978
				27 April 1984	16 March 1989	SVP  • DC  • PSI	IX Legislature	1983
	Luis Durnwalder (b. 1941)		SVP	17 March 1989	10 February 1994		X Legislature	1988
				11 February 1994	3 February 1999	SVP  • PPI  • PDS	XI Legislature	1993
				4 February 1999	17 December 2003	SVP  • DS  • PPI  • UDAA	XII Legislature	1998
				18 December 2003	17 December 2008	SVP  • DS  • UDAA	XIII Legislature	2003
				18 December 2008	8 January 2014	SVP  • PD	XIV Legislature	2008
	Arno Kompatscher (b. 1971)		SVP	9 January 2014	16 January 2019		XV Legislature	2013
				17 January 2019	17 January 2024	SVP  • LAAS	XVI Legislature	2018
				18 January 2024	Incumbent	SVP  • FdI  • DF  • LAAS  • LC[c]	XVII Legislature	2023

The considerable legislative power of the province is vested in a provincial assembly called Landtag (German: Südtiroler Landtag; Italian: Consiglio della Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano; Ladin: Cunsëi dla Provinzia Autonoma de Bulsan). The legislative powers of the assembly cover all those subject matters that are not expressly reserved to the exclusive legislative power of the Italian State or to concurrent legislation per article 117 of the Italian Constitution.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	South Tyrolean People's Party	97,092	34.53	13	−2
	Team K	31,201	11.09	4	−2
	South Tyrolean Freedom	30,583	10.88	4	+2
	Greens	25,445	9.05	3	±0
	Brothers of Italy	16,747	5.96	2	+1
	JWA List	16,596	5.90	2	New
	Die Freiheitlichen	13,836	4.92	2	±0
	Democratic Party	9,707	3.45	1	±0
	For South Tyrol with Widmann	9,646	3.43	1	±0
	League–United for Alto Adige	8,541	3.04	1	−3
	La Civica	7,301	2.60	1	New
	Vita	7,222	2.57	1	New
	Five Star Movement	2,086	0.74	–	−1
	Enzian	1,990	0.71	–	New
	Forza Italia	1,625	0.58	–	±0
	Centre-Right	1,601	0.57	–	New
Total		281,219	100.00	35	–
Valid votes		281,219	96.87
Invalid/blank votes		9,080	3.13
Total votes		290,299	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		429,841	67.54
Source: Official Results

The Südtiroler Heimatbund asked the Soffi-Institute in Innsbruck to conduct an opinion poll on the future of South Tyrol. The poll was conducted at the end of 2005 in which only German-speaking South Tyroleans were asked. 45.33% of those asked were in favour of remaining with Italy, 54.67% were against remaining. The latter group comprised 33.40% in favour of an independent state and 21.27% in favour of Tyrolean reunification with Austria.^[2]

Another poll conducted in August 2008 by the apollis Institute of Social Research and Opinion Polling in Bolzano asked 502 Italian-speaking South Tyroleans of their opinion. The poll consisted of three parts. To the first question if a referendum about remaining with Italy should be held at all, 41% said yes and 59% no. In the event of a referendum, 78% wished to remain with Italy, 20% were in favour of an independent state and 2% in favour of Tyrolean reunification with Austria.^[3]

A poll conducted in 2013 among German and Ladin speakers by the Austrian Kasmarin agency showed the following results: To the question "If a referendum were conducted also in South Tyrol and you had a choice, how would you decide?", 26% would opt for staying within Italy, and 54% for independence from Italy.^[4]

Across the border in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the Tiroler Tageszeitung conducted a poll in January 2009 to gauge the opinion of the inhabitants of North and East Tyrol. 500 people were asked in the poll. In 2008, 45% wished a reunification with South Tyrol, that number increased in 2009 by 4% to 49% in favour. 36.6% were against reunification while 14.1% had no opinion. In the age group of 15- to 29-year-olds, 71% were in favour of reunification. The highest support by district was in the Oberland with 67% while Innsbruck city and district was lowest with 42%.^[5]

On the left, a signpost placed by the right-wing party South Tyrolean Freedom at the Austro-Italian border (Austrian side) proclaiming "Süd-Tirol ist nicht Italien!" ("South Tyrol is not Italy!). On the right, a similar poster in Merano has been bedaubed, to cancel the word "not".

The independence controversy has been an issue especially of German-speaking right-wing parties: South Tyrolean Freedom, JWA List, Die Freiheitlichen and Citizens' Union for South Tyrol. With the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, the idea of a Freistaat (free state) resurfaced again.^[6][7] Especially, South Tyrolean Freedom and her founding leader Eva Klotz, with the campaign South Tyrol is not Italy!, have been among the strongest advocates of self-determination.

• Trentino Alto-Adige Region – Elections
• Provincial Council of Trento – Legislatures
• Provincial Council of Bolzano – Legislatures
• Provincial Government of Trento – Elections
• Provincial Government of Bolzano – Elections
• Cattaneo Institute – Archive of Election Data
• Parties and Elections in Europe – Province of Trento
• Parties and Elections in Europe – Province of Bolzano
• Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections
• "Political parties in Alto Adige from 1945 to 2005", an essay by Gunther Pallaver
• Marc Röggla. 2019. "Consensus Impossible? South Tyrol’s Autonomy Convention and the issue of Self-determination." Journal of Autonomy and Security Studies

• Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Region
• Constitution of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
• Provincial Government of Trento
• Provincial Council of Trento
• Provincial Government of Bolzano
• Provincial Council of Bolzano