<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Civic Network of South Tyrol

Welcome to South Tyrol

Provincial Assembly

The Assembly is the legislative body and thereby the highest-ranking body of the Province. It represents politically all inhabitants of South Tyrol. Within the framework of the powers granted to it by the state, it has the tasks of electing the Provincial Government (the President and the Assessors), supervising the Provincial Government, discussing problems of public concern, and, if competent, deciding them.

The most important function of the provincial assembly is the legislation. Thanks to the constitutional law n°3/2001 there has been an inversion of the system of repartition regarding the legislative powers between the state and the regions with the addition of the so-called general competence to the regions. Although the amendments, introduced by the reform, are applied just to the regions with an ordinary statute - there is no automatic adaptation of the special statutes to the new principles - those regulations, which introduce more extensive forms of autonomy for South Tyrol can be applied even before the corresponding amendment of the Autonomous Statute, thanks to transitional regulation. Even if exceeding the limits of the Autonomous Statute the Provincial Assembly can therefor enact laws regarding those sectors, which in accordance to the constitutional law n°3/2001 belong to the jurisdiction of the regions with an ordinary statute.

The Assembly consists of 35 deputies, elected every 5 years by the population on the basis of proportional representation. The deputies of the Assembly are at the same time deputies of the Regional Assembly, and as such exercise, together with the deputies of the Assembly of Trento, the legislative functions of the Region Trentino - South Tyrol within the framework of the powers laid down for it.
Thanks to the constitutional law n^2/2001 there has been a revaluation of the two provinces in regard to the region, what led to the direct election of the members of the Provincial Assembly.
The deputies of the individual parties form a political group. Even one single deputy can constitute a political group. The parties which form the Provincial Government are the government or coalition parties. The rest form the opposition, to whom it falls in particular to monitor the activity of the Provincial Government.
In principle the individual deputy is only bound by his conscience, but in practice he follows his party line. He has the right to introduce draft legislation through the President of the Assembly (though as a rule this is done through the government), to submit written questions or resolutions to the President or to members of the government, which must be dealt within a certain time-limit. He receives financial remuneration for his work.

Together the deputies form the plenum of the Assembly, the business of which is organizes by the Presidency of the Assembly. The Presidency has a number of employees at its disposal to enable it to carry out its various activities. The Presidency is elected by a plenum and consists of a President, a Vice-President and three deputies as Secretaries. The President of the Assembly represents the Assembly externally, convokes the sittings and presides over them. In the first half of the five-year legislative period a deputy of the German-speaking group and in the second half a deputy of the Italian-speaking group must be the President. For the post of Vice-President it must be the other way round. In the reformed Autonomy Statute the right of representation of the Ladins in the Presidency of the Assembly has been fixed, that means, that in the future the Ladin linguistic group can be represented in the highest organs of the Province.
Sittings of the Assembly are, with few exceptions (such as when personal matters are being discussed) open to public.

The legislative activity of the plenum is prepared by legislative commissions. Before a bill is debated in the plenum, it must be scrutinised and possibly amended by a legislative commission. At present there are four such commissions. They consist of seven or eight deputies from the government and opposition (President, Vice-President, Secretary and four or five ordinary members), must correspond to the linguistic proportions of the plenum, and are competent for strictly defined subject areas. There is an Assembly commission for relations with the Austrian province of Tyrol, and another for the business of the Assembly itself. The sittings of the commissions are not open to the public.

At the last provincial elections, on 22 November 1998, 316,617 of the 369,335 citizens entitled to vote cast their ballot (95.97 per cent). 303,589 were valid, 8,698 (2.8 per cent) were not valid and 4,330 (1.4 per cent) were blank. 13 parties or political groups contested the 35 Assembly seats but only 11 succeeded:
SVP, 171,820 votes (56.6 per cent) and 21 seats (60 per cent); AN-I Liberali, 29,287 votes (9.7 per cent) and three seats (8.57 per cent); Verdi-Grüne-Vèrc, 19,696 votes (6.5 per cent) and two seats (5.71 per cent); Union für Südtirol, 16,607 votes (5.5 per cent) and two seats (5.71 per cent); Lista Civica-FI-CCD, 11,345 votes (3.7 per cent ) and one seat (2.85 per cent); Ladins-DPS, 11,028 votes (3.5 per cent) and one seat (2.85 per cent); Centrosinistra/Mitte-Links-Projekt, 10,530 votes (3.5 per cent) and one seat (2.85 per cent); Popolari-AA Domani, 8,239 votes (2.7 per cent) and one seat (2.85 per cent); die Freiheitlichen, 7,543 votes (2.5 per cent) and one seat (2.85 per cent); Unitalia-FT, 5,419 votes (1.8 per cent) and one seat (2.85 per cent); Il Centro-UDA, 5,340 votes (1.8 per cent) and one seat (2.85 per cent).

As of January 2000 the Provincial Assembly was composed of the following linguistic groups: 25 German-speaking deputies, nine Italian-speaking deputies and one Ladin-speaking deputy. The opening session took place on 18 December 1998.

The deputies elected on 22 November 1998 were (in order of their first preference votes):
SVP: Luis Durnwalder, Sabina Kasslatter-Mur, Otto Saurer, Alois Kofler, Michl Laimer, Hans Berger, Werner Frick, Rosa Maria Thaler-Zelger, Franz Pahl, Roland Atz, Seppl Lamprecht, Bruno Hosp, Herbert Denicolò, Hanspeter Munter, Richard Theiner, Siegfried Messner, Martha Stocker, Walter Baumgartner, Arthur Feichter, Hermann Thaler, Albert Pürgstaller, Martina Ladurner; AN-I Liberali: Giorgio Holzmann, Mauro Minniti, Alessandro Urzì; Il Centro-UDA: Luigi Cigolla; Verdi-Grüne-Verc: Christina Kury, Alessandra Zendron; Union für Südtirol: Eva Klotz, Andreas Pöder; Unitalia-FT: Donato Seppi; Lista Civica-FI-CCD: Antonino Lo Sciuto; Ladins-DPS: Carlo Willeit; die Freiheitlichen: Pius Leitner; Popolari-AA Domani: Michele Di Puppo; Progetto Centrosinistra/Mitte-Links-Projekt: Luisa Gnecchi.

The President of the South Tyrolese Assembly is Alessandra Zendron (Grün Alternative Fraktion), and the Vice-President is Hermann Thaler (SVP). The other members of the Presidency are Arthur Feichter, Hanspeter Munter and Albert Pürgstaller (all SVP)