Aosta Valley (political coalition)


Aosta Valley is a regionalist coalition of parties active in Aosta Valley, Italy.
Vallée d'Aoste or Pour la Vallée d'Aoste are the banners under which the Valdostan Union takes part to Italian general elections, along with minor allies, which had changed from time to time. Since its foundation in 1992, the list has won most of the races for both houses of the Italian Parliament.
The original allies of the UV within VdA were the Progressive Democratic Autonomists, formed at the merger of the Popular Democrats and the Progressive Valdostan Union. In 2006 the UV, Edelweiss and the Autonomist Federation formed a coalition also in regional government. After a transitional period during which the UV-led coalition was reshuffled four times, in the 2018 general election VdA was composed of the UV, the new Progressive Valdostan Union, the Democratic Party and the Valdostan Autonomist Popular Edelweiss.

Recent history

In the 2006 general election an alternative, centre-left coalition called Autonomy Liberty Democracy was formed as Valdostan Renewal, a split from the UV, had joined forces with the Democrats of the Left and minor parties. In the election the UV-led coalition, named at the time Autonomy Progress Federalism Aosta Valley, was soundly defeated in both races for the Italian Parliament for the first time since 1972, when the UVP joined forces with the Italian Communist Party. In the election for the Valdostan seat in the Chamber of Deputies Marco Viérin lost 43.4% to 30.7% to Roberto Nicco, while in the Senate race incumbent senator Augusto Rollandin was defeated 44.2% to 32.0% by Carlo Perrin.
The UV, SA and the FA presented again the list, simply named Vallée d'Aoste, in the 2008 general election. Antonio Fosson defeated incumbent senator Perrin 41.4% to 37.4%, while Ego Perron was narrowly defeated by incumbent deputy Nicco, who had joined the newly-formed Democratic Party, 39.1% to 37.8%. After two years of absence, the coalition made thus its return to the Italian Parliament. Under a new electoral law, which included coalitions and a majority premium for the winning coalition, VdA ran together also in the 2008 regional election, gaining 62.0% of the vote and a stable majority in the Regional Council.
In the 2013 general election VdA elected both MPs from Aosta Valley: Albert Lanièce defeated Patrizia Morelli 37.0% to 30.8% for the Senate, while Rudi Marguerettaz defeated both Jean Pierre Guichardaz and Laurent Viérin. In the 2013 regional election the coalition won 47.9% of the vote and narrowly retained its absolute majority in the Regional Council. Only the UV and SA obtained elects, while the FA soon folded and most of its members joined the UV, through a short-lived party named "Create VdA".
In July 2015 the regional government, led by Augusto Rollandin since 2008, was enlarged to the centre-left PD. In June 2016, after months of negotiations, the government was joined also by the UVP. In March 2017 the UVP, SA, Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology and For Our Valley formed a new government without the UV, under President Pierluigi Marquis. In October Marquis resigned and was replaced by L. Viérin at the head of a coalition composed of the UV, the UVP, the PD and the Valdostan Autonomist Popular Edelweiss, the latter formed by a pro-UV group of splinters from SA who had not endorsed Marquis' government in the first place.
In the 2018 general election VdA, also known as Tradition and Progress, was composed of the UV, the UVP, the PD and the EPAV, as the regional government. The candidate for the Senate was Lanièce, that for the Chamber Alessia Favre. Lanièce was re-elected to the Senate with 25.8% against 23.2% of his closest opponent, Luciano Mossa of the Five Star Movement, while Favre obtained 21.7% of the vote and that was not enough to beat Elisa Tripodi of the M5S, who was thus elected to the Chamber. It marked the first time that a candidate not supported by a regionalist candidate won.

Member parties

For the 2018 general election, the coalition was composed of the following parties:

Electoral results

Italian Parliament