Italian Constitutional Court (Corte costituzionale italiana), No. 275/2014, 5 December 2014

Municipal elections.

Art. 1, par. 2 Constitution
Art. 3, Constitution
Art. 48, par. 2 Constitution
Art. 67, Constitution
Art. 87, par. 1 Decree of the President of the Trentino-Alto Adige Region No. 1, 24/01/1979

1. The Trentino regional legislature has emphasised the link between the mayor and the lists linked to him through the graphic combination, on the ballot paper for the runoff election, between the name of the mayor candidate and the symbols of those lists. In casting his vote for the mayor, the voter's manifestation of will is expressly linked to the lists that support him, and this justifies the dragging effect that the vote for the mayor determines on the lists connected to him with the allocation of the 60 per cent of the seats prize. The mechanism for awarding the prize and the consequent alteration of representation were therefore neither unreasonable nor detrimental to the principle of equality of the vote, but functional to the requirements of governability of the local authority, which in the run-off round come more strongly to the fore.
(With reference to Articles 1, second paragraph, 3, 48, second paragraph, and 67 of the Constitution, the question of the constitutionality of the the question of the constitutionality of Article 87, paragraph 1, letter h), of the contested Decree of the President of the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Region no. 1/L of 1 February 2005, is not founded in the part in which it provides that, in the elections of municipalities with a population of more than 3,000 inhabitants, if the list or coalition of lists linked to the candidate elected mayor has not obtained 60% of the seats on the council, it is assigned, in addition to the mayor's seat, the number of seats necessary to reach that figure).