The latest local elections in Tuscany, with the balloting which ended on Monday 24 June, showed a tendency towards a reduction in the gender gap between male and female mayors: the latter is increasing compared to five years ago. Only history can tell if this is a trend destined to consolidate, certainly the election of the first female mayor in Florence (Sara Funaro, you can read his story here), is a symbolic fact of a certain importance. And if you consider that Ilaria Bugetti was elected in Prato in the first round, here we see how the first two Tuscan cities are now led by women, where previously there were male mayors.
The numbers of women’s growth
With the run-off round which took place on Sunday 23 and Monday 24 June, all the mayors of the 185 Tuscan municipalities voting in this electoral round were elected. Overall, women are increasing compared to the post-2019 election scenario: they go from 18 to 21% if we consider the number of Municipalities; while compared to the population it goes from 11 to 32%. And there are five women who administer cities with inhabitants over 40 thousand inhabitants: Florence, Prato, Carrara, Siena and Scandicci. The average age of all Tuscan mayors today is 53 years. There are 16 people under 35 (equal to 6%), while in 2019 there were 22 (equal to 8). The youngest is 27 years old and administers the Municipality of Vicchio. In total, there are 216 male mayors and 57 female mayors.
The majority of mayors currently in office are in their first term: there are 115, equal to 42%; while 102 are in their second term (37%), 52 in their third (19%) and 4 in their fourth (1%). Focusing the analysis on this last electoral round, the confirmed mayors are 113 (107 in the first round, 6 in the second) equal to 88% of the re-candidates; while those not re-elected are 15. We remind you that mayors in municipalities with 5 thousand to 15 thousand inhabitants could be re-nominated up to the third term; while in those up to 5 thousand there are no limits.
The center-left is still in the majority
As regards the political orientation of the first citizens, 169 are centre-left (62%); 63 center-right (23%); 36 of civic lists (13%); 5 on the left (2%). There are 26 municipalities in which there has been a change in political orientation between 2019 and 2024. Finally, a curiosity: compared to the surnames of the Tuscan mayors there are 27 cases of homonymy: 5 are called Rossi and 2 are called Bacci, Betti, Buti , Conti, Giunti, Guarguaglini, Lunardi, Mugnaini, Ricci, Tagliaferri and Vanni.
