First term

On 23 November 2014, he won the regional election in Emilia-Romagna with 49.1% of the votes, defeating the centre-right candidate Alan Fabbri and becoming the 9th President of the region.^[19]

On 20 July 2015, Bonaccini signed so-called the "Pact for Labour", a deal between regional government, trade unions and entrepreneurs, to relaunch employment in the region.^[20] The Pact allocated, in almost five years, more than 22 billion euros.^[21]

On 17 December 2015, Bonaccini was elected President of the Conference of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, replacing Piedmontese President Sergio Chiamparino, who resigned a few weeks before.^[22] While on 12 December 2016, he was elected president of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the largest organisation of local and regional governments in Europe.^[23]

Since 2014, the regional government cut the waiting lists for patients and exams in health and opened many "health houses" for proximity medicine. Moreover, Emilia-Romagna was the first region in Italy to abolish the so-called superticket and started a drastic reduction of the fees for the nests.^[24]

In 2017 and 2018, Bonaccini's government implemented a policy aimed to increase the political and fiscal autonomy of Emilia-Romagna.^[25] Bonaccini stated: "We have activated the path towards a greater regional autonomy to better face the challenges of change. We want an autonomy that respects the Constitution, national unity and solidarity between territories, which are principles that are absolutely inviolable for us, but capable of improving relations between central administration and local autonomies. Above all, we need an autonomy to strengthen investment planning, to streamline and simplify procedures, to make our services for citizens and businesses even more efficient and effective."^[26]

During his first term, Emilia-Romagna lived a period of economic prosperity. Unemployment went down from 9% in 2014, to 4.8% in 2019, while the employment rate rose to 71%, the highest in the country.^[27] The region was also the first one in Italy for GDP growth from 2014 to 2019^[28] and the first region for export "per capita".^[29]

2020 regional election

Despite Emilia-Romagna having always been considered one of the "red regions" – a stronghold of left-wing parties since the end of the World War II – due to the right-wing surge in the country, the 2020 regional election was considered as the first competitive one in the history of the region.^[30] Bonaccini was confirmed the centre-left candidate at the head of a coalition including the PD and its left-wing allies of Free and Equal (LeU) and Green Europe (EV), as well as More Europe (+Eu).^[31][32] Bonaccini also launched a personal civic list, named "Bonaccini for President", which included, among others, members from Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV), Carlo Calenda's Action and Federico Pizzarotti's Italia in Comune (IiC).^[33]

The centre-right proposed Senator Lucia Borgonzoni, member of the League (Lega) and former undersecretary to cultural activities in Giuseppe Conte's first government.^[34] The centre-right coalition included also Brothers of Italy (FdI), Forza Italia (FI) and Cambiamo! (C!).^[35]

During the campaign, Bonaccini claimed the results achieved by his administration (including the "Pact for Labour" of 2015),^[36] and proposed four priority points summed up into the slogan "A step forward": to create free kindergartens for all children in the region, to break down the waiting lists for health interventions and access times to first aid, to carry out preventive maintenance and safety of the regional territory, and to reduce the phenomenon of NEET.^[37]

The electoral campaign was characterized by a massive presence of the League's leader, Matteo Salvini, who aimed to win in Emilia-Romagna to tear down the government. However, his campaign led to the birth of the Sardines movement, a grassroots political movement,^[38][39] which organized a series of peaceful demonstrations to protest against the right-wing surge in the country and, more specifically, against the political rhetoric of Salvini.^[40]

On 26 January, Bonaccini was re-elected to a second term, with more than 51% of votes, against 43% of Borgonzoni.^[41] The centre-left alliance scored particularly well in Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ravenna, where Bonaccini approached or even overcame the 60% of votes.^[42]

COVID-19 pandemic

In March 2020, Italy was severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic and Emilia-Romagna became one of the most affected regions. As of March 2021, Emilia-Romagna had more than 276,000 cases and 10,000 deaths were confirmed.

On 4 March, when Emilia-Romagna's regional minister of health, Raffaele Donini, was declared positive for COVID-19,^[43] Governor Bonaccini appointed Sergio Venturi as Extraordinary Commissioner for the emergency.^[44] Venturi served as regional minister oh health from 2014 to 2020.^[45]

On 9 March 2020, the government of Italy under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a national quarantine, restricting the movement of the population except for necessity, work, and health circumstances in the whole country.^[46] On 16 March, Bonaccini imposed a strengthened quarantine on the municipality of Medicina, near Bologna, since it had developed an intense outbreak. People were not allowed to enter or exit the town for any reason.^[47] While on 21 March, he closed supermarkets during the weekends.^[48] On 18 May, the lockdown officially ended.^[49]

On 1 November 2020, Bonaccini tested positive for COVID-19, amid a pandemic resurgence in the country.^[50] On 13 November, he was hospitalized with a bilateral pneumonia and discharged after a few days.^[51]

In March 2021, when his region was heavily hit by a third wave of the pandemic, Bonaccini imposed red zones in the provinces of Bologna, Modena and in many municipalities through Romagna.^[52]

2023 Democratic Party leadership run and party presidency

Following the resignation of Enrico Letta as secretary of the Democratic Party after the 2022 Italian general election, Bonaccini was immediately touted as a potential candidate for the party leadership. On 20 November 2022, Bonaccini formally announced his candidacy as leader of the Democratic Party. In the 2023 PD leadership election, Bonaccini won the first round, achieving 52.87% among party members, but eventually lost to his former deputy Elly Schlein in the open primary election on 26 February 2023. He was successively named as the new party president on 12 March 2023, following an agreement between him and Schlein.

On 21 and 22 July, during a two-days convention in Cesena, Bonaccini launched his own political faction, named People's Energy, from the slogan chosen for the leadership election.^[53]

2023 Emilia-Romagna floods

As a president, Bonaccini had to face one of the deadliest natural events which ever affected the region. In May 2023, a series of floods hit in and around the cities of Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Faenza, Ravenna, and Rimini.^[54] The first floods occurred between 2 and 3 May 2023, killing two people.^[55] More severe floods took place on 16–17 May 2023, killing at least 15 people and displacing 50,000 others.^[56][57][58] The same amount of rain which usually falls in seven months fell in two weeks, causing the overflow of twenty-three rivers across the region.^[59][60] In some areas, almost half the annual average of rain fell in only 36 hours.^[61] Moreover, 400 landslides occurred in the area and 43 cities and towns were flooded.^[62] The provisional cost of the damage caused by the floods amounts to more than €10 billion (US$11 billion).^[63][64]

Bonaccini's request to be named extraordinary commissioner to manage the relief funds,^[65] as was custom among regional presidents in Italy,^[66][67] was opposed by the Meloni government, in particular by Brothers of Italy and Lega;^[68][69] some regional presidents of the centre-right coalition, such as Roberto Occhiuto, Giovanni Toti, and Luca Zaia, sided with Bonaccini.^[70] On 7 June, Meloni hosted a meeting with Bonaccini and other administrators from the affected areas, stating that the emergency would be temporarily managed by an operative table between the national government and local institutions led by Nello Musumeci, the Minister for Civil Protection and Maritime Policies.^[67][71] After weeks of tension within the government and between majority and opposition parties,^[67][68][70] the Meloni cabinet officially appointed army corps general Francesco Paolo Figliuolo as Extraordinary Commissioner for the Reconstruction on 27 June 2023.^[72][73][74]