Italian election of European Parliament, 2004
|
|
|
|
| 78 seats to the European Parliament |
| |
First party |
Second party |
| |
 |
 |
| Leader |
Romano Prodi |
Silvio Berlusconi |
| Party |
The Olive Tree |
FI |
| Leader since |
13 June 2004 |
26 January 1994 |
| Last election |
totally 33.2% |
25.2% |
| Seats before |
29 |
22 |
| Seats won |
24 |
16 |
| Seat change |
-5 |
-6 |
| Popular vote |
10,105,836 |
6,806,245 |
| Percentage |
31.1% |
20.9% |
| Swing |
-2.1% |
-4.3% |
|
Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on 12 and 13 June 2004. Italy's highly fragmented party system made it hard to identify an overall trend, but the results were generally seen as a defeat for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a victory for the centre-left opposition coalition identified with Romano Prodi, who was President of the European Commission until 2004, and was widely expected to re-enter Italian politics at the next election.
The common list of the Olive Tree, comprising mainly the Democrats of the Left and Daisy-Democracy is Freedom became the largest list, with an important psychological effect. However, expectations for this list were originally somewhat larger, and Massimo D'Alema had proclaimed that "If the unity list reaches 33%, the government has to go".
While the Unity list wasn't so phenomenal, the test indicated a somewhat reduced support for the centre-right coalition. However, in European elections, Italians tend to vote in a more "light-hearted" way, giving their vote more easily to a candidate outside their usual party; this generally reduces the significance of these elections.
[edit] Results
| Registered voters: |
49,804,087 |
100.0% |
|
| Turnout: |
35,717,655 |
71.7% |
|
| Valid votes: |
32,516,246 |
65.3% |
|
| Party |
Votes |
% |
Change |
Seats |
Change |
| United in the Olive Tree |
10,105,836 |
31.1 |
-2.1 |
24 |
-5 |
| —included Democrats of the Left (DS / PES) |
|
|
|
14 |
-1 |
| —included The Daisy (DL / EDP) |
|
|
|
7 |
-4 |
| —included Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI / PES) |
|
|
|
2 |
= |
| —included European Republican Movement (MRE / ELDR) |
|
|
|
1 |
= |
| South Tyrolese People's Party (SVP / EPP)¹ |
146,357 |
0.5 |
-0.0 |
1 |
= |
| Forza Italia (FI / EPP) |
6,806,245 |
20.9 |
-4.3 |
16 |
-6 |
| National Alliance (AN / UEN) |
3,736,606 |
11.5 |
+1.2 |
9 |
= |
| Communist Refoundation Party (PRC / EUL-NGL) |
1,969,776 |
6.1 |
+1.8 |
5 |
+1 |
| Union of Christian Democrats (UDC / EPP) |
1,914,726 |
5.9 |
+1.2 |
5 |
+1 |
| Lega Nord (LN / UEN) |
1,613,506 |
5.0 |
+0.5 |
4 |
= |
| Federation of the Greens (Verdi / Green-EFA) |
803,356 |
2.5 |
+0.7 |
2 |
= |
| Party of Italian Communists (PDCI / EUL-NGL) |
787,613 |
2.4 |
+0.4 |
2 |
= |
| Emma Bonino List (Radicali / Ind) |
731,536 |
2.3 |
-6.2 |
2 |
-5 |
| Civil Society of Di Pietro - Occhetto (IdV / ELDR) |
695,179 |
2.1 |
+2.1 |
2 |
+2 |
| Socialists United for Europe (NPSI / Ind) |
664,463 |
2.0 |
+1.9 |
2 |
+2 |
| Populars-UDEUR (UDEUR / EPP) |
419,173 |
1.3 |
-0.3 |
1 |
= |
| Social Alternative (AS / Ind) |
400,626 |
1.2 |
+1.2 |
1 |
+1 |
| Pensioners' Party (Pensionati / EPP) |
374,343 |
1.2 |
+0.4 |
1 |
= |
| Tricolour Flame (FT / Ind) |
237,058 |
0.7 |
-0.9 |
1 |
= |
| Others |
1,270,993 |
3.3 |
|
— |
| Total |
32,516,246 |
|
|
78 |
-9 |
¹ United in the Olive Tree run in coalition with SVP in North-Eastern Italy. Michl Ebner of the SVP was so elected thanks to the electoral law provisions protecting ethnic minorities.
The five constituencies for European elections
Seats are allocated to party lists on a national basis using an electoral quota, with the residue given to the lists with the largest excess over whole quotas. An electoral quota is then calculated for each list and used to allocate seats to each list in each of the five electoral regions.
| Electoral Region |
Administrative Regions |
Seats |
| North-West |
Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont |
23 |
| North-East |
Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto |
15 |
| Central |
Latium, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria |
16 |
| Southern |
Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise |
17 |
| Islands |
Sardinia, Sicily |
7 |
[edit] Members returned
See MEPs for Italy 2004 - 2009 for a national list in alphabetical order.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
