2009 European Parliament election in Italy

Italian election of European Parliament, 2009

6 and 7 June 2009
72 seats to the European Parliament
First party Second party Third party   Leader Silvio Berlusconi Dario Franceschini Umberto Bossi Party People of Freedom Democratic Party Lega Nord Alliance EPP S&D EFD Leader since 26 January 1994 16 February 2009 4 December 1989 Last election 32,4% 31.1% 5.0% Seats before 25 24 4 Seats won 29 21 9 Seat change 4 3 5 Popular vote 10,797,296 7,999,476 3,126,915 Percentage 35.3% 26.1% 10.2% Swing 2.9% 5.0% 5.2%
Major parties in each Province

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Italy was held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on 18 December 2008. Italy elected 72 members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

Electoral system

The party-list proportional representation was the traditional electoral system of the Italian Republic since its foundation in 1946, so it had been adopted to elect the Italian representatives to the European Parliament too. Two levels were used: a national level to divide seats between parties, and a constituency level to distribute them between candidates. Italian regions were united in 5 constituencies, each electing a group of deputies. At national level, seats were divided between party lists using the largest remainder method with Hare quota. All seats gained by each party were automatically distributed to their local open lists and their most voted candidates.

In the run-up of the election, the Italian Parliament has introduced a national threshold of 4% in the electoral law for the European Parliament.

However, the electoral law guarantees representation for linguistic minorities. The parties which represent minorities can be connected with the major parties for the purpose of elections, combining their votes. If the party of the linguistic minority gets more than 50,000 votes, it wins a seat.

Results

The election was a victory for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The parties supporting the government (The People of Freedom and Lega Nord) won 38 seats, while the opposition (Democratic Party, Italy of Values and Union of the Centre) collectively elected 34 candidates.

After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, the seats of Italy in the European Parliament increased from 72 to 73. The additional seat was assigned to Union of the Centre (that went from 5 to 6 seats).

Party		European group	Main candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
style="background-color:Template:The People of Freedom/meta/color" |	The People of Freedom	EPP	Silvio Berlusconi	10,797,296	35.26	1.35	29 / 72	3
style="background-color:Template:Democratic Party (Italy)/meta/color" |	Democratic Party	S&D	David Sassoli	7,999,476	26.12	4.96	21 / 72	3
style="background-color:Template:Lega Nord/meta/color" |	Lega Nord	EFD	Umberto Bossi	3,126,181	10.21	5.25	9 / 72	5
style="background-color:Template:Italy of Values/meta/color" |	Italy of Values	ALDE	Luigi de Magistris	2,450,643	8.00	5.86	7 / 72	5
	Union of the Centre	EPP	Ciriaco De Mita	1,995,021	6.51	0.62	5 / 72	0
	Anticapitalist and Communist List	GUE/NGL		1,037,862	3.39	5.09	0 / 72	7
style="background-color:Template:Left Ecology Freedom/meta/color" |	Left and Freedom	GUE/NGL		957,822	3.13	New	0 / 72	New
	Bonino-Pannella List	ALDE		743,284	2.43	0.18	0 / 72	2
style="background-color:Template:Movement for Autonomies/meta/color"|	The Autonomy	None		681,290	2.22	New	0 / 72	New
	Tricolour Flame	None		246,403	0.80	0.07	0 / 72	1
	Workers' Communist Party	None		166,531	0.54	New	0 / 72	New
	New Force	None		147,343	0.48	–	0 / 72	0
style="background-color:Template:South Tyrolean People's Party/meta/color" |	South Tyrolean People's Party	EPP	Herbert Dorfmann	143,509	0.47	0.02	1 / 72	0
	Liberal Democrats – Associative Movement Italians Abroad	None		71,067	0.23	New	0 / 72	New
	Aosta Valley (UV - SA - FA)	EPP		32,913	0.11	–	0 / 72	0
	Autonomy Liberty Democracy	None		27,199	0.09	New	0 / 72	New
Valid votes				30,390,070	92.79
Blank and Invalid votes				2,125,164	7.21
Totals				32,749,004	100.00	—	0 / 72	6
Electorate and voter turnout				50,342,153	65.05
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Popular vote PdL   35.26% PD   26.12% LN   10.21% IdV   8.00% UdC   4.38% LCA   3.39% SeL   3.13% Others   7.37%