2004 European Parliament election in Italy

2004 European Parliament election in Italy
outgoing members elected members
	All 78 Italian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	71.72 ( 1.99 pp)
	Major party in each Province.

The 2004 European Parliament election in Italy was held 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 The Daisy 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 Olive Tree's performance was not as phenomenal as it had hoped, the test indicated a somewhat reduced support for the centre-right coalition. However, in European elections, Italians tend to vote in a more candidate-oriented way, giving their vote more easily to a candidate outside their usual party; this generally reduces the significance of these elections.

Electoral system

The pure 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.

Main parties and leaders

Outgoing MEPs

	Seats	Party	MEPs
European People's Party–European Democrats	34 / 87
		Forza Italia	22
		Union of Christian and Centre Democrats	4
		The Daisy	4
		Union of Democrats for Europe	2
		Pensioners' Party	1
		South Tyrolean People's Party	1
Socialist Group in the European Parliament	16 / 87
		Democrats of the Left	15
		Italian Democratic Socialists	1
Union for Europe of the Nations	10 / 87
		National Alliance	9
		Segni Pact	1
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group	8 / 87
		The Daisy	4
		Italy of Values	2
		European Republicans Movement	1
		New Italian Socialist Party	1
European United Left–Nordic Green Left	6 / 87
		Communist Refoundation Party	4
		Party of Italian Communists	2
Greens–European Free Alliance	2 / 87	Federation of the Greens	2
Non-Inscrits	11 / 87
		Bonino List	7
		Northern League	3
		Independent	1

Summary of parties

A poster showing party lists for the 2004 European Parliament election

	Main ideology	Leader	European party	Outgoing MEPs
The Olive Tree Democrats of the Left (DS) Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL) Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) European Republicans Movement (MRE)	Several Social democracy Social liberalism Social democracy Social liberalism	Romano Prodi Piero Fassino Francesco Rutelli Enrico Boselli Luciana Sbarbati	Several PES EDP PES ELDR	25 / 78
Forza Italia (FI)	Liberal conservatism	Silvio Berlusconi	EPP	22 / 78
National Alliance (AN)	National conservatism	Gianfranco Fini	AEN	9 / 78
Bonino List	Libertarianism	Emma Bonino	None	7 / 78
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC)	Christian democracy	Pier Ferdinando Casini	EPP	4 / 78
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)	Communism	Fausto Bertinotti	PEL	4 / 78
Northern League (LN)	Regionalism	Umberto Bossi	None	3 / 78
Party of Italian Communists (PdCI)	Communism	Oliviero Diliberto	PEL	2 / 78
Federation of the Greens (FdV)	Green politics	Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio	EGP	2 / 78
Di Pietro–Occhetto List	Populism	Antonio Di Pietro Achille Occhetto	None	2 / 78
Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR)	Christian democracy	Clemente Mastella	EPP	2 / 78
United Socialists for Europe	Social democracy	Gianni De Michelis Claudio Signorile	None	1 / 78
Pensioners' Party (PP)	Pensioners' interests	Carlo Fatuzzo	ED	1 / 78
Tricolour Flame (FT)	Neo-fascism	Luca Romagnoli	None	0 / 78
Social Alternative (AS)	Neo-fascism	Alessandra Mussolini	None	0 / 78

Results

← Summary of the 13 June 2004 European Parliament election results in Italy →
Party			EP group	Main candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
		The Olive Tree Democrats of the Left (DS) Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL) Independent candidates Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) European Republicans Movement (MRE)	PES ALDE PES PES ALDE	Lilli Gruber	10,105,836	31.08	1.53	24 12 7 2 2 1	3 4 0 2 New
		South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)	EPP-ED	Michl Ebner	146,357	0.45	0.05	1	0
		Federalism (Valdostan Union – others)	None		29,598	0.09	0.04	0	0
	Total		Mixed		10,281,791	31.62	2.62	25	2
	Forza Italia (FI)		EPP-ED	Silvio Berlusconi	6,806,245	20.93	4.23	16	6
	National Alliance (AN)		UEN	Gianfranco Fini	3,736,606	11.49	1.19	9	1
	Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)		GUE/NGL	Fausto Bertinotti	1,969,776	6.06	1.79	5	1
	Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC)		EPP-ED	Salvatore Cuffaro	1,914,726	5.89	1.14	5	1
	Northern League (LN)		IND/DEM	Umberto Bossi	1,613,506	4.96	0.48	4	0
	Federation of the Greens (FdV)		Greens/EFA	Sepp Kusstatscher	803,356	2.47	0.71	2	0
	Party of Italian Communists (PdCI)		GUE/NGL	Oliviero Diliberto	787,613	2.42	0.42	2	0
	Bonino List (LB)		ALDE	Emma Bonino	731,536	2.25	6.20	2	5
	Italy of Values (IdV)		ALDE	Antonio Di Pietro	695,179	2.14	New	2	New
	United Socialists for Europe (SUE)		NI	Gianni De Michelis	664,463	2.04	New	2	New
	Popular Alliance – UDEUR (AP–UDEUR)		EPP-ED	Clemente Mastella	419,173	1.29	0.32	1	0
	Social Alternative (LdA – FN – FSN)		NI	Alessandra Mussolini	400,626	1.23	New	1	New
	Pensioners' Party (PP)		EPP-ED	Carlo Fatuzzo	374,343	1.15	0.40	1	0
	Tricolour Flame (FT)		NI	Luca Romagnoli	237,058	0.73	0.87	1	0
	Italian Republican Party – The Liberals Sgarbi (PRI–LS)		ALDE		233,144	0.72	0.18	0	1
	Segni-Scognamiglio Pact (PSS)		None		172,556	0.53	—	0	1
	LAL – LFV – PSd'Az – UfS		None		160,101	0.49	—	0	0
	Consumers' List (LC)		None		160,066	0.49	New	0	New
	Abolizione Scorporo (Greens Greens – Federalist Greens)		None		158,988	0.49	New	0	New
	New Country (PN)		None		78,003	0.24	New	0	New
	No Euro (NE)		None		70,220	0.22	New	0	New
	Social Idea Movement (MIS)		None		47,171	0.15	New	0	New
Valid votes					32,516,246	91.04
Blank and Invalid votes					3,201,256	8.96
Totals					35,717,655	100.00	—	78	—
Electorate and voter turnout					49,804,087	71.72
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Popular vote

Ulivo			31.1%
FI			20.9%
AN			11.5%
PRC			6.1%
UDC			5.9%
LN			5.0%
FdV			2.5%
PdCI			2.4%
Bonino			2.2%
IdV			2.1%
SUE			2.0%
UDEUR			1.3%
AS			1.2%
PP			1.1%
Others			4.7%

Seats

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

References

External links

European Election News by European Election Law Association (Eurela)