European elections in Italy 2009

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 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

35.26

26.12

10.21

8.00

6.51

3.39

3.13

2.43

2.22

2.73

PdL ^a

PD ^b

LN

IdV

UdC

PRC ^f

SEL ^g

LBP ^h

LA ⁱ

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to

 % p

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

-1.64

-4.96

+5.25

+5.86

+0.62

-5.09

+0.66

+0.18

+1.07

-1.95

PdL ^a

PD ^b

LN

IdV

UdC

PRC ^f

SEL ^g

LBP ^h

LA ⁱ

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^a merger of FI , AN and other parties

^b 2004 as L'Ulivo

^f Together with PdCI

^g 2004: FdV

^h 2004: LB

ⁱ 2004: PP

The European elections in Italy 2009 took place on June 6th and 7th, 2009. It was part of the EU- wide European elections in 2009 , with 72 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament in Italy . Like the 2004 European elections , the election in Italy lasted two days. The polling stations were open on June 6th between 3pm and 10pm and on June 7th between 7am and 10pm. After the Treaty of Lisbon came into force, another Italian MP moved into parliament.

Electoral system

The five constituencies of Italy

The election took place according to the proportional representation system , whereby for the first time a blocking clause of 4 percent applied nationwide, through which the strong fragmentation of the Italian political landscape should be taken into account.

The country is divided into the following five electoral districts: Italia north-occidentale (north-west Italy: Piedmont , Aostatal , Liguria , Lombardy ), Italia north-orientale ( north- east Italy: Veneto , Trentino-South Tyrol , Friuli-Venezia Giulia , Emilia-Romagna ), Italia centrale (Central Italy: Tuscany , Umbria , Marche , Latium ), Italia meridionale (southern Italy: Abruzzo , Molise , Campania , Apulia , Basilicata , Calabria ) and Italia insulare (islands: Sicily , Sardinia ). Article 2 of the "Law on the Election of Members of the European Parliament" in conjunction with the "Decree of April 1, 2009" specifies a fixed number of seats for these electoral districts. However, due to the two-stage allocation of seats in accordance with Articles 21 and 22, these figures are not adhered to. In a first step, the so-called upper allocation , the nationwide party votes are added together. With the help of the Hare-Niemeyer method with a rounded Hare quota

${\displaystyle \left\lfloor {\frac {\text{Gesamtstimmenzahl}}{\text{Gesamtsitzzahl}}}\right\rfloor }$,

the total number of seats on a state list is determined. In the so-called sub - allotments for each party, the seats to which a party is entitled are allocated to the constituencies using the same procedure. Accordingly, the number of seats in the districts depends on the number of valid votes in the respective districts.

Constituency	actual number of seats	Prescribed number of seats
North Occidentale	21st	19th
North Orientals	15th	13
Italia Centrale	15th	14th
Italia Meridionale	15th	18th
Italia Insulare	6th	8th

According to Article 12 of the Italian electoral law for European elections, minority parties can join a national party. In the 2009 election has the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) of the Partito Democratico , the party Vallee d'Aoste the Il Popolo della Libertà connected and the autonomy liberté et démocratie the Italy of Values connected. Furthermore, according to Article 22, a minority party is guaranteed a seat if its strongest candidate can garner at least 50,000 votes. In the 2009 election, Herbert Dorfmann (SVP) achieved this with 84,361 votes.

Starting position

In the 2004 European elections, 78 parliamentarians were elected in Italy. Since then, however, the Italian party landscape has changed profoundly: on the left as well as on the right side of the political spectrum, there have been foundations and party mergers.

The 78 previous MPs were distributed as follows:

• L'Ulivo 31.08%, 24 seats - including 12 MEPs from the Left Democrats ( Group : PES ), 7 from La Margherita ( ALDE ), 2 from the Socialisti Democratici Italiani (SPE), 1 from the Movimento Repubblicani Europei (ALDE), 1 from the South Tyrolean People's Party ( EPP-ED ) and 2 independent MPs (SPE)
• Forza Italia 20.93%, 16 seats ( EVP-ED )
• Alleanza Nazionale 11.49%, 9 seats ( UEN )
• Rifondazione Comunista 6.06%, 5 seats ( GUE-NGL )
• Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro 5.89%, 5 seats (EPP-ED)
• Lega Nord 4.96%, 4 seats ( Ind / Dem , later UEN )
• Federazione dei Verdi 2.47%, 2 seats ( Greens-EFA )
• Partito dei Comunisti Italiani , 2.42%, 2 seats ( GUE-NGL )
• Radicali Italiani , 2.25%, 2 seats ( ALDE )
• Italia dei Valori , 2.14%, 2 seats (ALDE, SPE)
• Nuovo PSI , 2.04%, 2 seats (EVP-ED)
• Popolari UDEUR , 1.29%, 1 seat (EVP-ED)
• Alternativea Sociale , 1.23%, 1 seat ( non-attached )
• Partito Pensionati , 1.15%, 1 seat (EVP-ED)
• Fiamma Tricolore , 0.73%, 1 seat (non-attached, temporarily ITS in 2007 )

Since then the following changes have occurred:

• The parties that entered the Ulivo electoral alliance in 2004 (with the exception of the South Tyrolean People's Party ) have joined forces to form the newly founded Partito Democratico (PD). However, the Sinistra Democratica (3 MEPs from the PES group) split off from it later . The PD MPs remained in their respective parliamentary groups to which they had belonged before the unification of the party; their assignment after the 2009 European elections is still open.

• Forza Italia , Alleanza Nazionale and UDEUR have united with a few other small parties without representatives in the European Parliament to form the new Popolo della Libertà (PdL).

• The Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro consists of only two MEPs after several party withdrawals and is now called Unione di Centro (UdC) after being united with a few other small parties .

• The two Members of the Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano joined the PES Group in 2007 and joined the newly formed Partito Socialista . (The old NPSI, however, joined the PdL.)

Campaigning parties

While the larger parties came up with their own lists, several of the other parties had formed electoral alliances to increase their chances of overcoming the 4 percent hurdle.

Party lists have:

• Popolo della Libertà (PdL), member of the European People's Party (EPP)
• Partito Democratico (PD)
• Lega Nord (LN)
• Italia dei Valori (IdV), member of the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR)
• Unione di Centro (UdC), member of the EPP
• Radicali Italiani (RI), member of ELDR

The electoral alliances were:

• Lista Anticapitalista (PRC-PdCI), includes the left-wing parties Rifondazione Comunista (PRC, member of the European Left ), Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI), Consumatori Uniti (CU) and Socialismo 2000
• Sinistra e Libertà (SL), includes the moderate left-wing parties Federazione dei Verdi (Verdi, member of the European Greens ), Partito Socialista (PS, member of the Social Democratic Party of Europe ), Movimento per la Sinistra (MpS), Sinistra Democratica (SD) and Unire la Sinistra
• L'Autonomia (Aut.), Includes the conservative parties La Destra , Movimento per le Autonomie (MpA), Partito Pensionati (PP, member of the European Democrats ) and Alleanza di Centro (AdC)

A number of other smaller and regionalist parties also competed.

Political run-up to the election

The run-up to the 2009 European elections in Italy was dominated by national issues, in particular by several scandals surrounding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . For example, he supported several good-looking young women with no political experience in putting up the PdL list candidates at the end of April 2008, but dropped most of them after his wife Veronica Lario had publicly criticized him for this. Berlusconi then accused Lario of being manipulated by left-wing media. A little later, Lario publicly announced the divorce after Berlusconi appeared at the birthday party of 18-year-old model Noemi Letizia . As there were different public representations about the relationship between Berlusconi and Letizia, the Italian opposition finally called for a parliamentary debate on the subject at the end of May. In the days leading up to the election, there was also a scandal over photographs of Berlusconi and others with scantily clad young women in the Prime Minister's garden. Berlusconi had their publication prohibited by a court in Italy, but shortly afterwards they were published on the Internet by the Spanish newspaper El País and then taken up by the Italian La Repubblica . Berlusconi then criticized the publication, but stated that the content of the photographs was "harmless".

Survey

Institute	date	source	PdL	PD	LN	IdV	UdC	LA	SL	PdA	wheel	Others
IPR	02/27/2009	[2]	36.0	22.0	9.5	8.0	8.0	3.0	6.0	3.0	1.0	3.5
Crespi	03/06/2009	[3]	38.5	23.5	11.0	8.0	7.0	4.0	3.3	4.0	2.3	1.5
Digis	03/14/2009	[4]	39.7	24.0	11.0	8.5	6.0	3.8	2.5	2.5	k. A.	2.0
Euromedia	03/14/2009	[5]	42.1	22.5	9.1	7.5	5.5	4.6	2.1	k. A.	k. A.	6.6
Digis	03/21/2009	[6]	39.5	24.2	11.0	8.3	5.8	4.0	2.7	2.5	k. A.	2.0
Euromedia	03/23/2009	[7]	43.1	22.4	10.7	7.3	5.0	4.9	2.3	2.1	1.3	0.8
Digis	03/28/2009	[8th]	40.8	24.8	10.2	8.0	6.0	4.5	2.0	2.5	np	1.2
Digis	04/10/2009	[9]	40.5	25.0	10.3	7.8	6.0	4.5	2.0	2.7	k. A.	1.2
Digis	04/18/2009	[10]	40.0	25.0	10.5	7.7	5.8	4.6	2.2	2.9	k. A.	1.3
Ipsos	April 20, 2009	[11]	39.5	26.2	9.7	9.2	5.6	3.3	3.0	k. A.	k. A.	3.5
Crespi	April 20, 2009	[12]	43.0	24.0	9.0	6.0	5.0	4.2	2.5	3.7	1.2	1.4
Digis	04/26/2009	[13]	39.8	25.3	10.6	8.2	5.8	4.1	2.1	2.8	k. A.	1.3
Termometro pol.	04/26/2009	[14]	39.8	26.9	9.7	5.9	6.0	2.1	2.8	3.8	k. A.	3.0
Demopolis	04/28/2009	[15]	41.0	26.0	9.5	7.5	6.5	2.5	3.0	3.0	k. A.	1.0
Termometro pol.	04/29/2009	[16]	38.1	25.4	10.3	7.3	6.1	2.7	3.4	3.7	k. A.	3.0
Crespi	30/04/2009	[17]	41.5	25.0	10.0	7.0	5.7	2.8	2.2	3.8	1.0	1.0
PoliticaLink	05/01/2009	[18]	39.2	26.8	10.0	7.5	6.0	3.5	2.7	3.2	1.0	3.1
Digis	05/02/2009	[19]	40.2	25.0	10.4	8.4	5.8	4.0	2.7	2.2	k. A.	1.2
Termometro pol.	07/05/2009	[20]	37.4	26.9	9.8	7.7	5.6	2.7	3.1	3.5	k. A.	3.4
PoliticaLink	07/05/2009	[21]	38.5	27.0	10.5	7.2	6.0	3.9	2.8	2.8	0.5	0.3
Digis	05/10/2009	[22]	40.1	25.0	9.5	8.2	6.0	3.5	3.0	3.0	1.0	0.7
Istituto Demopolis	05/13/2009	[23]	40.0	25.5	10.5	7.5	6.0	3.2	2.8	3.5	k. A.	1.0
Termometro Politico	05/14/2009	[24]	39.8	26.5	9.5	6.6	5.3	3.0	1.9	3.7	1.1	k. A.
Crespi Ricerche	05/11/2009	[25]	41.0	25.5	10.0	7.0	6.0	3.0	2.2	3.5	1.0	0.5
Istituto Piepoli Spa	05/11/2009	[26]	41.0	29.5	8.5	7.0	5.5	3.0	k. A.	k. A.	k. A.	5.5

Election result

Party name	Nationwide number of votes	Nationwide number of seats
IL POPOLO DELLA LIBERTA '	10,797,296	29
PARTITO DEMOCRATICO	7,999,476	21st
LEGA NORD	3,126,181	9
DI PIETRO IT. VALORI	2,450,643	7th
UNIONE DI CENTRO	1,995,021	5
SVP	143.509	1
another eight parties	4,049,147	-

The itemized election results for the five districts are available on the website of the Italian Ministry of the Interior. However, the figures published there do not add up to the figures for the entire electoral area.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Article 1, law of 20 February 2009, no.10
3. ↑  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Art. 21 (1–3) and Art. 22 (3), Legge 24 Gennaio 1979, n. 18 (gu n. 029 del 30/01/1979) elezione dei rappresentanti dell'Italia al Parlamento Europeo [in Italian]. ] (PDF; 192 kB)  
4. ↑  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Decreto del 1º aprile 2009 [in Italian].] (PDF; 167 kB)  
5. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 30, 2009: Die Polit-Luder des Government Heads ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. as well as just a “shameless bitch” for Berlusconi ( memento of the original from June 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
6. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 25, 2009: Berlusconi, the model and the "lie" ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
7. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 5, 2009: Berlusconi and the Tanga photos: "Harmless" ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; El País , June 5, 2009: Berlusconi califica de "inocentes" las fotos de sus fiestas publicadas en EL PAÍS (in Spanish). 
8. ↑ PRC (2.5%) and PdCI (0.5%) collected separately.
9. ↑ SD (2.0%), Verdi (1.5%), PS (1.5%) and RpS (1.0%) were recorded separately.
10. ↑ La Destra (2.0%) and MpA (1.0%) surveyed separately.
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Including Fiamma Tricolore .
12. ↑ ^{a b} La Destra (1.5%) and MpA (1.0%) collected separately.
13. ↑ Fiamma Tricolore only .
14. ^ Official election result Ministero dell'Interno