The 2009 European Parliament election 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 from its establishment in 1946 to 1994, therefore it was also adopted to elect the Italian members of the European Parliament (MEPs) since 1979. Two levels were introduced: a national level to divide the seats among parties and a constituency level to distribute them among candidates in open lists. Five constituencies were established, each including 2–5 Italian regions and each electing a fixed number of MEPs. At national level, seats are divided between party lists using the largest remainder method with Hare quota. Seats are allocated to parties and then to their most voted candidates.

In the run-up of the election, the Italian Parliament introduced a national electoral threshold of 4% in the electoral law for the European Parliament. An exception was granted for parties representing some linguistic minorities as such lists can be connected with one of the major parties, combining their votes, provided that those parties reach the 4% threshold and that candidates from minority parties obtain a sufficient number of votes, no less than 50,000 for the main candidate.

Constituencies

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 RegionAdministrative RegionsSeatsNorth-WestAosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont21North-EastEmilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto15CentralLatium, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria15SouthernAbruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise15IslandsSardinia, Sicily6

Main parties and leaders

Outgoing MEPs This is a list of Italian delegations sitting at the European Parliament before 6 June 2009. EP GroupSeatsPartyMEPsForza Italia 20 Union of the Centre 2Pensioners' Party 1 South Tyrolean People's Party 1Socialist GroupDemocratic Party (former DS)12Socialist Party4Democratic Left3Independents2Union for Europe of the NationsNational Alliance 8Northern League 3The Right1Independent1Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for EuropeDemocratic Party (former DL) 4Bonino List 2Party of the South 1European United Left–Nordic Green Left5Party of Italian Communists 2 Non-InscritsTricolour Flame 1New Force 1Independent 1Greens–European Free AllianceFederation of the Greens 2

Summary of parties In the following table the main parties/lists participating in the election are listed.

PartyMain ideologyLeaderEuropean PartySeats The People of Freedom Liberal conservatism Silvio Berlusconi EPP Democratic Party Social democracy Dario Franceschini None Left and Freedom Eco-socialism Several PESEGP Communist Refoundation – Italian Communists Communism Several PEL Northern League Regionalism Umberto Bossi None Union of the Centre Christian democracy Pier Ferdinando Casini EPP Bonino-Pannella List Radicalism Marco Pannella ALDE The Autonomy Several SeveralLibertas South Tyrolean People's Party Regionalism Richard Theiner EPP Tricolour Flame Neo-fascism Luca Romagnoli None New Force Neo-fascism Roberto Fiore None Italy of Values Anti-corruption politics Antonio Di Pietro ALDE Aosta Valley Regionalism Several None

Results The parties that passed the national electoral threshold at 4% were The People of Freedom (PdL), Democratic Party (PD), Northern League (LN), Italy of Values (IdV), and Union of the Centre (UdC). This election was a victory for the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: the parties supporting his government (the PDL and LN) won 38 seats, while the opposition (PD, IdV, and UdC) obtained 34 seats. On 1 December 2009, after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the Italian seats in the European Parliament increased from 72 to 73. The additional seat was assigned to the UdC, going from 5 to 6 seats.

+ ← Summary of the 6 and 7 June 2009 European Parliament election results in Italy → Party EP group Votes % +/– Seats +/– The People of Freedom (PdL) EPP 10,797,296 35.26 1.35 4 Democratic Party (PD) S&D 7,999,476 26.12 4.96 3 Northern League (LN) EFD 3,126,181 10.21 5.25 5 Italy of Values (IdV) ALDE 2,450,643 8.00 5.86 5 Union of the Centre (UdC) EPP 1,995,021 6.51 0.62 0 Communist Refoundation – Italian Communists (PRC–PdCI) – 1,037,862 3.39 5.09 7 Left and Freedom (SeL) – 957,822 3.13 – 2 Two seats lost by the Federation of the Greens Bonino-Pannella List (LBP) – 743,284 2.43 0.18 2 The Autonomy – 681,290 2.22 – 1 One seat lost by the Pensioners' Party Tricolour Flame (FT) – 246,403 0.80 0.07 1 Workers' Communist Party (PCL) – 166,531 0.54 New New New Force (FN) – 147,343 0.48 – 0 South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)List connected with the Democratic Party EPP 143,509 0.47 0.02 0 Liberal Democrats – MAIE (LD–MAIE) – 71,067 0.23 New New Aosta Valley (VdA)List connected with The People of Freedom – 32,913 0.11 – 0 Autonomy Liberty Democracy (ALD)List connected with Italy of Values – 27,199 0.09 New New Valid votes 30,623,840 92.79 Blank and Invalid votes 2,125,164 7.21 Totals 32,749,004 100.00 — 6 Electorate and voter turnout 50,342,153 65.05 Source: Ministry of the Interior

See also 2009 European Parliament election in Aosta Valley 2009 European Parliament election in Friuli-Venezia Giulia 2009 European Parliament election in Lombardy 2009 European Parliament election in Piedmont 2009 European Parliament election in Sardinia 2009 European Parliament election in Sicily 2009 European Parliament election in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol

References