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 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 2006 Italian general election.

The common list of The Olive Tree (Ulivo), comprising mainly the Democrats of the Left (DS) and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), became the largest list, with an important psychological effect; however, expectations for this list were originally somewhat larger, and Massimo D'Alema had made a proclaim about the fall of the second Berlusconi government ("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. 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.

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, Piedmont23North-EastEmilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto15CentralLatium, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria16SouthernAbruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise17IslandsSardinia, Sicily7

Outgoing MEPs EP GroupSeatsPartyMEPs 22 Union of Christian and Centre Democrats 4Italian People's Party (DL) 4Union of Democrats for Europe 2Pensioners' Party 1 South Tyrolean People's Party 1Socialist Group in the European ParliamentDemocrats of the Left15Italian Democratic Socialists1Union for Europe of the NationsNational Alliance 9Segni Pact 1European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party GroupThe Democrats (DL) 4Italy of Values 2European Republicans Movement1New Italian Socialist Party1European United Left–Nordic Green LeftCommunist Refoundation Party4Party of Italian Communists 2Greens–European Free AllianceFederation of the Greens 2Non-InscritsBonino List 7Northern League 3Independent 1

Main parties and leaders

PartyMain ideologyLeaderEuropeanpartyOutgoing MEPsUnited in 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 liberalismRomano Prodi Piero Fassino Francesco Rutelli Enrico Boselli Luciana SbarbatiSeveral PES EDP PES ELDRForza Italia (FI)Liberal conservatismSilvio BerlusconiEPPNational Alliance (AN)National conservatismGianfranco FiniAENBonino List LibertarianismEmma BoninoNoneUnion of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC)Christian democracyPier Ferdinando CasiniEPPCommunist Refoundation Party (PRC)CommunismFausto BertinottiPELNorthern League (LN)RegionalismUmberto BossiNoneParty of Italian Communists (PdCI)CommunismOliviero DilibertoPELFederation of the Greens (FdV)Green politicsAlfonso Pecoraro ScanioEGPDi Pietro–Occhetto ListPopulismAntonio Di Pietro Achille OcchettoNoneUnion of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR)Christian democracyClemente MastellaEPPUnited Socialists for EuropeSocial democracyGianni De Michelis Claudio SignorileNonePensioners' Party (PP)Pensioners' interestsCarlo FatuzzoEDTricolour Flame (FT)Neo-fascismLuca RomagnoliNoneSocial Alternative (AS)Neo-fascismAlessandra MussoliniNone

Results + ← Summary of the 13 June 2004 European Parliament election results in Italy → Party EP group Votes % +/– Seats +/– United in 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 10,105,836 31.08 1.53 24 127221 3 4 0 2 New Forza Italia (FI) EPP-ED 6,806,245 20.93 4.23 16 6 National Alliance (AN) UEN 3,736,606 11.49 1.19 9 1 Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) GUE/NGL 1,969,776 6.06 1.79 5 1 Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) EPP-ED 1,914,726 5.89 1.14 5 1 Northern League (LN) IND/DEM 1,613,506 4.96 0.48 4 0 Federation of the Greens (FdV) Greens/EFA 803,356 2.47 0.71 2 0 Party of Italian Communists (PdCI) GUE/NGL 787,613 2.42 0.42 2 0 Bonino List (LB) ALDE 731,536 2.25 6.20 2 5 Italy of Values (IdV) ALDE 695,179 2.14 New 2 New United Socialists for Europe (SUE) NI 664,463 2.04 New 2 New Popular Alliance – UDEUR (AP–UDEUR) EPP-ED 419,173 1.29 0.32 1 0 Social Alternative (LdA – FN – FSN) NI 400,626 1.23 New 1 New Pensioners' Party (PP) EPP-ED 374,343 1.15 0.40 1 0 Tricolour Flame (FT) NI 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 South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)List connected with The Olive Tree EPP-ED 146,357 0.45 0.05 1 0 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 Federalism (Valdostan Union – others) None 29,598 0.09 0.04 0 0 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

See also 2004 European Parliament election in Lombardy 2004 European Parliament election in Piedmont

References

External links European Election News by European Election Law Association (Eurela)