2021 Turin municipal election

Municipal elections were held in Turin, Piedmont, on 3 and 4 October 2021 to elect the mayor of Turin and the 38 members of the City Council of Turin. Originally scheduled for June 2021, the election was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Since no mayoral candidate won a majority of votes on the first round, where the centre-left coalition candidate Stefano Lo Russo (a member of the Catholic wing of the Democratic Party) narrowly finished first against most opinion polling, a runoff election was held on 17 and 18 October 2021. The second round was won in a landslide by Lo Russo, who outperformed the polls and was officially inaugurated as the new mayor of Turin on 27 October 2021. Chiara Appendino of the Five Star Movement, who was the incumbent mayor of Turin, did not run for re-election.

Background Electoral system The voting system for the office of mayor of Turin is used for all mayoral elections in Italy in the cities with a population higher than 15,000 inhabitants. Under this system, voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. The winning candidate obtains a majority bonus equal to 60% of seats. During the first round, if no candidate gets more than 50% of votes but a coalition of lists gets the majority of 50% of votes, or if the mayor is elected in the first round but its coalition gets less than 40% of the valid votes, the majority bonus cannot be assigned to the coalition of the winning mayor candidate. The election of the City Council of Turin is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a maximum of two preferential votes, each for a different gender, belonging to the same party list; the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally, using the D'Hondt method for seat allocation. Only coalitions with more than 3% of votes are eligible to get any seats.

Centre-left coalition primary election Candidate Party Votes % Notes Stefano Lo Russo Democratic Party4.229 37,5% Francesco Tresso Independent3.932 34,9% Enzo Lavolta Democratic Party2.864 25,4% Igor Boni More Europe257 2,3%Total11.325100

Political parties and candidates + List of the political parties and candidates that took part in the electionPolitical force or allianceConstituent listsCandidateCentre-right coalition LeaguePaolo Damilano Brothers of Italy Forza Italia (UDC, PLI, PU, DC) Beautiful Turin Progress Turin Yes TAV Yes Work – Renaissance The People of the Family Centre-left coalition Democratic Party Stefano Lo RussoLo Russo for Mayor (DemoS, CD, IV, A, +E, RI, Volt, Monviso Civic List, Alliance for Turin) Ecologist Left (SI, Pos) Moderates Turin Tomorrow Art. 1 – PSISganga coalition Five Star Movement Valentina Sganga Green Europe D'Orsi coalition Common Left (PRC, SA, DemA)Angelo D'Orsi Italian Communist Party Power to the PeopleDi Cristina coalition Communist Party Giusi Greta Di Cristina Turin Future CityFutura for the Common Goods Ugo MatteiWorkers' Communist Party Massimo Chiesi3V Movement Paolo AlongeTurin Environmental Movement (4 October Movement) Roberto SalernoProhibition to Dismiss Lorenzo VaraldoTurin Capital of Europe – Stop ISEE Emilio MazzaVerra coalition ItalexitIvano Verra We CitizensBalducci coalition Gay PartyDavide Betti Balducci Animalist Party

Declined candidates Withdrew Centre-left coalition Mauro Salizzoni, medic and regional councilor of Piedmont (since 2019).

Declined Centre-left coalition Sergio Chiamparino, former president of Piedmont (2014–2019) and mayor of Turin (2001–2011). Guido Saracco, rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin since 2018.

Five Star Movement Chiara Appendino, mayor of Turin since 2016.

Opinion polls First round

Date Polling firm Sample size Sganga Lo Russo Damilano Others Undecided Lead — 9.0 43.9 38.9 8.2 — 5.0 12–15 Sep 2021 Noto 1,000 9.0 40.0 42.0 9.0 29.0 2.0 9–15 Sep 2021 SWG 1,000 9.0 42.0 42.0 7.0 21.0 Tie 6–11 Sep 2021 Ipsos 1,000 9.5 39.0 42.0 9.5 27.0 3.0 7–10 Sep 2021 Quorum 805 8.6 42.8 43.7 4.9 43.2 0.9 3–8 Sep 2021 Quorum 808 8.3 41.4 44.2 6.1 39.6 2.8 27–29 Aug 2021 BiDiMedia 809 11.1 38.9 41.6 8.4 23.0 2.7 3–5 Aug 2021 Demopolis 1,804 13.0 34.0 41.0 12.0 37.0 7.0 29 Jun–12 Jul 2021 SWG 1,600 8.0 43.0 44.0 5.0 22.0 1.0 25 Jun 2021 Euromedia Research 1,000 11.9 39.6 43.7 4.8 4.1 10–15 May 2021 BiDiMedia 1,337 12.6 38.2 40.1 9.1 30.0 1.9

Second round

Damilano vs. Lo Russo Date Polling firm Sample size Damilano Lo Russo Abstain Lead — 40.7 59.2 — 18.5 9–15 Sep 2021 SWG 1,000 48.0 52.0 4.0 6–11 Sep 2021 Ipsos 1,000 48.0 52.0 4.0 7–10 Sep 2021 Quorum 805 47.4 52.6 44.9 5.2 3–8 Sep 2021 Quorum 808 46.9 53.1 47.8 6.2 27–29 Aug 2021 BiDiMedia 809 48.0 52.0 4.0 16 Jul 2021 SWG 1,600 48.0 52.0 4.0 25 Jun 2021 Euromedia Research 1,000 50.2 49.8 37.3 0.4 10–15 May 2021 BiDiMedia 1,337 47.0 53.0 6.0

Political parties

Date Polling firm Sample size Centre-left Centre-right M5S–EV Others LeadPDAIV+EVoltModSI OthersFdILSPBTFIC! OthersM5SEV — 28.6 5.0 3.4 3.6 3.5 10.5 9.8 11.9 5.3 1.6 8.0 0.9 8.0 18.1 9–15 Sep 2021 SWG 1,000 25.9 3.8 3.2 8.3 10.7 19.4 2.1 8.3 1.5 7.6 1.6 7.6 6.5 6–11 Sep 2021 Ipsos 1,000 31.24.6 1.5 1.5 9.5 20.0 2.5 9.2 1.8 8.9 1.0 8.3 11.2 3–8 Sep 2021 Quorum 808 32.3 8.2 14.7 19.4 4.2 4.8 7.4 1.4 7.6 12.9 27–29 Aug 2021 BiDiMedia 809 26.5 3.4 3.4 6.3 15.8 13.4 4.5 3.7 1.5 1.9 9.2 2.2 8.2 10.7 29 Jun–12 Jul 2021 SWG 1,600 30.5 1.5 1.5 3.0 2.0 5.5 11.0 21.5 2.5 8.0 8.5 4.5 9.0 10–15 May 2021 BiDiMedia 1,337 23.2 2.7 2.5 1.5 0.8 3.1 2.2 1.8 15.4 14.7 5.0 3.9 0.6 12.7 1.9 9.0 7.8 — 29.8 DNP DNP DNP DNP 5.9 DNP 6.8 1.5 5.8 DNP 4.7 DNP 4.2 30.0 DNP 11.9 0.2

Results CandidateLeader'sseatsPolitical party or party listVotes%SeatsVotes%Votes% Stefano Lo Russo140,20043.86168,99759.23– 85,890 28.56 17 15,013 4.99 2 10,807 3.59 2 10,177 3.38 2 7,960 2.65 1 2,407 0.80 – Total 132,254 43.97 24 Paolo Damilano124,34738.90116,32240.77 35,658 11.86 4 31,490 10.47 3 29,593 9.84 3 15,951 5.30 2 2,236 0.74 – 1,320 0.44 – 1,305 0.43 – Total 117,553 39.08 12 Valentina Sganga28,7859.01–– 24,058 8.00 2 2,711 0.90 – Total 26,769 8.90 2 Angelo d'Orsi8,0952.53––– 3,512 1.17 – 1,838 0.61 – 1,656 0.55 – Total 7,006 2.33 – Ugo Mattei 7,406 2.32 – – – 6,975 2.32 – Francesco Ivano Verra2,677 0.84––– 2,353 0.78 – 240 0.08 – Total 2,593 0.86 – Davide Betti 2,2410.70––– 1,336 0.44 – 775 0.26 – Total 2,111 0.70 – Greta Giusi Di Cristina2,1230.66––– 1,552 0.52 – 454 0.15 – Total 2,006 0.67 – Paolo Alonge 1,666 0.52 – – – 1,609 0.53 – Roberto Salerno 910 0.28 – – – 792 0.26 – Lorenzo Varaldo 545 0.17 – – – 493 0.16 – Massimo Chiesi 384 0.12 – – – 360 0.12 – Emilio Mazza 264 0.08 – – – 262 0,09 – Total candidates 319,643 100 285,319 100 2 Total parties 300,783 100 38 Total valid votes 96.40 98.17 Blank or invalid ballots 3.60 1.83 Turnout 48.08 42.14 Eligible voters 100.00 100.00 Source: Ministry of the Interior (first round – second round) Notes According to the Italian electoral law of 1993 for the municipalities of Italy, if a defeated candidate for mayor obtains over 3% of votes, the mayoral candidate is automatically elected city councillor (in this case Lo Russo, Damilano, and Sganga were all elected). The candidate elected mayor votes on the city council but is not a member of it.

See also 2021 Italian local elections Civic list (Italy) Elections in Turin

References

Further reading