Primary elections in Italy

Primary elections were first introduced in Italy by Lega Nord in 1995, but were seldom used until before the 2005 regional elections.

In January 2005 the centre-left The Union coalition held open primaries in order to select its candidate for President in Apulia. More importantly, in October 2005, The Union asked its voters to choose the candidate for Prime Minister in the 2006 general election: 4.3 million voters showed up delivering Romano Prodi a clear victory. Two years later, in October 2007: 3.5 million voters of the Democratic Party were called to elect Walter Veltroni as their first leader, the party's constituent assembly and regional leaders.

The centre-right (see House of Freedoms, The People of Freedom, centre-right coalition and Forza Italia) has held primary elections only at the local level.

Regulatory rules There are no laws at country level to govern the conduct of any primary election.

In 2004 Tuscany introduced a regional law regulating primaries, but parties are not mandated to hold primaries. As of today, these rules were used in occasion of the 2005 regional election by the Democrats of the Left and Future Tuscany, and in the 2010 regional election by the Democratic Party and Left Ecology Freedom.

List of primary elections The list includes the results of (open) primary elections for prime minister, president of region, mayor of a city with 150,000 inhabitants and leader of major party. All the following primaries were funded and ran by parties, with the sole exception of those for the Regional Council of Tuscany.

Highlighted rows denote country-level primary elections. O : Open primary C: Closed primary

2000s Primary date(s)Party/CoalitionPosition(s)WinnerArticle16 January 2005The UnionPresident of ApuliaNichi Vendola16 October 2005OThe UnionPrime Minister of ItalyRomano Prodilink4 December 2005The UnionPresident of SicilyRita Borsellino29 January 2005The UnionMayor of MilanBruno Ferrante4 February 2007The UnionMayor of GenoaMarta Vincenzi4 February 2007The UnionMayor of PalermoLeoluca Orlando14 October 2007ODemocratic PartyParty leaderWalter Veltronilink14 December 2008Democratic Party and alliesMayor of BolognaFlavio Delbono14 February 2009Democratic Party and alliesMayor of FlorenceMatteo Renzi25 October 2009ODemocratic PartyParty leaderPier Luigi Bersanilink

2010s Primary date(s)Party/CoalitionPosition(s)WinnerArticle24 January 2010Democratic Party and alliesPresident of ApuliaNichi Vendola24 January 2010Democratic Party and alliesMayor of VeniceGiorgio Orsoni7 February 2010Democratic Party and alliesPresident of UmbriaCatiuscia Marini14 February 2010Democratic Party and alliesPresident of CalabriaAgazio Loiero14 November 2010Democratic Party and alliesMayor of MilanGiuliano Pisapialink12 December 2010Democratic Party and alliesMayor of TriesteRoberto Cosolini23 January 2011Democratic Party and alliesMayor of BolognaVirginio Merola23 January 2011Democratic Party and alliesMayor of NaplesAndrea Cozzolino30 January 2011Democratic Party and alliesMayor of CagliariMassimo Zedda27 February 2011Democratic Party and alliesMayor of TurinPiero Fassino4 December 2011Democratic Party and alliesMayor of VeronaMichele Bertuccohttp://www.larena.it/stories/380_in_piazza/312820_primarie_del_centrosinistra_5000_al_voto_vince_bertucco/ 29 January 2012Democratic Party and alliesMayor of ParmaVincenzo Bernazzoli12 February 2012Democratic Party and alliesMayor of GenoaMarco Doria4 March 2012Democratic Party and alliesMayor of PalermoFabrizio Ferrandelli25 November 2012ODemocratic Party and alliesPrime Minister of ItalyPier Luigi Bersanilink15 December 2012Democratic Party and alliesPresident of LombardyUmberto Ambrosoli7 April 2013Democratic Party and alliesMayor of RomeIgnazio Marino14 April 2013Democratic Party and alliesMayor of BresciaEmilio Del Bono13 July 2013Democratic Party and alliesPresident of TrentinoUgo Rossi22 September 2013Democratic Party and alliesPresident of BasilicataMarcello Pittella29 September 2013Democratic Party and alliesPresident of SardiniaFrancesca Barracciu8 December 2013ODemocratic PartyParty leaderMatteo Renzilink2 February 2014Democratic Party and alliesMayor of PaduaIvo Rossi23 February 2014Democratic Party and alliesMayor of BariAntonio Decaro23 February 2014Brothers of ItalyParty leaderGiorgia Meloni2 March 2014Democratic Party and alliesMayor of ModenaGian Carlo Muzzarelli2 March 2014Democratic Party and alliesMayor of Reggio EmiliaLuca Vecchi9 March 2014Democratic Party and alliesMayor of FoggiaAugusto Marasco16 March 2014Democratic Party and alliesMayor of LivornoMarco Ruggeri23 March 2014Democratic PartyMayor of FlorenceDario Nardella28 September 2014Democratic PartyPresident of Emilia-RomagnaStefano Bonaccini5 October 2014Democratic Party and alliesPresident of CalabriaMario Oliverio30 November 2014Democratic Party and alliesPresident of VenetoAlessandra Moretti30 November 2014Democratic Party and alliesPresident of ApuliaMichele Emiliano11 January 2015Democratic Party and alliesPresident of LiguriaRaffaella Paita1 March 2015Democratic Party and alliesPresident of MarcheLuca Ceriscioli1 March 2015Democratic Party and alliesPresident of CampaniaVincenzo De Luca16 March 2015Democratic Party and alliesMayor of VeniceFelice Casson7 February 2016Democratic Party and alliesMayor of MilanGiuseppe Salalink6 March 2016Democratic Party and alliesMayor of NaplesValeria Valente6 March 2016Democratic Party and alliesMayor of RomeRoberto Giachetti6 March 2016Democratic Party and alliesMayor of TriesteRoberto Cosolini5 March 2017Democratic Party and alliesMayor of ParmaPaolo Scarpa2 April 2017Democratic Party and alliesMayor of VeronaOrietta Salemi30 April 2017ODemocratic PartyParty leaderMatteo Renzilink14 May 2017CLega NordParty leaderMatteo Salvini24 February 2019Centre-right coalitionMayor of BariPasquale Di Rella24 February 2019Centre-right coalitionMayor of FoggiaFranco Landella3 March 2019ODemocratic PartyParty leaderNicola Zingarettilink

2020s Primary date(s)Party/CoalitionPosition(s)WinnerArticle12 January 2020Democratic Party and alliesPresident of ApuliaMichele Emiliano link12–13 June 2021Democratic Party and alliesMayor of TurinStefano Lo Russolink20 June 2021Democratic Party and alliesMayor of BolognaMatteo Leporelink20 June 2021Democratic Party and alliesMayor of RomeRoberto Gualtierilink23 July 2022Democratic Party and alliesPresident of SicilyCaterina Chinnicilink15 March 2023Democratic Party and alliesParty LeaderElly Schlein 16 March 2026Democratic Party and alliesMayor of Reggio CalabriaDomenico Battaglia

References