European_Parliament_election,_2019_(Italy)

2019 European Parliament election in Italy

2019 European Parliament election in Italy

2019 election of members of the European Parliament for Italy


The 2019 European Parliament election in Italy were held on 26 May 2019, electing members of the 9th Italian delegation to the European Parliament as part of the European elections held across the European Union.

Quick Facts All 76 Italian seats to the European Parliament, Turnout ...

Background

In 2014, the governing Democratic Party (PD) of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won the election with 40.8% of the vote and 31 seats, followed by the Five Star Movement (M5S) with 21.2% and 17 seats and Forza Italia (FI) with 16.8% and 13 seats. As a result, the PD was the second largest national party in the European Parliament by number of seats after the German CDU/CSU and the largest among the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).[1] The PD's score was also the best result for an Italian party in a nationwide election since the 1958 general election, when the Christian Democracy (DC) won 42.4% of the vote. However, after less than three years from the 2014 electoral landslide, Renzi was forced to resign after the defeat in the constitutional referendum and his foreign affairs minister Paolo Gentiloni was appointed new head of government in December 2016.[2][3] Moreover, the 2018 general election was characterized by a strong showing of populist parties. The centre-right coalition, led by Matteo Salvini's right-wing League, emerged with a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate while the anti-establishment M5S led by Luigi Di Maio became the party with the largest number of votes; and Renzi's centre-left came only third, with the worst electoral result of its history.[4][5] However, no political group or party won an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament.[6] After three months of negotiation, a government was finally formed on 1 June by the M5S and the League, with the M5S-linked independent Giuseppe Conte as Prime Minister and Di Maio and Salvini Deputy Prime Ministers.[7][8]

In March 2019, Nicola Zingaretti was elected secretary of the PD.[9] In April, Zingaretti presented a special logo for the election, including a large reference to "We Are Europeans", a manifesto launched by Carlo Calenda; and the symbol of the Party of European Socialists (PES).[10] Additionally, the PD is trying to forge an alliance with the Article One (Art.1)[11] and minor parties. March and April registered more developments on the centre-left side of the political spectrum. Under the new leadership of Benedetto Della Vedova, More Europe (+E) formed a joint list with Italia in Comune (IiC),[12][13][14] the Italian Socialist Party (PSI),[15] the Italian Republican Party (PRI),[16][17] the Italian section of the European Democratic Party (EDP),[18] the Liberal Democratic Alliance for Italy (ALI)[19] and minor parties; Italian Left (SI), the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), minor parties and individual splinters from the disbanded Free and Equal (LeU) formed The Left (LS), a joint list inspired by the Party of the European Left (PEL);[20] and the Federation of the Greens (FdV), Possible (Pos) and Green Italia (GI) formed Green Europe (EV) under the banner of the European Green Party (EGP).[21][22] On the centre-right side, FI welcomed in its lists candidates of the Union of the Centre (UdC) and several alike minor parties while Brothers of Italy (FdI) formed a partnership with Direction Italy (DI) and minor groups.

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 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 to the 2009 European Parliament election, the Italian Parliament introduced a national threshold of 4%. 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.[23][24]

Main parties and leaders

The Democratic Party candidate Carlo Calenda during a rally in Rovigo
Matteo Salvini speaks during a League rally in Montecatini Terme.

Outgoing MEPs

The table shows the detailed composition of the Italian seats at the European Parliament before 26 May 2019.

More information EP group, Seats ...

Retiring incumbents

The following MEPs are not seeking re-election:

More information Constituency, Departing MEP ...

Summary of parties

This is a list of the main parties which participated in the election and were polled in most opinion surveys.

  1. Running as Democratic Party–We Are Europeans–PES and including Art.1, Demo.S and Futura. The list is also in alliance with the French-speaking minority list ApE from Aosta Valley, composed of UV, UVP, ALPE, SA and EPAV.
  2. Including UDC, CP, PP, NcI and SV. The list is also in alliance with SVP, German- and Ladin-speaking minority list from South Tyrol, for the occasion also including PATT from Trentino and SSk from Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
  3. Including MNS and DI.
  4. Including SI, PRC, AET, PdS and individual splinters from the disbanded LeU.
  5. Including FdV, Pos, GI and (in the North-East) Grüne.
  6. Including IiC, PSI, PRI, ALI, the EDP's Italian section, TK from South Tyrol and PP from Apulia.

Top candidates

In the following table, the top candidates of each party/list in the five constituencies are listed.

Slogans

More information Party, Original slogan ...

Opinion polling

Poll results are listed according to the date of publication of the survey. Detailed data are usually published in the official website of the Italian government. The publication of opinion polls during the last 15 days of the electoral campaign is forbidden by Italian law.

Polls after April 2019
More information Date, Polling firm ...
Hypothetical polls until April 2019
More information Date, Polling firm ...
  1. In the 2018 Italian general election LeU was a joint list, mainly comprising Art.1 and SI. Some polls have included Art.1 or SI or both, sometimes together, instead of LeU. Since April 2019 some polls started to track SI along with PRC and Art.1 separately. Art.1 finally chose to run with PD.
  2. In the 2018 Italian general election PaP was a joint list, including PRC and PCI, which left the alliance a few months later. Some polls have included these two parties within PaP and/or CP. In March 2019 CP's leader Luigi de Magistris announced it would not participate in the election. In April PaP decided not to run in the election.
  3. Until March 2019 the results refer to the proposed joint list formed by FdV, IiC (which finally decided to side with +E) and GI, since April to EV, joint list of FdV, Pos and GI.

Results

More information Party, European party ...
  1. List connected to Forza Italia.
  2. List connected to the Democratic Party.
Map showing the most voted party in each municipality
Seat totals by constituency. As this is a PR election, seat totals are determined by the national popular vote.
More information Popular vote ...
More information Seats distribution (post-Brexit) ...

Detailed results

By constituency
More information Italian constituencies, Lega ...
By region
More information Regions, Lega ...
By municipality (with more than 100,000 inhabitants)
More information Comuni, Lega ...

References

  1. "UPDATE 2-Renzi's triumph in EU vote gives mandate for Italian reform". Reuters. 26 May 2014 via www.reuters.com.
  2. Angela Giuffrida (3 March 2019). "Nicola Zingaretti elected as leader of Italy's Democratic party". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  3. "Simbolo di unità. Nicola Zingaretti svela il logo Pd-SiamoEuropei". Huffington Post (in Italian). 30 March 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  4. Vytiska, Herbert (22 October 2018). "Südtirol: Erschütterung für alte Parteistrukturen". Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  5. Maestri, Pubblicato da Gabriele. "Europee 2019, i simboli uno per uno".
  6. "Elezioni Europee 2019". Facebook (in Italian). ALI Alleanza Liberaldemocratica per l'Italia. 8 May 2019.
  7. "Camera.it - Documenti - Temi dell'Attività parlamentare". leg16.camera.it. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  8. Maestri, Gabriele (10 May 2019). "Elezioni e corsa all'esenzione dalla raccolta firme: un problema di uguaglianza e democrazia". laCostituzione.info (in Italian). Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  9. "Renato Soru non si ricandida alle elezioni europee". La Nuova Sardegna (in Italian). Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  10. "Europee, Briano non si ricandida: "Ma non facciamoci rubare da nessuno il sogno dell'Europa"". GenovaQuotidiana (in Italian). 28 March 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  11. "Europee, Costa (Pd): Non mi ricandido, ma continuerò ad impegnarmi con passione". AgenziaCult (in Italian). 4 April 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  12. "Damiano Zoffoli non si ricandida e lascia l'europarlamento". Corriere Cesenate (in Italian). Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  13. "Schlein: "Europarlamento addio, ecco perchè non mi ricandido"". la Repubblica (in Italian). 12 April 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  14. "Europee, Salvini capolista ovunque". Adnkronos. 14 December 2020.
  15. "Europee, parte oggi la corsa dei "veri amici di Tsipras"" (in Italian). Il Manifesto. 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  16. Fabio Martini (15 April 2019). "Elezioni, Bonino e Pizzarotti accettano la candidatura: "Più Europa" schiera i leader" (in Italian). La Stampa. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  17. "MoVimento 5 Stelle". www.facebook.com.
  18. "Matteo Salvini". facebook.com.
  19. "MATTEO SALVINI: PRIMA L'ITALIA! 🇮🇹". 10 April 2019 via YouTube.
  20. "Giorgia Meloni". facebook.com.
  21. "Home". la-sinistra.it. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  22. "Più Europa". www.facebook.com.

See also


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