2004 European Parliament election in Italy

The 2004 European Parliament election in Italy was held on 12 and 13 June 2004.

2004 European Parliament election in Italy
Italy
13 June 2004
All 78 Italian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout71.72 (Increase 1.99 pp)
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
The Olive Tree Romano Prodi 31.08 28 +4
Forza Italia Silvio Berlusconi 20.93 16 -6
AN Gianfranco Fini 11.49 9 +1
PRC Fausto Bertinotti 6.06 5 +1
UDC Pier Ferdinando Casini 5.89 5 +1
Lega Nord Umberto Bossi 4.96 4 0
Greens Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio 2.47 2 0
PdCI Oliviero Diliberto 2.42 2 0
Bonino List Emma Bonino 2.25 2 -5
IdV Antonio Di Pietro 2.14 2 New
United Socialists Gianni De Michelis 2.04 2 0
UDEUR Clemente Mastella 1.29 1 0
Social Alternative Alessandra Mussolini 1.23 1 New
Pensioners Carlo Fatuzzo 1.15 1 0
Tricolour Flame Luca Romagnoli 0.73 1 0
SVP Elmar Pichler Rolle 0.45 1 0
Major party in each Province.

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 opposition 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 next election.

The common list of The Olive Tree, comprising mainly the Democrats of the Left and The Daisy became the largest list, with an important psychological effect. However, expectations for this list were originally somewhat larger, and Massimo D'Alema had proclaimed that "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. However, 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.

Main parties and leaders

Outgoing MEPs
EP Group Seats Party MEPs
European People's Party–European Democrats
34 / 87
Forza Italia 22
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats 4
The Daisy 4
Union of Democrats for Europe 2
Pensioners' Party 1
South Tyrolean People's Party 1
Socialist Group in the European Parliament
16 / 87
Democrats of the Left 15
Italian Democratic Socialists 1
Union for Europe of the Nations
10 / 87
National Alliance 9
Segni Pact 1
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group
8 / 87
The Daisy 4
Italy of Values 2
European Republicans Movement 1
New Italian Socialist Party 1
European United Left–Nordic Green Left
6 / 87
Communist Refoundation Party 4
Party of Italian Communists 2
Greens–European Free Alliance
2 / 87
 Federation of the Greens 2
Non-Inscrits
11 / 87
Bonino List 7
Northern League 3
Independent 1

Summary of parties
A poster showing party lists for the 2004 European Parliament election
Party Main ideology Leader European
party		 Outgoing MEPs
The Olive Tree
Several Romano Prodi Several
25 / 78
Forza Italia (FI) Liberal conservatism Silvio Berlusconi EPP
22 / 78
National Alliance (AN) National conservatism Gianfranco Fini AEN
9 / 78
Bonino List Libertarianism Emma Bonino None
7 / 78
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) Christian democracy Pier Ferdinando Casini EPP
4 / 78
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) Communism Fausto Bertinotti PEL
4 / 78
Northern League (LN) Regionalism Umberto Bossi None
3 / 78
Party of Italian Communists (PdCI) Communism Oliviero Diliberto PEL
2 / 78
Federation of the Greens (FdV) Green politics Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio EGP
2 / 78
Di Pietro–Occhetto List Populism Antonio Di Pietro
Achille Occhetto		 None
2 / 78
Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) Christian democracy Clemente Mastella EPP
2 / 78
United Socialists for Europe Social democracy Gianni De Michelis
Claudio Signorile		 None
1 / 78
Pensioners' Party (PP) Pensioners' interests Carlo Fatuzzo ED
1 / 78
Tricolour Flame (FT) Neo-fascism Luca Romagnoli None
0 / 78
Social Alternative (AS) Neo-fascism Alessandra Mussolini None
0 / 78

Results
← Summary of the 13 June 2004 European Parliament election results in Italy →
Party EP group Main candidate Votes  % +/– Seats +/–
The Olive Tree
PES
ALDE
PES
PES
ALDE		 Lilli Gruber 10,105,836 31.08 1.53 Decrease 24
12
7
2
2
1
3 Decrease
4 Decrease
0 Steady
2 Increase
New
Forza Italia (FI) EPP-ED Silvio Berlusconi 6,806,245 20.93 4.23 Decrease 16 6 Decrease
National Alliance (AN) UEN Gianfranco Fini 3,736,606 11.49 1.19 Increase 9 1 Increase
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) GUE/NGL Fausto Bertinotti 1,969,776 6.06 1.79 Increase 5 1 Increase
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) EPP-ED Salvatore Cuffaro 1,914,726 5.89 1.14 Increase 5 1 Increase
Northern League (LN) IND/DEM Umberto Bossi 1,613,506 4.96 0.48 Increase 4 0 Steady
Federation of the Greens (FdV) Greens/EFA Sepp Kusstatscher 803,356 2.47 0.71 Increase 2 0 Steady
Party of Italian Communists (PdCI) GUE/NGL Oliviero Diliberto 787,613 2.42 0.42 Increase 2 0 Steady
Bonino List (LB) ALDE Emma Bonino 731,536 2.25 6.20 Decrease 2 5 Decrease
Italy of Values (IdV) ALDE Antonio Di Pietro 695,179 2.14 New 2 New
United Socialists for Europe (SUE) NI Gianni De Michelis 664,463 2.04 New 2 New
Popular Alliance – UDEUR (AP–UDEUR) EPP-ED Clemente Mastella 419,173 1.29 0.32 Increase 1 0 Steady
Social Alternative (LdA – FN – FSN) NI Alessandra Mussolini 400,626 1.23 New 1 New
Pensioners' Party (PP) EPP-ED Carlo Fatuzzo 374,343 1.15 0.40 Increase 1 0 Steady
Tricolour Flame (FT) NI Luca Romagnoli 237,058 0.73 0.87 Decrease 1 0 Steady
Italian Republican Party – The Liberals Sgarbi (PRI–LS) ALDE 233,144 0.72 0.18 Increase 0 1 Decrease
Segni-Scognamiglio Pact (PSS) None 172,556 0.53 — 0 1 Decrease
LAL – LFV – PSd'Az – UfS None 160,101 0.49 — 0 0 Steady
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)[1] EPP-ED Michl Ebner 146,357 0.45 0.05 Decrease 1 0 Steady
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)[2] None 29,598 0.09 0.04 Decrease 0 0 Steady
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
Popular vote
Ulivo
 
 31.1%
FI
 
 20.9%
AN
 
 11.5%
PRC
 
 6.1%
UDC
 
 5.9%
LN
 
 5.0%
FdV
 
 2.5%
PdCI
 
 2.4%
Bonino
 
 2.2%
IdV
 
 2.1%
SUE
 
 2.0%
UDEUR
 
 1.3%
AS
 
 1.2%
PP
 
 1.1%
Others
 
 4.7%

Seats
The five constituencies for European elections

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 RegionsSeats
North-WestAosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont23
North-EastEmilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto15
CentralLatium, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria16
SouthernAbruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise17
IslandsSardinia, Sicily7

References
  1. List connected with The Olive Tree
  2. List connected with The Olive Tree

See also
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