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
← 1999 13 June 2004 2009 →

All 78 Italian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout71.72 (Increase 1.99 pp)
Party Leader Vote % 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 New
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
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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

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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

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Outgoing MEPs

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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

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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

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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   24
12
7
2
2
1

3  
4  
0  
2  
New
South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) EPP-ED Michl Ebner 146,357 0.45 0.05   1 0  
Federalism (Valdostan Union – others) None 29,598 0.09 0.04   0 0  
Total Mixed 10,281,791 31.62 2.62   25 2  
Forza Italia (FI) EPP-ED Silvio Berlusconi 6,806,245 20.93 4.23   16 6  
National Alliance (AN) UEN Gianfranco Fini 3,736,606 11.49 1.19   9 1  
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) GUE/NGL Fausto Bertinotti 1,969,776 6.06 1.79   5 1  
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) EPP-ED Salvatore Cuffaro 1,914,726 5.89 1.14   5 1  
Northern League (LN) IND/DEM Umberto Bossi 1,613,506 4.96 0.48   4 0  
Federation of the Greens (FdV) Greens/EFA Sepp Kusstatscher 803,356 2.47 0.71   2 0  
Party of Italian Communists (PdCI) GUE/NGL Oliviero Diliberto 787,613 2.42 0.42   2 0  
Bonino List (LB) ALDE Emma Bonino 731,536 2.25 6.20   2 5  
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   1 0  
Social Alternative (LdAFNFSN) NI Alessandra Mussolini 400,626 1.23 New 1 New
Pensioners' Party (PP) EPP-ED Carlo Fatuzzo 374,343 1.15 0.40   1 0  
Tricolour Flame (FT) NI Luca Romagnoli 237,058 0.73 0.87   1 0  
Italian Republican PartyThe Liberals Sgarbi (PRI–LS) ALDE 233,144 0.72 0.18   0 1  
Segni-Scognamiglio Pact (PSS) None 172,556 0.53 0 1  
LALLFVPSd'AzUfS None 160,101 0.49 0 0  
Consumers' List (LC) None 160,066 0.49 New 0 New
Abolizione Scorporo (Greens GreensFederalist Greens) None 158,988 0.49 New 0 New
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
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

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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 Region Administrative Regions Seats
North-West Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont 23
North-East Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto 15
Central Latium, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria 16
Southern Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise 17
Islands Sardinia, Sicily 7

References

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See also

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