Primary elections in Italy
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Primary elections were first introduced in Italy by Lega Nord in 1995,[citation needed] 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[1] 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,[2] and in the 2010 regional election by the Democratic Party and Left Ecology Freedom.[3]
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) | O / C | Party/Coalition | Position(s) | Winner | Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 January 2005 | The Union | President of Apulia | Nichi Vendola | ||
| 16 October 2005 | O | The Union | Prime Minister of Italy | Romano Prodi | link |
| 4 December 2005 | The Union | President of Sicily | Rita Borsellino | ||
| 29 January 2005 | The Union | Mayor of Milan | Bruno Ferrante | ||
| 4 February 2007 | The Union | Mayor of Genoa | Marta Vincenzi | ||
| 4 February 2007 | The Union | Mayor of Palermo | Leoluca Orlando | ||
| 14 October 2007 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Walter Veltroni | link |
| 14 December 2008 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Bologna | Flavio Delbono | ||
| 14 February 2009 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Florence | Matteo Renzi | ||
| 25 October 2009 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Pier Luigi Bersani | link |
2010s
- Candidate who was replaced by another candidate without a primary vote in the run-up of the general election.
2020s
| Primary date(s) | O / C | Party/Coalition | Position(s) | Winner | Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 January 2020 | Democratic Party and allies | President of Apulia | Michele Emiliano[46] | link | |
| 12–13 June 2021 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Turin | Stefano Lo Russo | link | |
| 20 June 2021 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Bologna | Matteo Lepore | link | |
| 20 June 2021 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Rome | Roberto Gualtieri | link | |
| 23 July 2022 | Democratic Party and allies | President of Sicily | Caterina Chinnici | link | |
| 15 March 2023 | Democratic Party and allies | Party Leader | Elly Schlein | ||
| 16 March 2026 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Reggio Calabria | Domenico Battaglia[47][48] |