The Italian Regional Elections of March 2010. Continuity and a Few Surprises

Abstract

On 28–29 March 2010, about 40 million Italian voters were called to renew the presidents and legislative assemblies of thirteen Ordinary Statute Regions. In this article those regional elections are analysed. After a summary description of the main institutional features and recent evolution of the electoral rules, the following aspects are covered: the debate during the electoral campaign; the process of coalition building and management, and the selection of candidates to the presidency; the electoral results in the presidential run and in the legislative assemblies. In the conclusions, the consequences of the regional elections and possible scenarios for national political equilibrium are evaluated.

Keywords:

• Italy
• regions
• regional elections
• mixed-member electoral systems
• regional party systems

Notes

Of the remaining seven regions, five have a Special Statute and a traditionally different electoral calendar, and two (Molise and Abruzzo) changed their electoral calendar in 2001 and 2008 due to early elections.

Cf. ‘Regionali, liste chiuse. Pdl in ritardo a Roma: possibile esclusione’, Corriere della Sera, 28 Feb 2010, p. 17.

The decree referred to Law 108/1968, still regulating the procedure of list presentation for regions which had not regulated this subject autonomously, something that the Lazio region had done with Law 2/2005, art. 8. Cf.‘“Decreto inapplicabile” No del Tar alla lista Pdl’, Corriere della Sera, 9 March 2010, p. 2.

Cf. ‘Liste, Berlusconi accusa: il Pdl non ha colpe’, Corriere della Sera, 11 March 2010, p. 2.

The regulation of the Commission was approved on 9 Feb 2010, see http://www.parlamento.it/bicamerali/43775/43777/48818/87669/87672/tabellasommdoc.htm. Technically it did not ‘shut down’ the shows, but, referring to the programmes of the public network, required such strict regulation of the presence and behaviour of anchormen and guests as to make them de facto unfeasible. The Authority for Communications extended this regulation to all private networks, but a sentence of the Administrative Tribunal on 12 March limited the application of the regulation to the public network. See ‘“Talk show in onda”. Il Tar annulla lo stop alle private’, Corriere della Sera, 13 March 2010, p. 8.

The Federazione della Sinistra is an umbrella organization born in 2009, which comprises Rifondazione Comunista, the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (which split from the former in 1998), and other minor organizations. Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà, also formed in 2009, is a party made of ex-Left Democrats who did not join the Partito Democratico in 2007 and others coming from Rifondazione Comunista, the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani and the Verdi.

‘Veneto, Bossi prepara la “volata” di Zaia’, Il Corriere della Sera, 18 December 2009; ‘Pdl, pace in Veneto. Galan sarà ministro’, Il Corriere della Sera, 23 December 2009. Giancarlo Galan, outgoing president of Veneto, replaced Luca Zaia as Minister of Agriculture on 16 April 2010.

‘Bonino in campo, democratici spiazzati’, Corriere della Sera, 6 January 2010, p. 13. The Partito Radicale has a long-lasting record of battles in favour of secular reforms, such as the introduction of laws for divorce and abortion rights in the 1970s.

‘Incertezza in quattro regioni: Lazio, Piemonte, Liguria e Campania. Centrodestra stabile, Pd in ripresa. L'astensione potrebbe crescere’, Corriere della Sera, 13 March 2010, pp. 2–3. It must be noted that, according to the Italian legislation, electoral surveys are forbidden in the last two weeks of campaigning. Thus, the cited article reports the last publicly available survey.

This is even more considerable if we take into account the small size of regional assemblies, ranging from 37 (Umbria) to 80 seats (Lombardia).

Subtracting the percentage of votes to the Udc from the difference between the two main competitors in the run for presidency. It is obviously a rough measure, as it does not take into account the possibility of dual votes.