1997 Milan municipal election
Municipal elections were held in Milan on 27 April and 11 May 1997 to elect the Mayor of Milan and the 60 members of the City Council.
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| Turnout | 71.9% (first round) 65.8% (second round) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Background
For the first time the newborn Forza Italia presented ts mayoral candidate: the independent entrepreneur Gabriele Albertini. Seen as a member of the catholic milanese middle class, Albertini was the right profile for represent the new political experiment led by the milanese successful businessman and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Forza Italia and Pole for Freedoms coalition's aim was to attract moderate voters who were "disoriented, political orphans and who risked being unrepresented" (as Berlusconi described them), especially after the Democratic Party of the Left (the direct heirs of the Italian Communist Party) had been able to win the general election and entered in government for the first time since 1947.
In 1997, as the centre-left government's popularity was sinking, even the local administration of Milan had been seen unable to lead the city through a new period of prosperity and growth. After the Lega Nord party broke the alliance with Berlusconi, causing his government to fall in December 1994, in Milan the centre-right Pole for Freedoms coalition presented its own candidate against the incumbent mayor Marco Formentini.
Voting system
The voting system is used for all mayoral elections in Italy of cities with a population higher than 15,000. Under this system voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate may be able to claim majority support, although it is not guaranteed.
The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally.
Results
After only 4 years in office, the incumbent mayor Marco Formentini polled in third place and thus did not go through to the runoff second round of voting.
Gabriele Albertini was then elected mayor on the second round leading the very first right-wing municipal administration in the history of Milan.
| Candidate | Party | Coalition | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
| Gabriele Albertini | FI | Pole for Freedoms | 318,063 | 40.71 | 385,496 | 53.14 | |
| Aldo Fumagalli | PDS | The Olive Tree | 214,728 | 27.48 | 339,942 | 46.86 | |
| Marco Formentini | LN | 149,501 | 19.14 | ||||
| Umberto Gay | PRC | 62,897 | 8.05 | ||||
| Others | 36,072 | 4.62 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 1,143,462 | 100.00 | 1,143,462 | 100.00 | |||
| Did not vote | 321,043 | 28.08 | 390,653 | 34.16 | |||
| Voted | 822,419 | 71.92 | 752,809 | 65.84 | |||
| Blank or invalid ballots | 53,900 | 1.5 | 35,229 | 2.1 | |||
| Total valid votes | 781,261 | 98.5 | 725,438 | 97.9 | |||
Summary of the 1997 Milan City Council election results
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| Parties and coalitions | Votes | % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forza Italia | FI | 192,814 | 29.8% | 25 | ||
| National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale) | AN | 77,134 | 11.9% | 10 | ||
| Christian Democratic Centre (Centro Cristiano Democratico) | CCD | 9,337 | 1.4% | 1 | ||
| Pensioners' Party (Partito Pensionati) | PP | 1,879 | 0.3% | 0 | ||
| Others | 2,314 | 0.4% | 0 | |||
| Albertini coalition (Centre-right) | 283,478 | 43.7% | 36 | |||
| Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra) | PDS | 120,999 | 18.7% | 10 | ||
| Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare Italiano) | PPI | 18,239 | 2.8% | 1 | ||
| Federation of the Greens (Federazione dei Verdi) | FV | 17,148 | 2.6% | 1 | ||
| Others | 9,120 | 1.4% | 0 | |||
| Fumagalli coalition (Centre-left) | 165,506 | 25.5% | 12 | |||
| Lega Nord | LN | 100,184 | 15.5% | 8 | ||
| Others | 4,952 | 0.8% | 0 | |||
| Formentini coalition | 105,136 | 16.3% | 8 | |||
| Communist Refoundation Party (Rifondazione Comunista) | PRC | 59,101 | 9.1% | 4 | ||
| Others | 34,517 | 5.3% | 0 | |||
| Total | 647,921 | 100% | 60 | |||
| Votes cast / turnout | 822,419 | 71.9% | ||||
| Registered voters | 1,143,462 | |||||
| Source: Ministry of the Interior | ||||||