2006 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy renewed its delegation to the Italian Senate on April 9, 2006. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 2006 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

Italian Senate election in Lombardy, 2006
April 9, 2006
All 47 Lombard seats in the Italian Senate
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Silvio Berlusconi Romano Prodi
Party Forza Italia The Olive Tree (Italy)
Alliance House of Freedoms The Union
Last election 33 seats, 44.8% 14 seats, 49.4%
33.7% as The Olive
Seats won 27 20
Seat change -6 +6
Popular vote 3,342,468 2,501,467
Percentage 57.0% 42.6%
Swing +12.2% -6.8%
Majority before election

House of Freedoms

 New Majority

House of Freedoms

Differently from the national result, the election was won by the centre-right coalition of the House of Freedoms. Forza Italia was the largest party in the election with 28%, ahead of the Democrats of the Left (12%) and Lega Nord (11%). Eleven provinces gave a majority or a plurality to Silvio Berlusconi's alliance, while voters of the Province of Mantua supported the new Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi.

Background

Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms arrived to this election after a series of bad results. Forza Italia had lost 5 points at regional level during the 2004 European election, while the Province of Milan shifted to the left in the same occasion. 2005 regional election had confirmed centre-right Regional President Roberto Formigoni, but its coalition lost more than 8 points.

On the other side, in 2005 Romano Prodi had launched his new larger coalition, The Union, merging in a single alliance quite all oppositions to Berlusconi's majority: The Olive Tree, the Communist Refoundation Party and Antonio Di Pietro's Italy of Values, which in Lombardy were joined by the Lombard Autonomy League.

Electoral law

The new electoral law for the Senate was established in 2005 by the Calderoli Law, and it is a form of semi-proportional representation. A party presents its own closed list and it can join other parties in alliances. The coalition which receives a plurality automatically wins at least 26 seats. Respecting this condition, seats are divided between coalitions, and subsequently to party lists, using the largest remainder method with a Hare quota. To receive seats, a party must overcome the barrage of 8% of the vote if it contests a single race, or of 3% of the vote if it runs in alliance.

Results
 
Coalition leader votes votes (%) seats Party votes votes (%) seats change
Silvio Berlusconi 3,342,468 57.0 27 Forza Italia 1,623,745 27.7 14 -1
Lega Nord 652,047 11.1 5 -4
National Alliance 572,242 9.8 5 -2
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats 343,269 5.9 3 +2
Others 151,165 2.5 - -1
Romano Prodi 2,501,467 42.6 20 Democrats of the Left 726,105 12.4 7 +3
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy 588,856 10.0 6 +2
Communist Refoundation Party 407,939 7.0 4 +3
Together with the Union 588,856 4.8 3 =
Italy of Values 150,116 2.6 - -1
Rose in the Fist 128,849 2.2 - -
Others 220,050 3.8 - -1
Others 25,193 0.4 - Others 25,193 0.4 - -
Total coalitions 5,869,128 100.0 47 Total parties 5,869,128 100.0 47 =

Source: Ministry of the Interior

Lombard delegation to Senate

Forza Italia

Democrats of the Left

The Daisy

Lega Nord
  • Roberto Castelli
  • Giuseppe Leoni
  • Ettore Pietro Pirovano
  • Dario Galli
  • Dario Fruscio

National Alliance
  • Alfredo Mantica
  • Alessio Butti
  • Giuseppe Valditara
  • Stefano Losurdo
  • Antonino Caruso

Communist Refoundation Party
  • Maria Luisa Boccia
  • Giovanna Capelli
  • Giovanni Confalonieri
  • Josè Luiz Del Roio

Union of Christian and Centre Democrats

Together with the Union
  • Natale Ripamonti
  • Maria Agostina Pellagatta
  • Gianpaolo Silvestri

Source: Italian Senate

References
  1. According to article 122 of Italian Constitution, nobody can be both member of Parliament and member of a Regional Council. Despite this constitutional provision, ordinary law allows three months of contemporary membership.
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