2011 Milan municipal election

Municipal elections were held in Milan on 15–16 and 29–30 May 2011, at the same time as Italian local elections.

2011 Milan mayoral election

15–16 and 29–30 May 2011
Turnout67.6% (first round)
67.4% (second round)[1]
 
Candidate Giuliano Pisapia Letizia Moratti
Party Left Ecology Freedom People of Freedom
Alliance Centre-left coalition Centre-right coalition
1st Round vote 315,862 273,401
Percentage 48.0% 41.6%
2nd Round vote 365,657 297,874
Percentage 55.1% 44.9%

Mayor before election

Letizia Moratti

Elected Mayor

Giuliano Pisapia

The incumbent Mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, was defeated by the center-left candidate Giuliano Pisapia.

Councillors and presidents of the 9 administrative zones of the city were also to be decided in the elections. Of these, the center-left coalition controlled one and the center-right eight. 48 councillors were due to be elected in the City Council.

As a result of the election, Pisapia was elected on the second round becoming the first leftist mayor of Milan after nearly 20 years. The center-left coalition gained control of 29 seats in the City Council.[2]

Background

Center-left primary election

In June 2010, Pisapia was the first to submit his own nomination as the Mayor of Milan, for the elections that would take place the following year. A number of intellectuals and notable people from the cultural and political elite of Milan immediately expressed their support of Pisapia.

On 14 November 2010 he ran for the open primary election of the center-left coalition led by the Democratic Party, with the support of Nichi Vendola's Left Ecology Freedom, and unexpectedly won (receiving 45% preferences) despite not being an actual member of the PD.[3]

Candidate Supporting party votes (%)
Giuliano Pisapia SEL 45.36
Stefano Boeri PD 40.16
Valerio Onida Nonpartisan 13.41
Michele Sacerdoti Nonpartisan 1.07

Total voters: 67,499

Campaign

At the beginning of the campaign, incumbent Mayor Letizia Moratti was thought to be largely advantaged, especially as Milan is traditionally a right-wing stronghold, the homeland of Silvio Berlusconi's party (to which Moratti belongs), as well as a symbol of the alliance between Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi's Lega Nord, a party that promotes a greater independence of Northern Italy. Both Bossi and Berlusconi repeatedly declared that the left wing had no chance to win the elections in Milan, and Berlusconi himself actively contributed in the campaign, possibly to reaffirm his appeal to the Italian people leveraging on the results of what was supposed to be an easy match.[4] Berlusconi warned that if Moratti was defeated, Milan would become a "Gypsytown" and an "Islamic city".[5] The Milan Islamic Center criticized these remarks.[6]

As Berlusconi had recently been involved in a number of controversial matters, including the so-called Ruby Gate, many observers described the elections in Milan as a poll that would assess the popular support of Berlusconi's politics.[4] This attracted much attention to this particular election (one of many administrative elections held in the same days in several locations in Italy).

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.

For zones the voting system is the same, not referred to the mayor but to the president of the zone.

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.

Parties and candidates

This is a list of the major parties (and their respective leaders) which participated in the election.

Political party or alliance Constituent lists Candidate
Centre-left coalition
Democratic Party
Giuliano Pisapia
Left Ecology Freedom
Italy of Values
Federation of the Left
Italian Radicals
Federation of the Greens
Centre-right coalition
The People of Freedom
Letizia Moratti
Lega Nord
The Right
I Love Italy
The Populars of Italy Tomorrow
Alliance of the Centre
Centrist coalition
New Pole for Italy
Manfredi Palmeri
Union of the Centre
Five Star Movement
Mattia Calise

Results

Piazza del Duomo. Supporters of Pisapia celebrating his election on 30 May 2011.
Supporters of Pisapia celebrating his election in front of the Duomo.

In the first round of elections, on 15–16 May 2011, Pisapia got 48% of the votes and Moratti 41%. As none of them exceeded 50%, a second face-to-face round was scheduled for 29–30 May. This first success of Pisapia was one of a number of successes of the left wing in several other cities and provinces. With the campaign reaching ever harsher tones than before, Pisapia finally won on 30 May, with 55% of the votes.[7] Internet and social networks played a relevant role in the election of Pisapia.[8][9][10]

The candidate of Beppe Grillo's party Five Star Movement, Mattia Calise, who was only 20 years old, obtained nearly 3.5% of the votes.

Candidate Party or Coalition First round Second round
Votes % Votes %
Giuliano Pisapia Centre-left (SEL) 315,862 48.00 365,657 55.10
Letizia Moratti Centre-right (PdL) 273,401 41.60 297,874 44.90
Manfredi Palmeri New Pole (UDC) 36,471 5.54
Mattia Calise M5S 21,228 3.43
Giancarlo Pagliarini LP 4,229 0.64
Marco Mantovani FN 2,366 0.35
Carla De Albertis Independent 1,804 0.27
Elisabetta Fatuzzo PP 1,613 0.24
Fabrizio Montuori PCdL 405 0.06
Eligible voters 996,400 100.0 996,400 100.0
Did not vote 322,875 32.4 324,980 32.6
Voted 673,525 67.6 671,420 67.4
Blank or invalid ballots 15,838 2.4 7,889 1.2
Total valid votes 657,687 97.6 663,531 98.8

Summary of the 2011 Milan City Council election results

 
Parties and coalitions Votes % Seats
Democratic Party (Partito Democratico) PD 170,55128.6%20
Left Ecology Freedom (Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà) SEL 28,0164.7%3
Communist Refoundation Party (Rifondazione Comunista) PRC 18,4673.1%2
Italy of Values (Italia dei Valori) IdV 15,1452.5%1
Italian Radicals (Radicali Italiani) RI 10,2151.7%1
Others 39,1006.5%2
Pisapia coalition (Centre-left) 281,49447.3%29
People of Freedom (Il Popolo della Libertà) PdL 171,22228.7%12
Lega Nord LN 57,4039.6%4
The Right (La Destra) LD 1,7210.3%0
Others 27,4314.6%1
Moratti coalition (Centre-right) 257,77743.3%17
New Pole for Italy (Nuovo Polo per l'Italia) NP-UDC 27,3284.6%1
Five Star Movement (Movimento Cinque Stelle) M5S 20,4383.4%1
Others 8,5481.4%0
Total 595,585100%48
Votes cast / turnout 673,18567.1%
Registered voters 996,400
Source: Ministry of the Interior

According to each part's popular vote, the People of Freedom party (PdL) won a narrow victory over the center-left Democratic Party (PD), which however won the majority in the City Council.

Popular vote
PdL
28.75%
PD
28.64%
LN
9.64%
SEL
4.70%
M5S
3.43%
PRC
3.10%
Council Seats
PD
41.6%
PdL
22.9%
LN
8.3%
SEL
6.2%
PRC
4.2%
M5S
2.1%
Popular vote (coalition)
Centre-left
47.26%
Centre-right
43.28%
Centre
4.59%
M5S
3.43%
Council seats (coalition)
Centre-left
62.5%
Centre-right
33.3%
Centre
2.0%
M5S
2.0%

Results by zona

The 9 zones

After the 2006 election, 8 zone were governed by the center-right and only one by the center-left. Then all were gained by the center-left coalition.[2]

Zone Centre-left Centre-right Others Elected President Party
1 47.3 44.9 7.8 Fabio Luigi Arrigoni PD
2 45.8 43.5 10.7 Mario Villa PD
3 49.5 39.4 11.1 Renato Sacristiani PRC
4 48.8 40.8 9.4 Loredana Bigatti PD
5 48.2 40.1 11.1 Aldo Ugliano PD
6 49.1 39.8 11.1 Gabriele Rabaiotti PD
7 45.6 42.4 12 Fabrizio Tellini IdV
8 48.1 40.9 11.0 Simone Zambelli SEL
9 49.3 40.3 10.4 Beatrice Uguccioni PD

Notes

  1. Ministry of the Interior
  2. http://www.comune.milano.it/dseserver/statistica/bancadatielettorale/consultazione.html
  3. Teresa Montestiroli (November 14, 2010). "Primarie a Milano, Pisapia batte Boeri". La Repubblica. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  4. Elisabetta Polovedo (May 11, 2011). "Berlusconi makes election in Milan all about him". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  5. "Silvio Berlusconi warns Milan could become 'Gypsytown'". BBC News. 2011-05-03.
  6. "Italian PM under fire for opposing Milan mosque". Press TV. 2011-05-24. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.
  7. Jeffrey Donovan (May 30, 2011). "Berlusconi Coalition Defeated in Mayoral Races". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  8. Lorenzo Pregliasco (June 1, 2011). "Lo spartiacque di Milano". Termometro politico. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
  9. Massimo Pisa (May 31, 2011). "Pisapia, una battaglia vinta sul web prima ancora che nei seggi elettorali". La Repubblica. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  10. Davide Casati (May 31, 2011). "Ecco perché Pisapia ha vinto le elezioni". GQ.com. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
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