2011 Milan municipal election

2011 Milan mayoral election
	15–16 and 29–30 May 2011
	15–16 and 29–30 May 2011
Turnout	67.6% (first round); 67.4% (second round)[1]
Mayor before election; Letizia Moratti;	Elected Mayor ; Giuliano Pisapia;

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

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.

		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
Centrist coalition	Union of the Centre	Manfredi Palmeri
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
Candidate		Party or Coalition	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	170,551	28.6%	20
		Left Ecology Freedom (Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà)	SEL	28,016	4.7%	3
		Communist Refoundation Party (Rifondazione Comunista)	PRC	18,467	3.1%	2
		Italy of Values (Italia dei Valori)	IdV	15,145	2.5%	1
		Italian Radicals (Radicali Italiani)	RI	10,215	1.7%	1
		Others		39,100	6.5%	2
Pisapia coalition (Centre-left)				281,494	47.3%	29
		People of Freedom (Il Popolo della Libertà)	PdL	171,222	28.7%	12
		Lega Nord	LN	57,403	9.6%	4
		The Right (La Destra)	LD	1,721	0.3%	0
		Others		27,431	4.6%	1
Moratti coalition (Centre-right)				257,777	43.3%	17
	New Pole for Italy (Nuovo Polo per l'Italia)		NP-UDC	27,328	4.6%	1
	Five Star Movement (Movimento Cinque Stelle)		M5S	20,438	3.4%	1
	Others			8,548	1.4%	0

Total				595,585	100%	48

Votes cast / turnout				673,185	67.1%
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
Zone
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

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

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[1] Ministry of the Interior

[comune.milano.it-2] ttp://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.

[nytimes-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.

[termometro-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.

[gq-10] Davide Casati (May 31, 2011). "Ecco perché Pisapia ha vinto le elezioni". GQ.com. Retrieved June 1, 2011.