European Parliament election, 2009 (Italy)

Italian election of European Parliament, 2009

← 2004 6 and 7 June 2009 2014 →
72 seats to the European Parliament
First party Second party Third party   Leader Silvio Berlusconi Dario Franceschini Umberto Bossi Party People of Freedom Democratic Party Northern League Alliance EPP S&D EFD Leader since 26 January 1994 16 February 2009 4 December 1989 Last election 32,4% 31.1% 5.0% Seats before 25 24 4 Seats won 29 21 9 Seat change 4 3 5 Popular vote 10,797,296 7,999,476 3,126,915 Percentage 35.3% 26.1% 10.2% Swing 2.9% 5.0% 5.2%
Major parties in each Province

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Italy was held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on 18 December 2008. Italy elected 72 members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

The party-list proportional representation was the traditional electoral system of the Italian Republic since its foundation in 1946, so it had been adopted to elect the Italian representatives to the European Parliament too. Two levels were used: a national level to divide seats between parties, and a constituency level to distribute them between candidates. Italian regions were united in 5 constituencies, each electing a group of deputies. At national level, seats were divided between party lists using the largest remainder method with Hare quota. All seats gained by each party were automatically distributed to their local open lists and their most voted candidates.

In the run-up of the election, the Italian Parliament has introduced a national threshold of 4% in the electoral law for the European Parliament.

However, the electoral law guarantees representation for linguistic minorities. The parties which represent minorities can be connected with the major parties for the purpose of elections, combining their votes. If the party of the linguistic minority gets more than 50,000 votes, it wins a seat.

The election was a victory for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The parties supporting the government (The People of Freedom and Lega Nord) won 38 seats, while the opposition (Democratic Party, Italy of Values and Union of the Centre) collectively elected 34 candidates.