Berlusconi bends but does not break

Italy was never one to root for the underdog, but if there were any true winners of the European elections in Italy, the two main parties would not necessarily claim first prize. 

Instead, Italian ‘protest parties’ like the far-right Northern League reached the 10 percent benchmark – its best result ever. Further still, the former anti-corruption magistrate Antonio Di Pietro led his centrist Italy of Values party to claim eight percent of the vote, and increase their number of representatives in Brussels from one to seven.

The centrist Christian-Democrat Union (UdC) also fared quite well, increasing the ranks of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) grouping in the European Parliament with five MEPs. Controversially, all other lists were cut off by the 4 percent threshold, which led to more than four million Italians disenfranchised as the Greens, Socialists, and the Radicals (the party of former Commissioner Emma Bonino) all missed the cut – despite some high-profile activities during the last Parliament.

In tune with the rest of Europe, Italy solidly endorsed its ruling centre-right coalition, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Though slightly down in the polls compared to last year’s national elections (35.3 percent, down 2.1 percent from 2008) – which handed Berlusconi the keys to the executive for the third time – the newly re-formed People of Freedom party remains the largest party in Italy, and secured 29 seats in the European Parliament.

However, Berlusconi’s ally, the secessionist and anti-immigration party Northern League, came out ahead of the People of Freedom in Italy’s northeast. It will now send nine representatives to Brussels.

Former Commission President Romano Prodi’s political legacy, the centre-left Partito Democratico (Democratic Party) endured a year of internal turmoil. The party dropped to 26.2 percent of the vote from 33.2 percent a year ago, translating into 21 MEPs this time around. 

After some speculation, the 21 have now signalled their new affiliation with the European Socialist grouping (currently the PES, likely to be renamed to reflect its wider membership), leaving the liberal ALDE grouping without what some had hoped would be further members to raise their head count. 

The Partito Democratico arguably lost a serious chunk of votes to the Italy of Values party. The latter ran on what many argue is a popular anti-Berlusconi sentiment, which was bolstered during the campaign by negative media coverage of allegations concerning the Prime Minister’s personal life. However, the Premier’s many supporters praised him for keeping campaign promises and making immigration a key priority.

Italian voter turnout dropped considerably compared with the last European election in line with the Europe-wide trend – but Italy is still a “good pupil”, with one the highest relative turnouts (66.5 percent).