Primary Elections in Italy

Primary Elections In Italy

Primary elections were first introduced in Italy by Lega Nord in 1995, but were seldom used until before the 2005 regional elections. In that occasion the centre-left The Union coalition held open primaries in order to select candidates for President of Apulia and Calabria.

A more politically significant primary was held on 16 October 2005, when The Union asked its voters to decide the candidate for Prime Minister in the next general election: 4,300,000 voters showed up and Romano Prodi won hands down. Two years later, on 14 October 2007, voters of the Democratic Party were called to choose the party leader among a list of six, their representatives to the Constituent Assembly and the local leaders. The primary was a success, involving more than 3,500,000 people across Italy, and gave to the winner Walter Veltroni momentum in a difficult period for the government and the centre-left coalition.

The centre-right House of Freedoms/The People of Freedom has never held a primary at the national level, but held some experiments at the very local level.