2024 European Parliament election in Italy

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All 76 Italian seats to the European Parliament
Opinion polls
First party Second party Third party   Leader Matteo Salvini Elly Schlein Giuseppe Conte Party League Democratic Party Five Star Movement Alliance ID S&D NI Leader since 15 December 2013 12 March 2023 6 August 2021 Last election 34.3%, 29 seats 22.7%, 19 seats 17.1%, 14 seats   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Antonio Tajani Giorgia Meloni Philipp Achammer Party Forza Italia Brothers of Italy SVP Alliance EPP ECR EPP Leader since 15 July 2023 8 March 2014 3 May 2014 Last election 8.7%, 6 seats 6.4%, 5 seats 0.5%, 1 seat

The 2024 European Parliament election in Italy will be held on 9 June 2024, electing members of the 10th Italian delegation to the European Parliament as part of the European elections held across the European Union.^[1]

Background

Fidanza's investigations

On 30 September 2021, Fanpage published an investigation revealing footage recorded with a hidden camera by an infiltrated journalist, in which the MEP Carlo Fidanza, together with the Milan district councillor Roberto Jonghi Lavarini, asked the journalist, who was pretending to be an entrepreneur, to finance Chiara Valcepina's election campaign in the 2021 Milan municipal election, saying they could pay under the table and launder that money. The discussion led to jokes about Jews, black people, references to Hitler's Munich beer hall speech, and Fidanza making the gesture of the Roman salute. Following the publication of the article, Fidanza suspended himself from Brothers of Italy. The investigation also involved the former Lega MEP Mauro Borghezio, the Lega regional councillor in Lombardy, Massimiliano Bastoni, and the Milan city councillor Silvia Sardone, who were filmed while proposing to make the 'third League' with Lealtà Azione, a neo-Nazi movement, masquerading it as a non-profit organisation to distribute parcels of pasta to voters with photos of the candidates on them. Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, demanded to see the full footage before being able to judge. The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation for eight people for illegal financing and money laundering, including MEPs Angelo Ciocca and Carlo Fidanza, which was closed in December 2022 due to lack of evidence.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Fidanza was also involved in a corruption investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office for having made Brescia city councillor Giovanni Acri resign in order to get Giangiacomo Calovini elected, in exchange for the appointment of Acri's son as Fidanza's assistant in the European Parliament. Fidanza and Calovini plea bargained with the Milan Public Prosecutor to one year and four months, avoiding the disqualification from public office that would have been triggered by the Severino Law.^[9][10][11]

Campaign

League

Matteo Salvini repeatedly called for the formation of an alternative majority in the European Parliament that included the groups of EPP, ECR and ID, like the center-right coalition that won the 2022 general elections in Italy. Salvini organized an Identity and Democracy convention in Florence on 7 December 2023, where he criticized the European Green Deal, accusing the socialists of ‘illegally occupying’ the European Commission. However, the leader of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, criticized Salvini’s idea, not considering an alliance with Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Alternative for Germany possible.^[12][13]

Brothers of Italy

In an interview with ZDF on 6 August 2023, the President of the EPP Manfred Weber praised Meloni's government, suggesting a possible alliance with Brothers of Italy for the next election. However, he drew a red line with three conditions to fulfill: the support for Ukraine in their conflict, the willingness to build Europe and not destroy it, and the acceptance of the rule of law, denying at the same time an alliance with AfD, RN or PiS. However Markus Söder, the leader of the CSU, turned down any alliance with Brothers of Italy.^[14][15] Former German Minister of Justice Katarina Barley accused Weber of opening up to the far right in Europe.^[16] During the press conference held on 5 January, Meloni said there are “insurmountable distances” with AfD, while she praised Le Pen.^[17]

Action, Italia Viva and More Europe

After the break-up of the Third Pole (an electoral coalition formed in 2022 between Action and Italia Viva), there were concerns that there was a risk of presenting three lists belonging to the same Renew Europe group without any of the three lists being able to pass the threshold, thus not electing any MEPs.^[18] Stéphane Séjourné, President of Renew Europe, publicly appealed in May 2023 to both parties to stand together at the next European elections, so as to elect “as many MEPs from the Renew Europe group as possible”.^[19][20][21] However, disagreements between Calenda and Renzi hindered the birth of a common list: Renzi announced the break-up of the common groups at the Parliament and the birth of a list called The Centre, while Calenda expressed his opposition to run again with Renzi. Calenda had also broken the federation with More Europe in August 2022, preferring to ally himself with Italia Viva to create the Third Pole, and he had also stood as a candidate in the same constituency as Emma Bonino, ending up favouring the centre-right candidate who then won the uninominal constituency.^[22][23][24]

On 30 September 2023 Riccardo Magi, secretary of More Europe, announced that his party will run as United States of Europe.^[25] On 13 December, the National Direction of More Europe approved talks with the other Italian liberal parties for a list supporting the United States of Europe.^[26] On 15 December Emma Bonino published on La Stampa a manifesto, calling for the United States of Europe.^[27] The manifesto was signed by individual people like Marco Bentivogli (leader of Base Italia), Giusi Nicolini, Sandro Gozi, Nathalie Tocci and Renato Soru and parties like IV.^{[28][29][30][31][32]}

Electoral system

The party-list proportional representation was the traditional electoral system of the Italian Republic from its establishment in 1946 to 1994, therefore it was also adopted to elect the Italian members of the European Parliament (MEPs) since 1979.

Two levels were introduced: a national level to divide the seats among parties and a constituency level to distribute them among candidates in open lists. Five constituencies were established, each including 2–5 regions and each electing a fixed number of MEPs. At national level, seats are divided between party lists using the largest remainder method with Hare quota. Seats are allocated to parties and then to their most voted candidates.

In the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament election, the Italian Parliament introduced a national threshold of 4%. An exception was granted for parties representing some linguistic minorities as such lists can be connected with one of the major parties, combining their votes, provided that those parties reach the 4% threshold and that candidates from minority parties obtain a sufficient number of votes, no less than 50,000 for the main candidate.

Every political party that intends to take part in the election must collect at least 3,000 signatures of eligible voters for each constituency; however, the following lists are exempted from the collection of signatures: all the lists that have at least one group in the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate of the Republic, all the lists that contested themselves in the last political election with their own symbol and that have elected at least one parliamentarian, all the lists that contain the symbol of a list already exempted from the collection of signatures, and the lists that refer in the symbol to a European party or a party of another nation within the European Union that has elected at least one MEP at the last European elections. The latter condition was established in 2019 by the Electoral Offices of the constituencies.^[33]

Constituencies

Attempts to amend the electoral law

The Regional Council of Sardinia in 2023 unanimously approved a proposal to split the Islands constituency into 'Sicily' and 'Sardinia' due to the population disproportion between the two Italian regions. The proposal is currently under discussion in the Senate of the Republic.^[35][36]

In July 2023, it was informally proposed to lower the electoral threshold from 4% to 3%, the same electoral threshold used for the political elections. This proposal was welcomed by Greens and Left Alliance and Us Moderates. Brothers of Italy didn’t shut it down since they wanted to help Forza Italia, whose future seemed uncertain after the death of its historic leader Silvio Berlusconi, while League and Italia Viva declared themselves against the proposal. The proposal was officially rejected in September when Forza Italia, fearing the competition of Italia Viva and Action in the center, refused to lower the electoral threshold.^[37][38][39]

Main parties and leaders

Outgoing MEPs

The table shows the detailed composition of the Italian seats at the European Parliament as of 13 December 2023.

Summary of parties

This is a list of the main parties which will participate in the election and were polled in most national opinion surveys.

Candidates

League

League leader Matteo Salvini announced on 8 January 2024 that he would not run for the next European Parliament. He also praised Roberto Vannacci, an Italian Army general who became notorious in the summer of 2023 for writing a political book containing homophobic, racist and sexist statements while on duty.^[44][45] An internal disciplinary procedure was opened against him by the Italian Army to investigate possible disciplinary offences.^[46] Vannacci said he would consider a candidature for the European elections.^[47]

Democratic Party

Paolo Gentiloni, outgoing European Commissioner for Economy, turned down the chance to stand as a candidate for the European Parliament.^[48]

Brothers of Italy

Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy and 68th Prime Minister of Italy, said during a press conference that she was considering running in the next elections.^[49] According to Article 122 of the Italian Constitution, and according to Article 6 of the Access Initial Legal Act approved by the European Parliament, the office of Prime Minister is incompatible with that of MEP, therefore Meloni should immediately resign as MEP.^[50][51][52] Silvio Berlusconi was the only italian incumbent Prime Minister to run as a candidate for the European elections in 1994, 2004 and in 2009, resigning as MEP after the elections due to incompatibility with the office of Prime Minister.^[53][54]

More Europe

On 14 January Emma Bonino, founder of More Europe, declined to stand as a candidate for the election.^[55] On 25 January Federico Pizzarotti, President of More Europe, announced his desire to run as a candidate.^[56]

Action

On 22 January Calenda unveiled on the party website the first candidates for the election: MEP Giosi Ferrandino, Caterina Avanza, Alessio D'Amato, Cristina Lodi, Mario Raffaelli and Giuseppe Zollino.^[57][58]

Opinion polling and seat projections

Vote

Projection of seats in the European Parliament