European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)

Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on June 13, 2004. Italy's highly fragmented party system made it hard to identify an overall trend, but the results were generally seen as a defeat for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a victory for the centre-left opposition coalition identified with Romano Prodi, who was President of the European Commission until 2004, and is widely expected to re-enter Italian politics at the next election.

Related Topics:
Elections to the European Parliament - Italy - June 13 - 2004 - Silvio Berlusconi - Romano Prodi - President of the European Commission - Next election

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The common list of the Olive Tree, comprising mainly the Left-Wing Democrats and Daisy-Democracy is Freedom became the largest list, with an important psychological effect. However, expectations for this list were originally somewhat larger, and Massimo D'Alema had proclaimed that "If the unity list reaches 33%, the government has to go".

Related Topics:
Olive Tree - Left-Wing Democrats - Daisy-Democracy is Freedom - Massimo D'Alema

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While the Unity list did not live up to its expectations, the test indicated a somewhat reduced support for the right-wing coalition. However, it must be kept in mind that, in European elections, Italians tend to vote in a more "light-hearted" way, giving their vote more easily to a candidate outside their usual party; this generally reduces the significance of these elections.

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Among the notable results, Lilli Gruber for the Olive-Tree Unity List obtained more votes than Silvio Berlusconi himself, a fact that was perceived as very important, as Berlusconi, whose personality is pivotal to his coalition, used to top such personalised elections by a large margin.

Related Topics:
Lilli Gruber - Silvio Berlusconi

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