- Italian regional elections, 2005
The Italian Regional elections of April 3 and 4, 2005 were a major victory ("11-2") for the centre-left coalition L'Unione, led by
Romano Prodi . The centre-right coalition, governing in the national government, was defeated in all the regions it held, except for its strongholds inLombardy andVeneto .Before the elections, there were allegations of centre-left parties helping the fascist coalition
Alternativa Sociale to gather signatures to present their list, as their presence would have been thought to draw votes from the centre-right; some right-wing commentators pointed to grotesque episodes of communists helping fascists to present their list. These allegations remained since unproven. In any case, in no region could the votes from "Alternativa Sociale" have been enough to change the result, if they had been given to the centre-right candidate.Due to a series of bureaucratic issues involving the presentation of the list of Alternativa Sociale in
Basilicata , the election there would have been held two weeks later. There, the victory of the centre-left coalition brought the tally to "12-2".Veneto
Lazio
The defeat in
Lazio for House of Freedoms, where journalistPiero Marrazzo , candidate of the Union, won the election, was especially important, as the centre-right expected to maintain control of the region. Former presidentFrancesco Storace was subsequently granted the status of Minister of Public Health in the new Berlusconi III government, relieving famed doctorGirolamo Sirchia from Berlusconi II, with criticism from the opposition because his lack of previous experience.During the electoral campaign, Francesco Storace came out with factual evidence that
Alessandra Mussolini 's Alternativa Sociale had added fake signatures to real ones to reach the minimum number needed to present a list. However, to demonstrate this, he had someone "hack" into thedatabase of the municipality ofRome in order to verify the signatures: he was therefore nicknamed "Storhacker" by Alessandra Mussolini. It also appeared that someone spied on the left-wing candidate,Piero Marrazzo . [http://www.repubblica.it/2006/c/sezioni/cronaca/ladrisegr/elenchi/elenchi.html?ref=hpstr2]Apulia
In
Apulia , the success ofNichi Vendola came somewhat unexpected. In a southern-Italian region (expected to be morally conservative), Vendola, a communist and a homosexual, defeated the moderate and traditional incumbentRaffaele Fitto . Vendola was the first candidate ever to be appointed by its coalition through aprimary election instead of agreements between parties. A defeat of Vendola might have resulted in the cancellation of the primary elections for the national elections of 2006 in the left-wing coalitionL'Unione .Consequences on national basis
The elections resulted in the national government, led by Silvio Berlusconi, to acknowledge defeat and open a crisis, which resulted in the formation of the Berlusconi III cabinet, with some ministers being substituted.
Results
"Note: The Communist Refoundation Party presented its own candidate in Tuscany, even though it is full member of left-wing coalition The Union, as well as what
Socialist Party New PSI , member of right-wingHouse of Freedoms , did in Umbria."External links
* [http://regionali.interno.it/ind_regio.htm Ministry of Internal Affairs site section about the 2005 Regional Elections] it icon
* [http://www.regionali05.it Informative site] it icon
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