2016 Rome municipal election

2016 Rome municipal election

←  2013 5 June 2016 (first round) 19 June 2016 (second round) 2021  →
Turnout	57.0% 4.2 pp (first round) 50.1% 6.9 pp (second round)
Candidate Virginia Raggi Roberto Giachetti Party Five Star Movement Democratic Party Alliance Centre-left 1st Round vote 453,806 320,170 Percentage 35.25% 24.87% 2nd Round vote 770,564 376,935 Percentage 67.15% 32.85%
First round results by municipi
Second round results by municipi Redmunicipi are those with most votes for Giachetti and Yellow those for Raggi.
Mayor before election Francesco Paolo Tronca (Special commissioner) Elected Mayor Virginia Raggi M5S

Snap municipal elections were held in Rome on 5 and 19 June 2016, to elect the Mayor of Rome and 48 members of the City Council, as well as the fifteen presidents and more than 400 councillors of the 15 municipi in which the municipality is divided.

The elections were called following the fall of the former Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino, who was ousted from office after more than half of the members of the City Council resigned in October 2015. ^[1]

The first round of voting on 5 June produced no outright winner, resulting in a run-off election on 19 June between Virginia Raggi, the candidate of the Five Star Movement (M5S), and Roberto Giachetti, member of the Democratic Party (PD). ^[1] Raggi won the mayoral election with two-thirds of the vote, ^[2] and her party alone won a majority in the City Council of Rome with 29 of the 48 seats. ^[3]

The results were widely reported as a major breakthrough for the Five Star Movement, which had previously been seen as a protest party rather than a significant political force. ^{[4] [5]} At the same round of elections, M5S also won Turin municipal elections. ^[4]

Background

On 12 October 2015, the incumbent mayor Ignazio Marino announced his resignation amidst an accusation of expense scandal that had been made by some opposition parties (especially Five Star Movement and the right-wing Brothers of Italy), but on 29 October he retired the resignation. Nevertheless, on 30 October he was ousted from his position after 26 of the 48 members of the City Council resigned. The mayorlater was replaced by a government-appointed commissioner and snap municipal elections were called. ^[6]

Centre-left primary election

As in 2013, the centre-left coalition decided to hold the primary election on 6 March 2016 to decide its mayoral candidate. There were 6 main candidates, all from Democratic Party, since the left-wing parties decided to break the alliance and present their own mayoral candidate. ^[7]

Among the most popular candidates there were deputies Roberto Giachetti and Roberto Morassut. More than 47,000 citizens took part to the primary election which was won by Giachetti:

Candidate		Supported by	Votes (%)
	Roberto Giachetti	PD	64%
	Roberto Morassut	PD	28%
	Others		8%
Total			100%

M5S primary election

As it previously did in different occasion, also the Five Star Movement decided to hold a primary election to choose its mayoral candidate. Many candidates took part in the closed primary which was held online on 23 February 2016. Virginia Raggi, one of four members of the City Council elected for the M5S in 2013, won the primary with 45% of votes. ^[8]

Voting system

The voting system is used for all mayoral elections in Italy, in the city with a population higher than 15,000 inhabitants. Under this system voters express a direct election for the mayor or an indirect election voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate may be able to claim majority support, although it is not guaranteed. ^[9]

The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally. ^[9]

Parties and candidates

This is a list of the parties (and their respective leaders) which participated in the election.

Political party or alliance		Constituent lists		Leader
	Left-wing coalition		Left for Rome (incl. SEL, PRC, PCdI, AET, POS and FaS)	Stefano Fassina
			Fassina for Mayor
	Centre-left coalition		Democratic Party	Roberto Giachetti
			Democrats and Populars (incl. UDC, CD and DemoS)
			Federation of the Greens
			Italy of Values
			Radicals Federalists Lay Ecologists
			Lay Civic Socialists
	Five Star Movement			Virginia Raggi
	Centre-right coalition		Forza Italia	Alfio Marchini
			Marchini List
			Popular Rome
			Storace List
	Right-wing coalition		Brothers of Italy	Giorgia Meloni
			League – Us with Salvini
			Italian Liberal Party
			Popular Federation for Freedom (incl. PpI and NCDU)

Opinion polling

Main article: Opinion polling for the Italian local elections, 2016 § Rome

Results

Summary of the 2016 Rome City Council and Mayoral election results

Candidates		1st round		2nd round		Leader's seat	Parties		Votes	%	Seats
		Votes	%	Votes	%
	Virginia Raggi	461,190	35.26	770,564	67.15	–		Five Star Movement	420,435	35.32	29
	Roberto Giachetti	325,835	24.91	376,935	32.85	Y		Democratic Party	240,637	17.19	6
								Giachetti for Mayor	49,457	4.15	1
								Democrats and Populars	17,378	1.46	–
								Radicals Federalists Lay Ecologists	14,165	1.19	–
								Lay Civic Socialists	7,716	0.64	–
								Federation of the Greens	5,827	0.49	–
								Italy of Values	3,085	0.25	–
								Total	302,265	25.40	7
	Giorgia Meloni	269,760	20.62	–	–	Y		Brothers of Italy	146,054	12.27	4
								With Giorgia Meloni for Mayor	40,441	3.39	1
								League – Us with Salvini	32,175	2.70	–
								Italian Liberal Party	10,749	0.90	–
								Popular Federation for Freedom	4,146	0.34	–
								Total	233,565	19.63	5
	Alfio Marchini	143,829	10.99	–	–	Y		Alfio Marchini for Mayor	56,686	4.76	2
								Forza Italia	50,842	4.27	1
								Popular Rome	15,453	1.29	–
								Storace List	7,391	0.62	–
								Christian Revolution	1,747	0.14	–
								Liberal Network	1,225	0.10	–
								Italian Building Site Movement	1,124	0.09	–
								Total	134,468	11.30	3
	Stefano Fassina	58,498	4.47	–	–	Y		Left for Rome	46,774	3.93	–
								Fassina for Mayor	6,006	0.50	–
								Total	52,780	4.43	–
	Simone Di Stefano	14,865	1.13	–	–	–		CasaPound	14,118	1.18	–
	Alessandro Mustillo	10,371	0.79	–	–	–		Communist Party	9,917	0.83	–
	Dario Di Francesco	8,021	0.61	–	–	–		Talking Cricket List – No Euro	4,772	0.39	–
								Pensioners' Union	1,131	0.09	–
								Movement for Rome	1,032	0.08	–
								Centre League	719	0.06	–
								With Joy! Long Live Italy	281	0.02	–
								Total	7,885	0.66	–
	Mario Adinolfi	7,992	0.61	–	–	–		The People of Family	7,480	0.62	–
	Carlo Rienzi	2,760	0.21	–	–	–		Codacons	2,578	0.21	–
	Alfredo Iorio	2,641	0.20	–	–	–		Fatherland	2,576	0.21	–
	Fabrizio Verduchi	1,310	0.10	–	–	–		Christian Italy	1,185	0.09	–
	Michel Emi Maritato	873	0.06	–	–	–		Assotutela	878	0.07	–
Total		1,307,945	100.00	1,147,499	100.00	4			1,190,130	100.00	44
Eligible voters		2,363,776	100.00	2,363,776	100.00
Did not vote		1,015,736	42.97	1,178,496	49.86
Voted		1,348,040	57.03	1,185,280	50.14
Blank or invalid ballots		40,095	2.97	37,781	3.18
Total valid votes		1,307,945	97.03	1,147,499	96.82
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Municipi election

Result of municipi elections.

All the presidents were elected on the second round, since none obtained more than 50% of votes on the first round of voting. The president of Municipio X wasn't elected since the municipio was under the administration of a Special Commissioner nominated after the municipal council had been dissolved in 2015 due to mafia association.

Table below shows the results for each municipio with the percentage for each coalition on the second round:

Municipio	M5S	Centre-left	Right-wing	Elected President	Party
I	49.2	50.8	–	Sabrina Alfonsi	PD
II	48.3	51.7	–	Francesca Del Bello	PD
III	62.9	37.1	–	Roberta Capoccioni	M5S
IV	68.2	31.8	–	Roberta Della Casa	M5S
V	67.8	32.2	–	Giovanni Boccuzzi	M5S
VI	72.9	–	27.1	Roberto Romanella	M5S
VII	64.8	35.2	–	Monica Lozzi	M5S
VIII	59.1	40.9	–	Paolo Pace	M5S
IX	65.0	35.0	–	Dario D'Innocenti	M5S
X	Municipal Council and President suspended
XI	61.9	38.1	–	Mario Torelli	M5S
XII	56.9	43.1	–	Silvia Crescimanno	M5S
XIII	64.7	35.3	–	Giuseppina Castagnetta	M5S
XIV	61.9	38.1	–	Alfredo Campagna	M5S
XV	58.6	41.2	–	Stefano Simonelli	M5S

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service

References

1. Rosie Scammell, "Rubbish on the streets, corruption in the air: Rome looks for a clean-up candidate", The Guardian, 12 June 2016
2. "Five Star Movement candidate Virginia Raggi could become Rome's mayor". The Age . 5 June 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
3. "Comunali [Scrutini] Comune di ROMA - Elezioni del 19 giugno 2015 (ballottaggio)". Dipartimento per gli Affari Interni e Territoriali. Ministero Dell'Interno. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
4. Rosie Scamell (20 June 2016). "Anti-establishment candidates elected to lead Rome and Turin". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
5. John Phillips (20 June 2016). "Rome elects first female mayor in breakthrough for Five Star Movement". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
6. "The Holy See cracks down on leaks about its scandalous finances". The Economist . 7 November 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
7. "Primarie Pd Roma 2016. I dati definitivi" (in Italian). 8 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
8. "Virginia Raggi candidata sindaco di Roma del M5S" (in Italian). Panorama. 24 February 2016. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
9. "ELEZIONI AMMINISTRATIVE 2016 - IL DOSSIER" (PDF). Ministry of Interior . Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2016.