Apulian regional election, 2010

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Apulian regional election, 2010

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←  2005 March 28-29, 2010 2015  →
All 76 seats to the Regional Council of Apulia

  Majority party Minority party
  Nicola Vendola daticamera.jpg Rocco Palese daticamera.jpg
Leader Nichi Vendola Rocco Palese
Party Left Ecology Freedom People of Freedom
Alliance Centre-left coalition Centre-right coalition
Last election 42 seats, 49.8% 28 seats, 49.2%
Seats won46 26
Seat changeIncrease2.svg4Decrease2.svg2
Popular vote1,036,683 899,590
Percentage48.7% 42.3%
SwingDecrease2.svg0.9%Decrease2.svg6.9%
President of Apulia before election

Nichi Vendola
Left Ecology Freedom

President of Apulia

Nichi Vendola
Left Ecology Freedom

The Apulian regional election of 2010 took place in Apulia, Italy, on 28–29 March 2010.

Apulia Region of Italy

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto to the south. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and its population is about four million.

Contents

The outgoing President Nichi Vendola of Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) was elected for a second-consecutive term, after having won the a primary election in which he beat a Democrat and having benefited from the split of the centre-right, whose two candidates jointly won 51.0% of the vote.

Nichi Vendola Italian writer and politician

Nicola "Nichi" Vendola is an Italian left-wing politician and LGBT activist who was a Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Apulia from 1992 to 2005 and President of Apulia from 2005 to 2015. He is one of the first openly LGBT Italian politicians and the first openly head of a regional government in Italy

Left Ecology Freedom political party

Left Ecology Freedom was a democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose bulk was formed by former members of the Communist Refoundation Party.

Democratic Party (Italy) political party in Italy

The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy.

Vendola's party, SEL, had a strong showing in the Region by coming third with 9.7% of the vote, after The People of Freedom (31.1%) and the Democratic Party (20.8%).

The People of Freedom political party in Italy

The People of Freedom was a centre-right political party in Italy.

Background

The incumbent left-wing president Nichi Vendola, who in 2005 surprisingly defeated a centrist in the centre-left primary election and then the outgoing President Raffaele Fitto, is under attack by his own coalition. Vendola, a gay communist President in a fairly conservative region, will find hard to get re-election in a time when the centre-right led by Silvio Berlusconi is ahead of the centre-left both in Apulia and the whole country. Moreover Vendola, after having left the Communist Refoundation Party in early 2009, instead of joining the Democratic Party (PD), the largest party of the centre-left, started a small outfit named Left and Freedom and launched his bid. [1] [2]

Raffaele Fitto Italian politician

Raffaele Fitto is an Italian politician, leader of Direction Italy, an Italian conservative party.

Silvio Berlusconi Italian politician

Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian media tycoon and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments.

Communist Refoundation Party Italian political party

The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist political party in Italy, emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replaced Paolo Ferrero in 2017. Armando Cossutta was the party's founder, while Fausto Bertinotti its longest-serving leader (1994–2008). The latter transformed the PRC from a traditional communist party into a collector of radical social movements.

The Democrats acknowledge that they need a larger coalition in order to beat the centre-right and they are thus trying to convince Vendola to give up his bid and to endorse a more centrist candidate that could obtain the support of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) and Adriana Poli Bortone's I the South movement. Michele Emiliano, Mayor of Bari and PD regional leader, has been constantly mentioned as a possible candidate who may receive the support also of the UDC. [2] [3] [4] For her part Poli Bortone may be interested in the race but her right-wing upbringing (she was a member of the Italian Social Movement and of National Alliance) would undoubtedly stir the left. [5]

Adriana Poli Bortone Italian politician

Adriana Poli Bortone is an Italian politician and was a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2008. She represented Southern Italy. She was mayor of Lecce until 2007.

I the South, was a centrist regionalist political party in Italy, which has been a faction of Brothers of Italy since 2014.

Michele Emiliano Italian magistrate and politician

Michele Emiliano is an Italian politician and former judge. He was the mayor of Bari from 2004 to 2014. Since June 2015, he has served as president of the Apulia Region.

In a succession of events between late December 2009 and January 2010, Emiliano turned against Vendola [6] (whom he supported until then), asked his party's regional assembly to unanimously endorse him, [7] the assembly of the party was suspended because of clashes between Emiliano and Vendola supporters, [8] then Emiliano accepted to contest a primary election with Vendola [9] and finally withdrew from the race, [10] leaving the PD without a strong candidate.

Finally Vendola was chosen as candidate of the centre-left in a primary election on 25 January 2010. [11] The People of Freedom (PdL) of Berlusconi and Fitto subsequently chose Rocco Palese, leader of Forza Italia–PdL group in the Regional Council and former Vice President of Fitto, [12] while the UDC launched Poli Bortone. [13]

Centre-left primary election

After that Emiliano renounced his bid, the PD proposed Francesco Boccia as its candidate [14] and the UDC endorsed him. [15] However, as Vendola did not intend to withdraw from the race, the PD accepted to run a coalition primary election between Vendola and Boccia. [16] This was a re-edition of the 2005 primary election, in which Boccia was narrowly defeated by Vendola. [17]

On 25 January 2010 an unprecedented number of Apulian citizens turned out to vote in the primary and Vendola trounced Boccia in the primary, by winning over 62% of the votes cast.

Candidates votes votes (%)
Nichi Vendola (SEL)137,52167.2
Francesco Boccia (PD)66,99132.8
Total204,512100.0

Source: Nichi Vendola campaign website

General election results

Candidates & parties votes votes (%) seats
Nichi Vendola 1,036,638 48.6946+1
Democratic Party 410,39520.7523
Left Ecology Freedom (inc. PSI) [18] 192,6049.7411
Italy of Values 127,8656.476
Apulia for Vendola109,3825.536
Federation of the Left–Greens 64,4413.26-
Bonino-Pannella List 6,0050.30-
Rocco Palese 899,59042.2526+1
The People of Freedom 615,06431.1020
Apulia First of All 139,3797.054
The Apulians for Rocco Palese95,0704.812
Alliance of the Centre 11,0470.560
UDEUR 9,1250.460
Pensioners' Party 4,7770.240
Adriana Poli Bortone 185,3708.714
Union of the Centre 128,5426.504
I the South 57,9012.93-
Michele Rizzi 7,3760.35-
Communist Alternative Party 5,8340.30-
Total2,128,974100.0078

Sources: Apulia Region and Corriere della Sera

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References

  1. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  2. 1 2 "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  3. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  4. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  5. ↑ "aprileonline.info". www.aprileonline.info.
  6. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  7. ↑ "Emiliano manda sms: senza l'unanimità non mi candido - Corriere del Mezzogiorno". corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it.
  8. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  9. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  10. ↑ "Puglia, Emiliano ritira la candidatura "Ma la mia non è una rinuncia" - Politica - Repubblica.it". www.repubblica.it.
  11. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  12. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  13. ↑ "Poli Bortone: io corro per vincere - Corriere del Mezzogiorno". corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it.
  14. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  15. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  16. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  17. ↑ "Archivio Corriere della Sera". archiviostorico.corriere.it.
  18. ↑ Four regional councillors out of the eleven elected by Left Ecology Freedom, including Onofrio Introna, President of the Regional Council, belong to the Italian Socialist Party. See "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-17. Retrieved 2010-07-29..
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