Italian general election, 2001

Italian general election, 2001

13 May 2001

All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 315 seats in the Italian Senate Turnout 81.4%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Silvio Berlusconi Francesco Rutelli Fausto Bertinotti Party Forza Italia The Daisy Communist Refoundation Party Alliance House of Freedoms The Olive Tree Leader's seat Milan Centre Rome Praenestine Turin Centre Last election 305 C & 143 S, 43.2% 300 C & 157 S, 45.4% 35 C & 10 S, 8.6% Seats won 368 C / 176 S 241 C / 128 S 11 C / 4 S Seat change 96 C / 33 S 82 C / 29 S 30 C / 6 S Popular vote 16,915,513 16,209,944 1,868,659 Percentage 45.4% 43.5% 5.0% Swing 2.2% 1.9% 3.6%

Legislative election results map. Azure denotes provinces with a Forza Italia plurality, Red denotes those with a Democrats of the Left plurality, Green denotes those with a Daisy plurality, Gray denotes those with a Regionalist plurality.

Prime Minister before election Giuliano Amato The Olive Tree Prime Minister-designate Silvio Berlusconi House of Freedoms

A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen.

Leader of the right-wing House of Freedoms Silvio Berlusconi won the election, defeating Francesco Rutelli, former Mayor of Rome, and premieral candidate of the leftist Olive Tree coalition, and rising back to power after his first victory, in 1994.

Electoral system

The intricate electoral system, called scorporo, provided 75% of the seats on the Chamber of Deputies (the Lower House) as elected by first-past-the-post system, whereas the remaining 25% was assigned on a proportional way with a minimum threshold of 4%.

The method used for the Senate was even more complicated: 75% of seats by uninominal method, and 25% by a special proportional method that actually assigned the remaining seats to minority parties. Formally these were examples of additional member systems.

General election

Campaign

For this election Berlusconi again ran as leader of the centre-right coalition House of Freedoms (Italian: La Casa delle Libertà), which included the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, the Lega Nord, the National Alliance and other parties.

On the television interviews programme Porta a Porta, during the last days of the electoral campaign, Berlusconi created a powerful impression on the public by undertaking to sign a so-called Contratto con gli Italiani (English: Contract with the Italians), an idea copied outright by his advisor Luigi Crespi from the Newt Gingrich's Contract with America introduced six weeks before the 1994 US Congressional election,^[1] which was widely considered to be a creative masterstroke in his 2001 campaign bid for prime ministership. In this solemn agreement, Berlusconi claimed his commitment on improving several aspects of the Italian economy and life. Firstly, he undertook to simplify the complex tax system by introducing just two tax rates (33% for those earning over 100,000 euros, and 23% for anyone earning less than that figure: anyone earning less than 11,000 euros a year would not be taxed); secondly, he promised to halve the unemployment rate; thirdly, he undertook to finance and develop a massive new public works programme. Fourthly, he promised to raise the minimum monthly pension rate to 516 euros; and fifthly, he would suppress the crime wave by introducing police officers to patrol all local zones and areas in Italy's major cities.^[2] Berlusconi undertook to refrain from putting himself up for re-election in 2006 if he failed to honour at least four of these five promises.

Parties and leaders

Coalitions and electoral list

• Leaders
• 

  Silvio Berlusconi
• 

  Francesco Rutelli
• 

  Fausto Bertinotti
• 

  Antonio Di Pietro

Results

Chamber of Deputies

Proportional

First-past-the-post

Overall result

Senate of the Republic

References

1. ↑ Gingrich, Newt; Armey, Dick (1994). Contract With America: The Bold Plan. 
2. ↑ Ricolfi, Luca (2005). Dossier Italia: a che punto è il 'contratto con gli italiani. Il mulino. 

External links

• Repubblica.it: About 2001 Election (in Italian)
• Corriere della Sera: About 2001 Election (in Italian)
• CNN.com: About 2001 Election
• Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 2001 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies (in Italian)
• Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 2001 Election Results, Senate of the Republic (in Italian)

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