


New MEPs: 87

 Group*  Party  MEPs
 Socialist  Dem Socs/
 Centre-Right  Forza It
 Nat All
 Liberal  Republic  1
 Green  Fed Grn  2
 United Left  Comm  6
 Far Right  North Lge
 Independent  Prodi/

Voting System
Italy is divided into five constituencies, but a party must gain more than a specified quota of the vote at national level before it qualifies for seat allocation.

This is done at constituency level, but surplus votes are redistributed at national level, helping smaller parties win seats.

Main Parties:
  All parties



The political situation in Italy has changed greatly since the 1994 Euro-elections, making comparisons difficult, but there was general agreement that the right did well.

Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema acknowledged his socialist-led governing coalition needed to regroup after the results showed that conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi's group had won most votes.

Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia, with 25.2% of the vote, was the most successful single party out of more than two dozen fielding candidates.

Mr D'Alema's Democratic Socialists won 17.4%, a drop off of nearly four percentage points from the last national election, in 1996.

EU Commission president-designate Romano Prodi's Democratic Party was Mr D'Alema's most successful campaign partner with 7.7%, but that figure was bettered by an offshoot of the Radical Party led by EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino.

Her list received 8.5% of the vote, indicating she could become a factor on the national political scene despite having largely been ignored by the political establishment.

Turnout was 70.8%, nearly 4% lower than the 1994 European vote but much higher than many other EU countries.
