# Primary elections in Italy

Primary elections were first introduced in Italy by Lega Nord in 1995, but were seldom used until before the 2005 regional elections.
In January 2005 the centre-left The Union coalition held open primaries in order to select its candidate for President in Apulia. More importantly, in October 2005, The Union asked its voters to choose the candidate for Prime Minister in the 2006 general election: 4.3 million voters showed up and Romano Prodi won hands down. Two years later, in October 2007: 3.5 million voters of the Democratic Party were called to elect Walter Veltroni as their first leader, the party's constituent assembly and regional leaders.
The centre-right (see House of Freedoms, The People of Freedom, centre-right coalition and Forza Italia) has held primary elections only at the local level.

## Regulatory rules

There are no laws at country level to govern the conduct of any primary election.
In 2004 Tuscany introduced a regional law regulating primaries, but parties are not mandated to hold primaries. As of today, these rules were used in occasion of the 2005 regional election by the Democrats of the Left and Future Tuscany, and in the 2010 regional election by the Democratic Party and Left Ecology Freedom.

## List of primary elections

The list includes the results of (open) primary elections for prime minister, president of region, mayor of a city with 150,000 inhabitants and leader of major party. All the following primaries were funded and ran by parties, with the sole exception of those for the Regional Council of Tuscany.
    Highlighted rows denote country-level primary elections.
    O : Open primary
    C: Closed primary

### 2000s

| Primary date(s) | O / C | Party/Coalition | Position(s) | Winner | Article |
| 16 January 2005 | | The Union | President of Apulia | Nichi Vendola | |
| 16 October 2005 | O | The Union | Prime Minister of Italy | Romano Prodi | link |
| 4 December 2005 | | The Union | President of Sicily | Rita Borsellino | |
| 29 January 2005 | | The Union | Mayor of Milan | Bruno Ferrante | |
| 4 February 2007 | | The Union | Mayor of Genoa | Marta Vincenzi | |
| 4 February 2007 | | The Union | Mayor of Palermo | Leoluca Orlando | |
| 14 October 2007 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Walter Veltroni | link |
| 14 December 2008 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Bologna | Flavio Delbono | |
| 14 February 2009 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Florence | Matteo Renzi | |
| 25 October 2009 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Pier Luigi Bersani | link |

### 2010s

| Primary date(s) | O / C | Party/Coalition | Position(s) | Winner | Article |
| 24 January 2010 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Apulia | Nichi Vendola | |
| 24 January 2010 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Venice | Giorgio Orsoni | |
| 7 February 2010 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Umbria | Catiuscia Marini | |
| 14 February 2010 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Calabria | Agazio Loiero | |
| 14 November 2010 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Milan | Giuliano Pisapia | link |
| 12 December 2010 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Trieste | Roberto Cosolini | |
| 23 January 2011 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Bologna | Virginio Merola | |
| 23 January 2011 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Naples | Andrea Cozzolino | |
| 30 January 2011 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Cagliari | Massimo Zedda | |
| 27 February 2011 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Turin | Piero Fassino | |
| 4 December 2011 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Verona | Michele Bertucco | |
| 29 January 2012 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Parma | Vincenzo Bernazzoli | |
| 12 February 2012 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Genoa | Marco Doria | |
| 4 March 2012 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Palermo | Fabrizio Ferrandelli | |
| 25 November 2012 | O | Democratic Party and allies | Prime Minister of Italy | Pier Luigi Bersani | link |
| 15 December 2012 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Lombardy | Umberto Ambrosoli | |
| 7 April 2013 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Rome | Ignazio Marino | |
| 14 April 2013 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Brescia | Emilio Del Bono | |
| 13 July 2013 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Trentino | Ugo Rossi | |
| 22 September 2013 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Basilicata | Marcello Pittella | |
| 29 September 2013 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Sardinia | Francesca Barracciu | |
| 8 December 2013 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Matteo Renzi | link |
| 2 February 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Padua | Ivo Rossi | |
| 23 February 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Bari | Antonio Decaro | |
| 23 February 2014 | | Brothers of Italy | Party leader | Giorgia Meloni | |
| 2 March 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Modena | Gian Carlo Muzzarelli | |
| 2 March 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Reggio Emilia | Luca Vecchi | |
| 9 March 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Foggia | Augusto Marasco | |
| 16 March 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Livorno | Marco Ruggeri | |
| 23 March 2014 | | Democratic Party | Mayor of Florence | Dario Nardella | |
| 28 September 2014 | | Democratic Party | President of Emilia-Romagna | Stefano Bonaccini | |
| 5 October 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Calabria | Mario Oliverio | |
| 30 November 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Veneto | Alessandra Moretti | |
| 30 November 2014 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Apulia | Michele Emiliano | |
| 11 January 2015 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Liguria | Raffaella Paita | |
| 1 March 2015 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Marche | Luca Ceriscioli | |
| 1 March 2015 | | Democratic Party and allies | President of Campania | Vincenzo De Luca | |
| 16 March 2015 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Venice | Felice Casson | |
| 7 February 2016 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Milan | Giuseppe Sala | link |
| 6 March 2016 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Naples | Valeria Valente | |
| 6 March 2016 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Rome | Roberto Giachetti | |
| 6 March 2016 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Trieste | Roberto Cosolini | |
| 5 March 2017 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Parma | Paolo Scarpa | |
| 2 April 2017 | | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Verona | Orietta Salemi | |
| 30 April 2017 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Matteo Renzi | link |
| 14 May 2017 | C | Lega Nord | Party leader | Matteo Salvini | |
| 24 February 2019 | | Centre-right coalition | Mayor of Bari | Pasquale Di Rella | |
| 24 February 2019 | | Centre-right coalition | Mayor of Foggia | Franco Landella | |
| 3 March 2019 | O | Democratic Party | Party leader | Nicola Zingaretti | link |
* 1 2 Candidate who was replaced by another candidate without a primary vote in the run-up of the general election.

### 2020s

| Primary date(s) | Party/Coalition | Position(s) | Winner | Article |
| 12 January 2020 | Democratic Party and allies | President of Apulia | Michele Emiliano | link |
| 12–13 June 2021 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Turin | Stefano Lo Russo | link |
| 20 June 2021 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Bologna | Matteo Lepore | link |
| 20 June 2021 | Democratic Party and allies | Mayor of Rome | Roberto Gualtieri | link |
| 23 July 2022 | Democratic Party and allies | President of Sicily | Caterina Chinnici | link |
| 15 March 2023 | Democratic Party and allies | Party Leader | Elly Schlein | |