The 2012 Sicilian regional election for the renewal of the

Sicilian Regional Assembly The Sicilian Regional Assembly is the legislative body of Sicily. While it has a long history as an autonomous entity, the modern Region of Sicily was established by Royal Decree on 15 May 1946, before the Italian Republic. The Regional Assembly ...

and the election of the President of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

was held on 28 October 2012. It was a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

, following the resignation of President Raffaele Lombardo for judicial and financial reasons. The election was competed by ten candidates from newly reshuffled political alliances, and was an unusually close race. The winner of the election was Rosario Crocetta, candidate for a

centre-left coalition The centre-left coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-sinistra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy active, under several forms and names, since 1995 when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left ...

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

and the Union of the Centre.

Candidates

* Nello Musumeci: a long-time

Member of European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

and former 2006 election candidate, heads a "regular" centre-right coalition formed by

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

(PdL) and The Right (LD), the latter being the party of Musumeci; * Gianfranco Micciché: a former minister for Development, deputy minister for Economy and - most recently - state undersecretary in several cabinets of

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

, will lead a Sicilianist (pro-autonomy) coalition formed by Raffaele Lombardo's

Movement for the Autonomies The Movement for Autonomy ( it, Movimento per l'Autonomia, MpA) is a regionalist, Christian-democratic political party in Italy, based in Sicily. The MpA, whose founder and leader is Raffaele Lombardo, demands economic development, greater autono ...

(MpA), renamed Party of Sicilians for the occasion, Micciché's own party Great South (GS), and the regional section of

Future and Freedom Future and Freedom ( it, Futuro e Libertà), whose full name was Future and Freedom for Italy (''Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia'', abbreviated to FLI), was a political party in Italy, comprising both liberal and national conservative elements. F ...

(FLI). * Rosario Crocetta: Member of European Parliament and former Mayor of

Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; grc, Γέλα) is a city and (municipality) in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province of Ca ...

, will be the candidate of a moderate centre-left coalition formed by Crocetta's

(PD) and the Union of the Centre (UdC); * Giovanna Marano: a Sicilian trade union leader, leads a left-wing coalition made of

Left Ecology Freedom Left Ecology Freedom ( it, Sinistra Ecologia Libertà, SEL) was a democratic socialist political party in Italy whose bulk was formed by former members of the Communist Refoundation Party. The party's leader was Nichi Vendola, a former Preside ...

(SEL),

Italy of Values Italy of Values ( it, Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party was founded in 1998 by former '' Mani pulite'' prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996 and finally left the p ...

(IdV), the

Federation of the Left The Federation of the Left ( it, Federazione della Sinistra, FdS) was an electoral alliance of communist political parties in Italy. The coalition was the evolution of the Anticapitalist and Communist List. History At the start, in May 2009, t ...

(FdS) and the

Federation of the Greens The Federation of the Greens ( it, Federazione dei Verdi, FdV), frequently referred to as Greens (''Verdi''), was a green political party in Italy. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the Federation of Green Lists and the Rainbow Greens. T ...

(FdV). She was put in place of original candidate

Claudio Fava Claudio Fava (born 15 April 1957) is an Italian politician and writer. He is the Coordinator of the National Secretariat of Sinistra Ecologia Libertà ( Left Ecology Freedom). He was until 2009 Member of the European Parliament for the Italian ...

after the latter failed to move his residence to Sicily in time; * Giancarlo Cancellieri: leading member candidate for the Sicilian wing of

Beppe Grillo Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician. He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with Gianroberto Casaleggio) of the Italian Five Star Movement ...

's Five Star Movement (M5S). His candidacy was extensively supported by Grillo himself, who reached the island swimming across the

Strait of Messina The Strait of Messina ( it, Stretto di Messina, Sicilian: Strittu di Missina) is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily ( Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria ( Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian S ...

and then campaigned consecutively through the island for the last two weeks of electoral campaign; * Mariano Ferro: a leading member and figurehead of the 2012 Sicilian protests, runs as a candidate for the Pitchforks Movement; *

Cateno De Luca Cateno Roberto De Luca (born 18 March 1972) is an Italian politician, mayor of Messina from 2018 to 2022. Biography Mayor of Fiumedinisi and Santa Teresa di Riva De Luca was born in Fiumedinisi. At the age of 18 he began his political career by ...

: a former

member and outgoing Sicilian MP, runs as a candidate for his own movement Sicilian Revolution. * Giacomo Di Leo: candidate for Workers' Communist Party (PCL); * Gaspare Sturzo: a descendant of Italian People's Party founder

Luigi Sturzo Luigi Sturzo (; 26 November 1871 – 8 August 1959) was an Italian Catholic priest and prominent politician. He was known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist" and is considered one of the fathers of the Christian democratic platform. He w ...

, runs as an independent candidate for "Sturzo Presidente" (Sturzo President); * Lucia Pinsone: independent candidate for "Volontari per l'Italia" (Volunteers for Italy).

Electoral system

The Sicilian Parliament is elected with a mixed system: 80 MPs are chosen with a form of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

using a

largest remainder method The largest remainder method (also known as Hare–Niemeyer method, Hamilton method or as Vinton's method) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with variou ...

with

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, par ...

s and a 5% threshold, while 10 MPs are elected with a

block voting Block voting or bloc voting refers to electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected at once and a group (voting bloc) of voters can force the system to elect only their preferred candidates. Block voting may be used at large (in a si ...

system with closed lists.

Results

Aftermath

Following the result of the election, Crocetta was elected as president of Sicily, which turned out to be surprising in what was considered the strongest conservative stronghold of Italy. As he did not have a full majority in the Sicilian assembly, Crocetta decided to form a minority government with the support of the Five Star Movement in a number of shared legislative acts.

Notes

{{Elections in Sicily Elections in Sicily 2012 elections in Italy October 2012 events in Italy