The Apulian regional election of 2010 took place in

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

, Italy, on 28–29 March 2010. The outgoing President

Nichi Vendola Nicola "Nichi" Vendola (; born 26 August 1958) 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. Since 2023 he is the Pre ...

(

SEL __NOTOC__ SEL may refer to: *Signalling Equipment Ltd, a trading name used by the British toy manufacturer J & L Randall *Finnish Food Workers' Union, a trade union in Finland *Left Ecology Freedom (''Sinistra Ecologia Libertà''), Italian political ...

) was elected for a second-consecutive term, after having won 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. 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 The People of Freedom (, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later t ...

(31.1%) and the Democratic Party (20.8%).

Background

The incumbent left-wing president

, who in 2005 surprisingly defeated a centrist in the centre-left primary election and then the outgoing President

Raffaele Fitto Raffaele Fitto (; born 28 August 1969) is an Italian politician who has served as Vice-President of the European Commission, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Cohesion and Refo ...

, was under attack by his own coalition. Vendola, a gay communist President in a fairly conservative region, would have found hard to get re-election in a time when the centre-right led by

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

was ahead of the centre-left both in Apulia and the whole country. Moreover Vendola, after having left the

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...

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. The Democrats acknowledge that they needed a larger coalition in order to beat the centre-right and they were 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 The Union of the Centre (, UdC), whose complete name is Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (''Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro'', UDC), is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. Lorenzo Cesa is the part ...

(UDC) and Adriana Poli Bortone's I the South movement.

Michele Emiliano Michele Emiliano (born 23 July 1959) is an Italian politician and former judge. He is the incumbent president of Apulia Region since June 2015, and he previously served as mayor of Bari from 2004 to 2014. Emiliano has often been considered a pop ...

, Mayor of

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

and PD regional leader, had been constantly mentioned as a possible candidate who would have received the support of the UDC. For her part Poli Bortone might have been interested in the race but her right-wing upbringing (she was a member of the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

and of National Alliance) would undoubtedly have stirred the left. In a succession of events between late December 2009 and January 2010, Emiliano turned against Vendola (whom he supported until then), asked his party's regional assembly to unanimously endorse himself. The assembly of the party was suspended because of clashes between Emiliano and Vendola supporters, then Emiliano accepted to contest a primary election with Vendola and finally withdrew from the race, 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.

(PdL) of Berlusconi and former President

subsequently chose Rocco Palese, leader of Forza Italia–PdL group in the Regional Council and former Vice President of Fitto, while the UDC launched Poli Bortone.

Centre-left primary election

After that Emiliano renounced his bid, the PD proposed Francesco Boccia as its candidate and the UDC endorsed him. However, as Vendola did not intend to withdraw from the race, the PD accepted to run a coalition primary election between Vendola and Boccia. This was a re-edition of the 2005 primary election, in which Boccia was narrowly defeated by Vendola. 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 67% of the votes cast.

Results

References

{{Elections in Apulia Elections in Apulia 2010 elections in Italy