The 2013 Democratic Party leadership election was an open

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

held in November–December 2013. After having come first in the vote by party members,

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...

was elected by a landslide 68% in a three-way primary on 8 December.

Electoral process

Candidates were required to file their candidacies by 11 October 2013. Between 14 October and 6 November local and provincial conventions took place all around the country. Between 7 and 17 November party members voted on the candidates for secretary. Under party rules the candidates who receive the support of at least the 15% of voting party members in local conventions or the three most voted candidates with at least 5% of the vote, qualify for the second round of the race and have the chance to present their platform at the national convention. The national convention, which took place on 24–25 November, declared the candidates who will run in an open primary on 8 December. Voters will elect also the national assembly of the party and the regional secretaries and assemblies. If no candidate got more than 50% of the vote, a run-off between the two most voted candidates would take place in the national assembly, scheduled within two weeks from the primary election.

Candidates

Four individuals filed their candidacy for becoming secretary of the party: * Pippo Civati
campaign websiteplatform
— The main themes of Civati, a former Democrat of the Left, included

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which Citizenship, citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their ...

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

social liberalism Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

international development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic development, economic or human development (economics), human development on an international sca ...

and

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

. Civati, whose views were somewhat close to those of

Stefano Rodotà Stefano Rodotà (30 May 1933 – 23 June 2017) was an Italian jurist and politician. Early life Born in 1933 in Cosenza, to a middle-class family of Arbëreshë origin from San Benedetto Ullano, he attended Liceo classico Bernardino Telesio in ...

, was a proponent of an alliance with the

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( , M5S) is a political party in Italy, led by Giuseppe Conte. It was launched on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a political activist and comedian, and Gianroberto Casaleggio, a web strategist. The party is primarily d ...

, instead of continuing the

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

with the centre-right

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 ...

. *

Gianni Cuperlo Giovanni "Gianni" Cuperlo (; born 3 September 1961) is an Italian politician, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and former President of the Democratic Party. Biography Early years Gianni Cuperlo was born 3 September 1961 in Triest ...

campaign websiteplatform
— A former member of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

and the Democrats of the Left, Cuperlo was the candidate of the party's

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

establishment, including

Massimo D'Alema Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema ...

and

Pier Luigi Bersani Pier Luigi Bersani (; born 29 September 1951) is an Italian politician and was Secretary of the Democratic Party (PD), Italy's leading centre-left party, from 2009 to 2013. Bersani was Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship from 1996 ...

. *

Gianni Pittella Giovanni Saverio Furio "Gianni" Pittella (born 19 November 1958) is an Italian politician who served as Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Group from 2014 to 2018 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Italy ...

campaign websiteplatform
— Pittella, a former member of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

and the Democrats of the Left, had his electoral strength in

Southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

, where he was thrice elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, of which he had been

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

since 2009. *

campaign websiteplatform
— Raised in a

Christian Democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

household, formed in the Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts and entered in politics with the Italian People's Party, Renzi represented the party's right-wing and proposed mostly liberal views. As such, he was often compared to

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

, the key figure of

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

. Elected

mayor of Florence The Mayor of Florence is an elected politician who, along with Florence's City Council of 36 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Florence. The title is the equivalent of Lord Mayor in the meaning of an actual executive leader ...

in 2009, Renzi had come to public notoriety as the "Scrapper" of the party's establishment and of many centre-left traditional positions as well.

Opinion polls

Results

Vote by party members

Source
Official results
/small> Renzi, Cuperlo and Civati were admitted to the primary election, while Pittella was excluded.

Primary election

Source
Semi-official results
/small>

Delegates summary

Results by Regions

Renzi won an absolute majority in all regions. Only among voters living abroad he won merely a plurality (47.1%). His strongest performances were in his homeregion

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

(78.4%) and neighbouring

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

(76.3%) and

Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

(74.5%), the weakest in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

(56.0%). Cuperlo performed strongest in the southern regions of

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

(34.2%) and

Basilicata Basilicata (, ; ), also known by its ancient name Lucania (, , ), is an administrative region in Southern Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south. It has two coastlines: a 30-kilometr ...

(33.7%), and weakest in Marche (10.7%). Civati had his strongest results among expatriates (22.3%), in

Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...

(20.7%),

Trentino Trentino (), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento (; ; ), is an Autonomous province#Italy, autonomous province of Italy in the Northern Italy, country's far north. Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the Regions of Italy, region of Tren ...

(20.5%) and Sardinia (19.6%), the weakest in the southern region of Basilicata (8.0%). Generally speaking, Renzi and Civati did better in central–

northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...

, Cuperlo in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

References

External links

Official website of the Democratic PartyOfficial website of the leadership election
{{Democratic Party (Italy) leaders 2013 elections in Italy Political party leadership elections in Italy Democratic Party (Italy) November 2013 in Italy December 2013 in Italy Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election Matteo Renzi