1997 Rome mayoral election

16 November 1997
Turnout74.1% Decrease 4.6 pp
 
Candidate Francesco Rutelli Pierluigi Borghini
Party Greens National Alliance
Alliance Centre-left Pole for Freedoms
Popular vote 985,361 586,083
Percentage 60.4% 35.9%

Mayor before election

Francesco Rutelli
FdV

Elected Mayor

Francesco Rutelli
FdV

Municipal elections were held in Rome on 16 November 1997 to elect the Mayor of Rome and 60 members of the City Council, as well as the nineteen presidents and more than 400 councillors of the 19 circoscrizioni in which the municipality was divided.

As a result, incumbent mayor Francesco Rutelli was re-elected for a second four-year term by a landslide.

Background

In the 1996 general elections the centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi performed strongly in nearly all the urban centers across Italy and especially in the city of Rome. Since that moment the political support to leftist parties in the Eternal City started to increase heavily, although the former-fascist National Alliance (AN) continued to maintain a huge number of supporters across the city.

During the previous years, the incumbent mayor Francesco Rutelli saw his personal popularity increase among Roman citizens.[1] During his term in office he promoted some important architectural and urban projects to redevelop the city such as the approval of Parco della Musica concert hall designed by Renzo Piano in 1994[2] and the urban plan called "Cento piazze" (literally "One hundred squares") in 1995, a project to renovate different squares and creating new pedestrian zones in many parts of the city, from the historical city center to the suburbs.[3] Thanks to this plan many historical and tourist landmarks of Rome were renovated and pedestrianized such as Piazza di Spagna (1995) and Piazza del Popolo (1997).

As a part of his plan to renovate the city, in March 1995 Rutelli submitted an unsuccessful bid to host the 2004 Summer Olympics, which were ultimately awarded to Athens in September 1997.[4]

Against the mayor, the centre-right Pole for Freedoms coalition initially seemed intentioned to propose the candidacy of the right-wing deputy Francesco Storace,[5] but ultimately chose Pierluigi Borghini, a famous conservative businessman, in an attempt to gain more votes from independent and centrist voters.[6]

Voting system

The voting system is used for all mayoral elections in Italy, in the city with a population higher than 15,000 inhabitants. Under this system voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate may be able to claim majority support, although it is not guaranteed.

The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally.

Parties and candidates

This is a list of the major parties (and their respective leaders) which participated in the election.

Political party or alliance Constituent lists Candidate
Centre-left coalition
(The Olive Tree)
Democratic Party of the Left Francesco Rutelli
Italian People's Party
Federation of the Greens
Communist Refoundation Party
Pannella List
Italian Renewal
Rutelli List
Others
Centre-right coalition
(Pole for Freedoms)
Forza Italia Pierluigi Borghini
National Alliance
Christian Democratic Centre
Others
Tricolour Flame Pino Rauti

Results

Summary of the 1997 Rome City Council and Mayoral election results
Candidates Votes  % Leader's
seat
Parties Votes  % Seats
Francesco Rutelli 983,902 60.42 Democratic Party of the Left 281,832 21.98 15
Communist Refoundation Party 112,628 8.78 6
Rutelli List 89,790 7.00 5
Federation of the Greens 83,321 6.50 4
Italian People's Party 71,123 5.55 3
Italian Renewal 29,387 2.29 1
Pannella List 20,878 1.63 1
Democratic Socialists 20,859 1.63 1
Democratic Union 17,922 1.40
Italian Republican Party 7,946 0.62
Total 735,686 57.37 36
Pierluigi Borghini 585,367 35.94 check National Alliance 308,745 24.08 14
Forza ItaliaUnited Christian Democrats 129,391 10.09 6
Christian Democratic CentrePact for Rome 47,681 3.72 2
Federalist Greens 5,846 0.46
United Italy 3,528 0.28
Total 495,191 38.62 22
Pino Rauti 26,389 1.62 check Tricolour Flame 23,380 1.82
Tiziana Parenti 12,586 0.77 Liberal Socialists 10,218 0.80
Raffaele D'Ambrosio 7,988 0.49 Humanitas 9,101 0.71
Sforza Ruspoli 5,965 0.37 Civic list 4,246 0.33
Marina Larena 4,091 0.25 Humanist Party 2,687 0.21
Giancarlo Cito 2,233 0.14 Southern Action League 1,751 0.14
Total 1,628,521 100.00 2 1,282,260 100.00 58
Eligible voters 2,301,277 100.00
Did not vote 596,246 25.91
Voted 1,705,031 74.09
Blank or invalid ballots 76,510 4.48
Total valid votes 1,628,521 95.52
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Circoscrizioni election

Since 1972 the city of Rome had been divided into 20 administrative areas, called circoscrizioni (reduced to 19 in 1992 after Fiumicino became an independent comune separated from Rome). In 1997 for the first time the presidents of each circoscrizione was directly elected by citizens. No second round was needed since the candidate who received the most votes was elected president.

Table below shows the results for each circoscrizione with the percentage for each coalition:

Circoscrizione Centre-left Centre-right Elected President Party
I 55.0 39.7 Attilio Bellucci RI
II 48.2 46.1 Giuseppe Ignesti PDS
III 53.4 41.0 Vittorio Sartogo PRC
IV 53.8 32.3 Massimo Nardi PPI
V 61.5 32.5 Loredana Mezzabotta PDS
VI 59.0 32.6 Enzo Puro PDS
VII 55.3 38.5 Pino Battaglia PDS
VIII 54.2 36.7 Giuseppe Celli PDS
IX 55.3 39.0 Fulvio Torreti FdV
X 57.9 35.1 Giusto Trevisiol PRC
XI 56.1 38.8 Rosario Mocciaro PDS
XII 52.9 41.6 Antonio Gazzellone PPI
XIII 53.1 36.3 Massimo Di Somma PDS
XV 58.0 37.4 Giovanni Paris PPI
XVI 58.0 37.5 Dario Marcucci PPI
XVII 50.7 43.5 Marco Noccioli PRC
XVIII 48.5 44.5 Nicola Palombi RI
XIX 53.0 40.4 Emilia Allocca PDS
XX 45.9 47.3 Marco Clarke AN

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service

References

  1. "Il politico più sexy? Francesco Rutelli" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 10 November 1994. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  2. "Così Piano inventò l'auditorium di Roma" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 26 July 1994. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  3. "Piazza del Popolo, nasce l'isola" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 28 August 1997. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  4. "Roma 2004 si candida, Samaranch applaude" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 17 March 1995. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  5. "Fini punta su Storace sindaco di Roma" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 13 June 1997. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  6. "Ora il Polo fa pressing su Borghini" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 30 June 1997. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
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