2000 Lombard regional election

Lombardy uses national Tatarella Law of 1995 to elect its Council. Sixty-four councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists; remained seats and votes are grouped at regional level where a Hare quota is used, and then distributed to provincial party lists.

Sixteen councillors are elected at-large using a general ticket: parties are grouped in alliances, and the alliance which receives a plurality of votes elects all its candidates, its leader becoming the President of Lombardy. If a coalition wins more than 50% of the total seats in the Council with PR, only 8 candidates from the regional list will be chosen and the number of those elected in provincial constituencies will be 72; if the winning alliance receives less than 50% of votes, special seats are added to the Council to ensure a large majority for the President's coalition.

According to the official 1991 Italian census, the 64 Council seats which must be covered by proportional representation were so distributed between Lombard provinces.

The allocation is not fixed. Remaining seats and votes after proportional distribution, are all grouped at regional level and divided by party lists. The consequent division of these seats at provincial level usually change the original apportionment. Only 43 seats were directly assigned at provincial level, and the final distribution between provinces changed in this way.

As it can be seen, the landslide victory of the House of Freedoms caused the distribution of seven more seats to the oppositions at provincial level. Bergamo and Varese received two new seats, Cremona and Lodi and Sondrio one each.

The 1999 European election marked a turning point in relations between Forza Italia and the Northern League. Silvio Berlusconi's attempt to destroy the League by a media campaign aimed at shifting protesting votes to the Italian Radicals, succeeded only in part: the consensus of the federalist movement had fallen so sharply, but not enough to ensure the coalition of the Knight from possible disasters like the 1996 election. In addition, the assembly works in parliament had highlighted a growing programmatic convergence between the two major Lombard parties. And so, in view of the 2001 general election, Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi put aside the old, and even bloody quarrels, and formed a new coalition: the House of Freedoms, which found in the regional elections its first test.

The combination of what were the major forces of regional politics, securing a safe and agile reappointment to the Communion and Liberation's incumbent President, Roberto Formigoni, which ensured stability of the Regional Cabinet that the new regulations wanted to coincide in term with the legislature. Forza Italia was confirmed as the largest party in the region with an historic 34% of the vote, while Lega Nord was the second largest party with 15%. The Olive Tree, an alliance comprising several centre-left parties including the Italian People's Party, the Democrats of the Left, The Democrats, the Federation of the Greens and Italian Renewal, which here run in a single list for the first time in Italian history, had a great shock losing a fifth of its votes, falling at only 20%.

16 April 2000 Lombard regional election results

Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seat
	Roberto Formigoni	3,355,803	62.37	8
						Forza Italia	1,539,359	33.79	24
						Northern League – Lombard League	702,479	15.42	10
						National Alliance	441,087	9.68	6
						United Christian Democrats	111,112	2.44	1
						Christian Democratic Centre	76,423	1.68	1
						Pensioners' Party	71,925	1.58	1
						Socialist Party	31,178	0.68	–
						The Liberals–Sgarbi	21,876	0.48	–
					Total		2,995,439	65.75	43
	Mino Martinazzoli	1,692,474	31.46	1
						The Olive Tree	918,345	20.16	19
						Communist Refoundation Party	289,572	6.36	5
						SDI–FdL–Others	86,517	1.90	1
					Total		1,294,434	28.41	25
	Benedetto Della Vedova	178,406	3.32	–		Bonino List	154,396	3.39	3
	Nerio Nesi	110,202	2.05	–		Party of Italian Communists	86,027	1.89	–
	Giorgio Schultze	43,696	0.81	–		Humanist Party	25,350	0.56	–
Total candidates		5,380,581	100.00	9	Total parties		4,555,646	100.00	71
Source: Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections

Results by province

Election results map. Orange denotes municipalities won by Martinazzoli and Blue denotes those won by Formigoni.

Province	Roberto Formigoni	Mino Martinazzoli	Benedetto Della Vedova	Turnout
Milan	1,311,057 (60.01%)	724,518 (33.16%)	75,064 (3.44%)	73.38%
Brescia	410,929 (62.24%)	220,489 (33.39%)	16,039 (2.43%)	78.34%
Bergamo	400,883 (67.94%)	159,419 (27.02%)	16,367 (2.77%)	79.15%
Varese	319,092 (67.06%)	124,027 (26.07%)	18,742 (3.94%)	74.05%
Como	226,699 (69.81%)	81,712 (25.16%)	11,721 (3.61%)	75.71%
Pavia	188,138 (62.02%)	92,449 (30.48%)	11,997 (3.96%)	77.28%
Mantua	121,621 (53.08%)	88,549 (38.65%)	8,202 (3.58%)	77.40%
Cremona	123,317 (59.72%)	70,621 (34.20%)	5,667 (2.74%)	79.51%
Lecco	117,140 (62.06%)	62,995 (33.37%)	6,004 (3.18%)	78.66%
Lodi	68,245 (58.21%)	41,716 (35.58%)	3,778 (3.22%)	78.38%
Sondrio	68,682 (68.44%)	25,979 (25.89%)	4,825 (4.81%)	69.26%