'Italy'

The chapter provides a snapshot of the Sixth election to the European Parliament (EP) held in Italy on 12 and 13 June 2004. After sketching out the complex Italian political background, it turns to assess the EP information activities and the key political campaign issues by then focusing on the voting results and the level of turnout. Contrary to citizens’ general lack of interest in EP elections throughout the European Union, participation in Italy was high due to a combination of factors: the public’s pro-European attitudes supported by a good information campaign, coincidence of EP elections with administrative/local elections, and the chance to vote on two days. Given this turnout, the 2004 EP elections assumed a major significance for Italian politics, as a tool to test and measure government’s popularity. Inevitably, the Euro-electoral outcome brought substantial effects and caused serious repercussions on the domestic stage, leading to a major government crisis and unintentionally breathing new life into a stagnating opposition coalition.