The 2012 Sicilian regional election for the renewal of the Sicilian Regional Assembly and the election of the President of Sicily was held on 28 October 2012. It was a snap election, following the resignation of President Raffaele Lombardo for judicial and financial reasons. The election was competed by ten candidates from newly reshuffled political alliances, and was an unusually close race. The winner of the election was

Rosario Crocetta Rosario Crocetta (born 8 February 1951) is an Italian politician. He was the first openly gay mayor in Italy when he became Mayor of Gela in 2003, a post he held until 2009. A prominent figure in the fight against the Sicilian Mafia, in 2009 he ...

, candidate for a centre-left coalition of

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

and the Union of the Centre.

Candidates

Nello Musumeci Sebastiano "Nello" Musumeci (born 21 January 1955) is a right-wing Italian politician. Musumeci is serving as Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies since 22 October 2022 in the government of Giorgia Meloni. He previously served as Presi ...

: a long-time Member of European Parliament and former 2006 election candidate, heads a "regular" centre-right coalition formed by The People of Freedom (PdL) and The Right (LD), the latter being the party of Musumeci; *

Gianfranco Micciché Gianfranco is a compound Italian language, Italian given name, consisting of Gian- and Franco. ''Gian-'' comes from Giovanni and is used in compound names. It is closest to John or French Jean. Gianni means "God is gracious" and Franco means "Free ...

: a former minister for Development, deputy minister for Economy and - most recently - state undersecretary in several cabinets of Silvio Berlusconi, will lead a Sicilianist (pro-autonomy) coalition formed by Raffaele Lombardo's Movement for the Autonomies (MpA), renamed

Party of Sicilians The Party of Sicilians ( it, Partito dei Siciliani, PdS) was a regionalist and Christian-democratic political party in Sicily. It was the Sicilian regional section of the Movement for the Autonomies (MpA). History In August 2012 it was announced ...

for the occasion, Micciché's own party Great South (GS), and the regional section of

Future and Freedom Future and Freedom ( it, Futuro e Libertà), whose full name was Future and Freedom for Italy (''Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia'', abbreviated to FLI), was a political party in Italy, comprising both liberal and national conservative elements. F ...

(FLI). *

: Member of European Parliament and former Mayor of Gela, will be the candidate of a moderate centre-left coalition formed by Crocetta's

(PD) and the Union of the Centre (UdC); *

Giovanna Marano Giovanna is an Italian feminine first name. It is the feminine counterpart of the masculine Giovanni, which in turn is the Italian form of John; it is thus the Italian equivalent of Jane, Joanna, Jeanne, etc. In Brazil, the feminine name Giovanna ...

: a Sicilian trade union leader, leads a left-wing coalition made of Left Ecology Freedom (SEL), Italy of Values (IdV), the Federation of the Left (FdS) and the Federation of the Greens (FdV). She was put in place of original candidate Claudio Fava after the latter failed to move his residence to Sicily in time; *

Giancarlo Cancellieri Giancarlo is an Italian given name meaning "John Charles". It is one of the most common masculine given names in Italy and is often short for "Giovanni Carlo". Notable people with the name include: List A * Giancarlo Agazzi (1933–1995), Italia ...

: leading member candidate for the Sicilian wing of

Beppe Grillo Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician. He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with Gianroberto Casaleggio) of the Italian Five Star Movement ...

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( it, Movimento 5 Stelle , M5S) is a political party in Italy. Its leader and president is Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy from 2018 until 2021. The M5S was founded on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a comedian an ...

(M5S). His candidacy was extensively supported by Grillo himself, who reached the island swimming across the Strait of Messina and then campaigned consecutively through the island for the last two weeks of electoral campaign; * Mariano Ferro: a leading member and figurehead of the

2012 Sicilian protests The 2012 Sicilian protests, also code-named by its organizers as Operation Sicilian Vespers (in Italian: ''Operazione Vespri siciliani''), was a 5-day blockade of roads and seaports that brought Sicily and its economy to a standstill in January 201 ...

, runs as a candidate for the Pitchforks Movement; * Cateno De Luca: a former Movement for the Autonomies member and outgoing Sicilian MP, runs as a candidate for his own movement Sicilian Revolution. * Giacomo Di Leo: candidate for Workers' Communist Party (PCL); * Gaspare Sturzo: a descendant of Italian People's Party founder Luigi Sturzo, runs as an independent candidate for "Sturzo Presidente" (Sturzo President); * Lucia Pinsone: independent candidate for "Volontari per l'Italia" (Volunteers for Italy).

Electoral system

The Sicilian Parliament is elected with a mixed system: 80 MPs are chosen with a form of proportional representation using a largest remainder method with open lists and a 5% threshold, while 10 MPs are elected with a block voting system with

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some inf ...

Results

Aftermath

Following the result of the election, Crocetta was elected as president of Sicily, which turned out to be surprising in what was considered the strongest conservative stronghold of Italy. As he did not have a full majority in the Sicilian assembly, Crocetta decided to form a minority government with the support of the

in a number of shared legislative acts.

Notes

{{Elections in Sicily Elections in Sicily 2012 elections in Italy October 2012 events in Italy