2023 Democratic Party leadership election
The 2023 Democratic Party leadership election was a primary election that was held in Italy in February 2023 to elect the National Assembly and secretary of the Italian Democratic Party (PD). It consisted of a closed primary election among party members held from 9 to 19 February, and an open primary election held on 26 February.
| |||||||||||||||||
600 delegates to the National Assembly of the Democratic Party 301 delegate votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
Primary election results map. Cyan denotes provinces with a Schlein plurality and Red denotes those with a Bonaccini plurality. | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Four candidates ran in the closed primary election held in circle conventions: Stefano Bonaccini, Gianni Cuperlo, Paola De Micheli, and Elly Schlein. Bonaccini and Schlein advanced to the open primary election, where Schlein won with over 53% of the vote, becoming the first woman and the youngest person to ever serve as leader of the PD, as well as the first openly LGBT leader of a major Italian political party. The results of the election defied the predictions of nearly all polling firms, which had anticipated a Bonaccini victory. It was the PD's first party leadership election in which the winner of the members' vote lost in the open primary.