2025 administrative elections: around two thousand municipalities to vote in spring

There are around two thousand municipalities, according to an estimate by local authorities, which will go to the polls in the spring to renew their councils and mayors. From the largest and 'central' ones for the political game to the smaller ones. Among these, almost forty are capitals: from Rome to Milan, from Naples to Turin, from Palermo to Bologna. The time window runs from April 15th to June 15th and many hypothesize that the vote could be in May, with the date already set for April. In detail, we will go to the polls in around 900 territories with natural deadlines (where voting was held in 2022) and in around 1,200 where, due to the Covid emergency, voting was held in the autumn of 2021. Overall, the municipalities involved in that round were 1,342. Citizens were called to the polls on 3 and 4 October, with run-offs on 17 and 18 October. A week later, voting took place in the municipalities of Trentino-Alto Adige, Sicily and Sardinia.

Among the hypotheses that have circulated in recent months there is also that of an election day, making the local elections coincide with the political ones. The decision to combine multiple votes on a single date is taken by the government through the approval of a decree-law in the Council of Ministers, which must then be converted into law by Parliament. If the executive wants to promote a single round that includes political elections, it must agree on the time window with the Quirinale, respecting constitutional limits. The last major election day in Italy dates back to June 2024 when voters were called to the polls in a single solution for the European elections and for the first round of the administrative elections in over 3,500 municipalities and in some regions. A few years earlier, in September 2020, the constitutional referendum on the cut in parliamentarians was merged with the vote in 7 regions and the municipal elections.