Bye-Bye Bipolarism. The 2015 Regional Elections and the New Shape of Regional Party Systems in Italy by Filippo Tronconi Published in South European Society and Politics, Volume 20, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 553-571. DOI: 10.1080/13608746.2015.1118839 On 31 May 2015, some 19 million Italians, representing approximately 40 per cent of the national electorate, were called to the polls to renew the executive and legislative bodies of seven regions. 1 These were expected to be critical elections for a number of reasons. Above all this was an electoral test of national relevance for the main governing party - Matteo Renzi’s Partito Democratico (Democratic Party, PD). Renzi’s government did not have real electoral legitimacy, as Renzi had replaced Enrico Letta as Prime Minister during the term of the legislature, 2 and the centre-left coalition had failed to obtain a clear majority of seats in both houses in the general elections of 2013. Thus, all nationally relevant elections (both the 2014 European ones, when the PD obtained an impressive success, and the regional ones), became de facto crucial tests for the governing coalition and its leader. The hegemony within a fragmented opposition camp was also at stake, with three main actors competing. On the one hand, the reborn Forza Italia (FI, Go Italy), led by a declining Silvio Berlusconi, had to face the aggressive strategy of the Lega Nord (LN, Northern League), clearly aiming to capitalise on the diaspora of the former Popolo della Libertà (People of Freedom, PDL). 3 On the other hand, Beppe Grillo’s Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, Five Star Movement) aimed to consolidate its position of main alternative to the PD, after a somewhat disappointing result in the recent European elections. In a rapidly destructuring party system, the 2015 regional elections were also expected to provide information on the state of the leadership within the main parties. Several regional politicians tried to exploit this opportunity in order to build a credible base from which to challenge their respective national leaders. As we will see, this was especially the case in the LN and in FI, where leaders of minority factions unsuccessfully attempted to make a takeover bid within the party. The overall results of the elections were clear: the centre-left gained power in five regions out of seven, helped in this by the internal divisions of the centre-right coalition. This confirmed the balance of the previous electoral round (2010). The M5S did not replicate the surprising result of the 2013 general elections, but consolidated its presence, gaining representation in all of the seven regional Councils. From a systemic point of view, these regional elections indicated at least three significant directions of transformation, which we will explore in detail in the next pages. First of all, a sharply