As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates – Gabriele Albertini, a businessman close to Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) and Aldo Fumagalli, a young businessman and former president of Milan Young Entrepreneurs' Confederation, supported by The Olive Tree coalition – which Albertini won by a decisive margin.

In August 1994 his decision to move the far-left self-managed social centre Leoncavallo from its historic headquarters to a small warehouse resulted in many violent clashes between activists and police in several streets across the city.

[3] In February 1996 his administration was put at risk by an inquiry on an alleged abuse of power which overwhelmed the deputy Mayor and some members of the municipal executive: in May 1996 Formentini hardly survived a motion of no confidence in the City Council thanks to the support of two councillors of the opposition parties.

As a consequence of this political split which was still unresolved after three years and because of Formentini's unstable administration, the centre-right Pole for Freedoms coalition finally decided to rule out a possible alliance with the Northern League (LN).

As a consequence of the frequent tensions with Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the far-left Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) decided to broke the alliance with the centre-left at the local level and presented the civil rights activistic Umberto Gay as candidate for Mayor.