The incumbent Mayor Gabriele Albertini easily won a second term in office, defeating the centre-left candidate and former trade unionist Sandro Carlo Antoniazzi.

[3] Describing himself as a man of the civil society, he managed to identify and subdivide municipal affairs with the politically and economically closest interests, choosing trusted men for the top management jobs of large municipal companies and banks and creating a real network of alliances with the social and economical powers of the city, such as businessmen, stylists and bankers.

[3] On the other side, moreover weakened by the national government's extreme unpopularity, the centre-left coalition was unable to find a way to fit into this system of power.

[4] As Albertini decided to conduct a low profile campaign, benefiting from Berlusconi's national campaign (Berlusconi himself was candidate in the constituency of Milan City Centre for the Chamber of Deputies), the semi-unknown centre-left candidate Sandro Antoniazzi struggled to emerge as a competitive contender to the office of Mayor.

[4] Moreover the centre-left coalition was deeply divided, with the Federation of the Greens (FdV) and Italy of Values (IdV) parties presenting their own mayoral candidates (respectively the environmentalist activist Milly Moratti and the notorious former magistrate Antonio Di Pietro).