The incumbent Mayor Gabriele Albertini was term-limited and could not run for a third term.

The main candidates were the incumbent Minister of Education Letizia Moratti, supported by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition House of Freedoms, and the former prefect of Milan Bruno Ferrante, supported by the centre-left coalition The Union.

As a result of the election, Letizia Moratti was officially proclaimed new Mayor of Milan on 1 June 2006, becoming the first female to fill the office.

[1] In December 2005 the centre-left coalition decided to call an open primary election to choose its mayoral candidate.

[2] Four people registered to be candidates in this election: Bruno Ferrante, former prefect of Milan (2000–2005); Dario Fo, playwright and 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature; Milly Moratti, environmentalist activist; and Dario Corritore, an independent business executive.