1979 Italian general election
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All 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 316 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 90.62% ( 2.77pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 315 seats in the Senate of the Republic 162[a] seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 90.69% ( 2.71pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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The 1979 Italian general election was held in Italy on 3 June 1979.[1] This election was called just a week before the European vote: the failure to hold the two elections at the same time caused much criticism for wasting public money.
Terrorist attacks by the Red Brigades caused a reversal in the result of the previous election three years before: for the first time the Italian Communist Party lost significant numbers of seats, delaying the government change that had seemed imminent in 1976. The Communist defeat gave a new strength to all the minor parties, as concentrating the vote on the Christian Democracy Party seemed less necessary to prevent a communist victory. The Christian Democrats remained stable nonetheless, while the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement was weakened by the success of its spin-off National Democracy.
Electoral system
The pure
For the Senate, 237 single-seat constituencies were established, even if the assembly had risen to 315 members. The candidates needed a landslide victory of two thirds of votes to be elected, a goal which could be reached only by the German minorities in South Tirol. All remained votes and seats were grouped in party lists and regional constituencies, where a D'Hondt method was used: inside the lists, candidates with the best percentages were elected.
Historical background
On 16 July 1976, Bettino Craxi was elected to the vacant Italian Socialist Party chairman position, ending years of factional fighting within the party. Ironically, the "old guard" saw him as short-lived leader, allowing each faction time to regroup. However, he was able to hold on to power and implement his policies. In particular, he sought and managed to distance his party away from the communists bringing it into an alliance with Christian Democracy and other centrist parties, but maintaining a leftist and reformist profile.
On 16 March 1978, former Prime Minister and Christian Democratic leader
Investigative journalist Carmine Pecorelli was assassinated on March 20, 1979. In a May 1978 article, he had drawn connections between Aldo Moro's kidnapping and Gladio.[2]
In the period of terror attacks of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the parliamentary majority was composed by the parties of the "Arco costituzionale", i.e. all parties supporting the Constitution, including the Communists (who in fact took a very strong stance against the Red Brigades and other terrorist groups). However, the Communists never took part in the Government itself, which was composed by the "Pentapartito" (Christian Democrats, Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals, Republicans).
Parties and leaders
Party | Ideology | Leader | Seats in 1976 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | S | Total | ||||
Christian Democracy (DC) | Christian democracy | Benigno Zaccagnini | 262
|
135
|
397
| |
Italian Communist Party (PCI) | Eurocommunism | Enrico Berlinguer | 229
|
116
|
345
| |
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) | Social democracy | Bettino Craxi | 57
|
30
|
87
| |
Italian Social Movement (MSI) | Neo-fascism | Giorgio Almirante | 35
|
15
|
50
| |
Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) | Social democracy | Pietro Longo | 15
|
7
|
22
| |
Italian Republican Party (PRI) | Republicanism | Giovanni Spadolini | 14
|
7
|
21
| |
Italian Liberal Party (PLI) | Conservative liberalism | Valerio Zanone | 5
|
2
|
7
| |
Radical Party (PR) | Radicalism
|
Marco Pannella | 4
|
0
|
4
| |
Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP) | Communism | Vittorio Foa | New
|
Results
Even this eighth legislature of the Italian Republic was a period of great instability. After the election, the Christian-Democratic leadership instructed moderate
This deep political crisis marked the birth of a new political formula which ruled Italy during the 80's: the Pentapartito (or five parties), which was no more than the fusion of the two main alliances that DC had used to rule Italy since 1947, the centrism and the centre-left. This formula became possible because Bettino Craxi's Italian Socialist Party and Valerio Zanone's Italian Liberal Party accepted to form their first republican government together, moderating their positions and passing the opposition that had always divided them. But the Pentapartito pact had another important condition: the DC accepted to recognize a pair role with the other four parties, alternating into the government leadership. The Secretary of the Italian Republican Party, Giovanni Spadolini, so became the first non-DC Prime Minister of Italy since 1945. However, his little party was unable to stop the quarrels between their great allies, and after a little crisis during summer 1982, Spadolini resigned in autumn of the same year. Former-PM Amintore Fanfani formed a new government without the offended republicans, but the PSI, which had good surveys, imposed the final crisis in 1983 and a new general election.
Chamber of Deputies
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Christian Democracy | 14,046,290 | 38.30 | 262 | 0 | |
Italian Communist Party | 11,139,231 | 30.38 | 201 | −26 | |
Italian Socialist Party | 3,596,802 | 9.81 | 62 | +5 | |
Italian Social Movement | 1,930,639 | 5.26 | 30 | −5 | |
Italian Democratic Socialist Party | 1,407,535 | 3.84 | 20 | +5 | |
Radical Party | 1,264,870 | 3.45 | 18 | +14 | |
Italian Republican Party | 1,110,209 | 3.03 | 16 | +2 | |
Italian Liberal Party | 712,646 | 1.94 | 9 | +4 | |
Proletarian Unity Party | 502,247 | 1.37 | 6 | 0 | |
New United Left | 294,462 | 0.80 | 0 | New | |
National Democracy | 229,205 | 0.63 | 0 | New | |
South Tyrolean People's Party | 204,899 | 0.56 | 4 | +1 | |
List for Trieste | 65,505 | 0.18 | 1 | New | |
Friuli Movement | 35,254 | 0.10 | 0 | New | |
Valdostan Union | 33,250 | 0.09 | 1 | +1 | |
Unity of the Left | 23,909 | 0.07 | 0 | New | |
Sardinian Action Party | 17,673 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
DC–PSDI–PRI | 13,442 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
European Workers' Party | 7,371 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | |
Italian People's Party | 6,497 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
Sicilian Justice Front | 5,146 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Christian Social Action Party | 3,115 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Democratic Party | 3,108 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
Welfare and Civilisation Party | 2,991 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
Calabrian People's Party | 2,927 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Sicilian National Front | 2,749 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Daisy Flower | 2,123 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Popular Christian Movement | 1,921 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Association for the Enhancement of the Individual | 1,907 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
New People's Party | 1,869 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
Democratic Left Party | 1,516 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 36,671,308 | 100.00 | 630 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 36,671,308 | 95.89 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 1,571,610 | 4.11 | |||
Total votes | 38,242,918 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 42,203,354 | 90.62 | |||
Source: Ministry of the Interior |
Results by constituency
Constituency | Total seats |
Seats won | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DC | PCI | PSI | MSI | PSDI | PR | PRI | PLI | PdUP | Others | ||
Turin | 39 | 12 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
Cuneo | 15 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Genoa | 23 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Milan | 52 | 18 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
Como | 20 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Brescia | 23 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Mantua | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
Trentino | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||
Verona | 29 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Venice | 17 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Udine | 11 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Bologna | 27 | 7 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
Parma | 19 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
Florence | 15 | 5 | 9 | 1 | |||||||
Pisa | 14 | 5 | 7 | 2 | |||||||
Siena | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | |||||||
Ancona | 17 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Perugia | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |||||||
Rome | 54 | 20 | 16 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
L'Aquila | 14 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Campobasso | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
Naples | 38 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Benevento | 18 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Bari | 23 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Lecce | 18 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Potenza | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
Catanzaro | 23 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Catania | 27 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Palermo | 25 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Cagliari | 17 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Aosta Valley | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
Trieste | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
Total | 630 | 262 | 201 | 62 | 30 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
Senate of the Republic
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Christian Democracy | 12,010,716 | 38.34 | 138 | +3 | |
Italian Communist Party | 9,855,951 | 31.46 | 109 | −7 | |
Italian Socialist Party | 3,252,410 | 10.38 | 32 | +3 | |
Italian Social Movement | 1,780,950 | 5.68 | 13 | −2 | |
Italian Democratic Socialist Party | 1,320,729 | 4.22 | 9 | +3 | |
Italian Republican Party | 1,053,251 | 3.36 | 6 | 0 | |
Italian Liberal Party | 691,718 | 2.21 | 2 | 0 | |
Radical Party | 413,444 | 1.32 | 2 | +2 | |
Radical Party–New United Left | 365,954 | 1.17 | 0 | New | |
National Democracy | 176,966 | 0.56 | 0 | New | |
South Tyrolean People's Party | 172,582 | 0.55 | 3 | +1 | |
List for Trieste | 61,911 | 0.20 | 0 | New | |
New United Left | 44,094 | 0.14 | 0 | New | |
Valdostan Union–Popular Democrats–PLI | 37,082 | 0.12 | 1 | 0 | |
Friuli Movement | 31,490 | 0.10 | 0 | New | |
Unity of the Left | 19,814 | 0.06 | 0 | New | |
Sardinian Action Party | 15,766 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
PRI–Socialist Workers' Party | 9,115 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
New Sardinian Left | 5,512 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
Calabrian People's Party | 4,009 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Democratic Party | 3,748 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
Daisy Flower | 2,056 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
Welfare and Civilization Party | 1,072 | 0.00 | 0 | New | |
Ave Movement | 455 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 31,330,795 | 100.00 | 315 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 31,330,795 | 95.01 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 1,645,509 | 4.99 | |||
Total votes | 32,976,304 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 36,362,037 | 90.69 | |||
Source: Ministry of the Interior |
Results by constituency
Constituency | Total seats |
Seats won | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DC | PCI | PSI | MSI | PSDI | PRI | PLI | PR | Others | ||
Piedmont | 25 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Aosta Valley | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
Lombardy | 48 | 21 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Trentino-Alto Adige | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||
Veneto | 23 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||
Friuli-Venezia Giulia | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
Liguria | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
Emilia-Romagna | 22 | 6 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Tuscany | 20 | 7 | 11 | 2 | ||||||
Umbria | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
Marche | 8 | 4 | 4 | |||||||
Lazio | 27 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Abruzzo | 7 | 4 | 3 | |||||||
Molise | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
Campania | 29 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
Apulia | 20 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||
Basilicata | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
Calabria | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
Sicily | 26 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
Sardinia | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
Total | 315 | 138 | 109 | 32 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
References
- ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^ Moro's ghost haunts political life, The Guardian, May 9, 2003
- ^ Taking into account the unelected Senators for life, who accounted for 7 seats at the time the election took place