Italian general election, 1979

Italian general election, 1979

June 3, 1979

All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 316 seats were needed for a majority in the Chamber 315 (of the 322) seats in the Italian Senate Turnout 90.6%   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Benigno Zaccagnini Enrico Berlinguer Bettino Craxi Party Christian Democracy Communist Party Socialist Party Leader since 1976 Leader's seat XII - Eastern Emilia XX - Latium III - Milan Last election 263 & 135 seats, 38.7% 227 & 116 seats, 34.4% 57 & 29 seats Seats won 262 (H) 138 (S) 201 (H) 109 (S) 62 (H) 32 (S) Seat change 2 33 8 Popular vote 14,046,290 11,139,231 3,630,052 Percentage 38.3% 30.4% 9.9% Swing 0.4% 4.0% 0.3%

Legislative election results map. lightskyblue denotes provinces with a Christian Democratic plurality, Red denotes those with a Communist plurality, Gray denotes those with an Autonomist plurality.

Prime Minister before election Giulio Andreotti DC New Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga DC

General elections were held in Italy on June 3, 1979.^[1] This election was called just a week before the European vote: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.

Terroristic attacks by the Red Brigades caused a result which was quite opposite than three years before: for the first time the Italian Communist Party lost a lot of votes, delaying that government change that was seeming imminent in 1976, and the Communist defeat gave a new strength to all the minor parties, a concentration of vote on the Christian Democracy seeming less urgent to stop the red progress. However, the catholic party remained stable, while neo-fascist Italian Social Movement was weakened by its spin-off National Democracy.

Electoral system

Regional pluralities in Senate

The pure party-list proportional representation had traditionally become the electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies. Italian provinces were united in 32 constituencies, each electing a group of candidates. At constituency level, seats were divided between open lists using the largest remainder method with Imperiali quota. Remaining votes and seats were transferred at national level, where they was divided using the Hare quota, and automatically distributed to best losers into the local lists.

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.

Parties and leaders

Results

Even this eighth legislature of the Italian Republic was a period of great instability. After the election, the Christian-Democratic leadership instructed moderate Francesco Cossiga to form a centrist minority government with the PSDI and the PLI, which accepted an official engagement into the government for the first time since 1973; however, when in 1980 Benigno Zaccagnini was fired as Secretary of the DC and socialist leader Bettino Craxi offered his help, Cossiga suddenly resigned and formed a new centre-left government with the PSI and the PRI, underling that the catholic leaders had no more problems to choose their allies from anywhere. However, Cossiga later fell on a budget project, and a traditional centre-left government led by Arnaldo Forlani was formed. The great scandal of the masonic lodge P2 sank Forlani in 1981.

This deep political crisis marked the birth of a new political formula which ruled Italy during the 80's: the Pentapartito (Pentaparty, 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 Pentaparty 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

Composition of the Chamber of Deputies after the election.

Senate of the Republic

Composition of the Senate after the election.

References

External links

Elections and referendums in Italy General elections 1861 1865 1867 1870 1874 1876 1880 1882 1886 1890 1892 1895 1897 1900 1904 1909 1913 1919 1921 1924 1929 1934 1946 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1972 1976 1979 1983 1987 1992 1994 1996 2001 2006 2008 2013 next European elections 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 Regional elections 1947 1949 1951 1953 1954 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1973 1974 1975 1976 1978 1979 1980 1981 1983 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Local elections 1946 1951 1956 1960 1964 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Referendums 1946 1974 1978 1981 1985 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2003 2005 2006 2009 2011 See also: Elections in Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia–Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto