1979 Italian general election

1979 Italian general election
Italy
← 1976 3 June 1979 1983 →
Chamber of Deputies

All 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
316 seats needed for a majority
Turnout90.6% (Decrease 2.8 pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/–
DC Benigno Zaccagnini 38.30 262 0
PCI Enrico Berlinguer 30.38 201 -26
PSI Bettino Craxi 9.81 62 +5
MSI Giorgio Almirante 5.26 30 -5
PSDI Pietro Longo 3.84 20 +5
PR Marco Pannella 3.45 18 +14
PRI Giovanni Spadolini 3.03 16 +2
PLI Valerio Zanone 1.94 9 +4
PdUP Vittorio Foa 1.37 6 +1
SVP Silvius Magnago 0.56 4 +1
LpT Manlio Cecovini 0.18 1 New
UV Jean-Claude Perrin 0.09 1 +1
Senate of the Republic

All 315 seats in the Senate of the Republic
162 seats needed for a majority
Turnout90.7% (Decrease 2.7 pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/–
DC Benigno Zaccagnini 38.34 138 +3
PCI Enrico Berlinguer 31.46 109 -7
PSI Bettino Craxi 10.38 32 +3
MSI Giorgio Almirante 5.68 13 -2
PSDI Pietro Longo 4.22 9 +3
PRI Giovanni Spadolini 3.36 6 0
PLI Valerio Zanone 2.21 2 0
PR Marco Pannella 1.32 2 +2
SVP Silvius Magnago 0.55 3 +1
UVDP Several leaders 0.12 1 0
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after the election
Giulio Andreotti
DC
Francesco Cossiga
DC

The 1979 Italian general election was held in Italy on 3 June 1979. 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 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 were 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.

Historical background

Moro, photographed during his kidnapping by the Red Brigades.

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 Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades, and five of his bodyguards killed. The Red Brigades were a militant leftist group, then led by Mario Moretti. Aldo Moro was a left-leaning Christian Democrat who served several times as Prime Minister. Before his murder he was trying to include the Italian Communist Party (PCI), headed by Enrico Berlinguer, in the government through a deal called the Historic Compromise. The PCI was the largest communist party in western Europe. This was largely because of its non-extremist and pragmatic stance, its growing independence from Moscow and its eurocommunist doctrine. The PCI was especially strong in areas such as Emilia Romagna, where it had stable government positions and mature practical experience, which may have contributed to a more pragmatic approach to politics. The Red Brigades were fiercely opposed by the Communist Party and trade unions, a few left-wing politicians even used the condescending expression "comrades who do wrong" (Compagni che sbagliano). The circumstances surrounding Aldo Moro's murder have never been made clear, but the consequences included the fact that PCI did not gain executive power.

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.

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 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 (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

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Christian Democracy14,046,29038.302620
Italian Communist Party11,139,23130.38201−26
Italian Socialist Party3,596,8029.8162+5
Italian Social Movement1,930,6395.2630−5
Italian Democratic Socialist Party1,407,5353.8420+5
Radical Party1,264,8703.4518+14
Italian Republican Party1,110,2093.0316+2
Italian Liberal Party712,6461.949+4
Proletarian Unity Party502,2471.3760
New United Left294,4620.800New
National Democracy229,2050.630New
South Tyrolean People's Party204,8990.564+1
List for Trieste65,5050.181New
Friuli Movement35,2540.100New
Valdostan Union33,2500.091+1
Unity of the Left23,9090.070New
Sardinian Action Party17,6730.050New
DCPSDIPRI13,4420.040New
European Workers' Party7,3710.0200
Italian People's Party6,4970.020New
Sicilian Justice Front5,1460.010New
Christian Social Action Party3,1150.010New
Democratic Party3,1080.0100
Welfare and Civilisation Party2,9910.0100
Calabrian People's Party2,9270.010New
Sicilian National Front2,7490.010New
Daisy Flower2,1230.010New
Popular Christian Movement1,9210.010New
Association for the Enhancement of the Individual1,9070.010New
New People's Party1,8690.0100
Democratic Left Party1,5160.0000
Total36,671,308100.006300
Valid votes36,671,30895.89
Invalid/blank votes1,571,6104.11
Total votes38,242,918100.00
Registered voters/turnout42,203,35490.62
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
DC
38.30%
PCI
30.38%
PSI
9.81%
MSI
5.26%
PSDI
3.84%
PR
3.45%
PRI
3.03%
PLI
1.94%
PdUP
1.37%
Others
2.62%
Seats
DC
41.59%
PCI
31.90%
PSI
9.84%
MSI
4.76%
PSDI
3.17%
PR
2.86%
PRI
2.54%
PLI
1.43%
PdUP
0.95%
Others
0.95%

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

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Christian Democracy12,010,71638.34138+3
Italian Communist Party9,855,95131.46109−7
Italian Socialist Party3,252,41010.3832+3
Italian Social Movement1,780,9505.6813−2
Italian Democratic Socialist Party1,320,7294.229+3
Italian Republican Party1,053,2513.3660
Italian Liberal Party691,7182.2120
Radical Party413,4441.322+2
Radical Party–New United Left365,9541.170New
National Democracy176,9660.560New
South Tyrolean People's Party172,5820.553+1
List for Trieste61,9110.200New
New United Left44,0940.140New
Valdostan UnionPopular DemocratsPLI37,0820.1210
Friuli Movement31,4900.100New
Unity of the Left19,8140.060New
Sardinian Action Party15,7660.050New
PRI–Socialist Workers' Party9,1150.030New
New Sardinian Left5,5120.020New
Calabrian People's Party4,0090.010New
Democratic Party3,7480.0100
Daisy Flower2,0560.0100
Welfare and Civilization Party1,0720.000New
Ave Movement4550.0000
Total31,330,795100.003150
Valid votes31,330,79595.01
Invalid/blank votes1,645,5094.99
Total votes32,976,304100.00
Registered voters/turnout36,362,03790.69
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
DC
38.34%
PCI
31.46%
PSI
10.38%
MSI
5.68%
PSDI
4.22%
PRI
3.36%
PLI
2.21%
PR
1.32%
Others
3.03%
Seats
DC
43.81%
PCI
34.60%
PSI
10.16%
MSI
4.13%
PSDI
2.86%
PRI
1.90%
PLI
0.63%
PR
0.63%
Others
1.27%

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

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