1983 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy elected its ninth delegation to the Italian Senate on June 26, 1983.[1] This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1983 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

1983 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

← 1979 June 26, 1983 1987 →

All 48 Lombard seats to the Italian Senate
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Ciriaco De Mita Enrico Berlinguer Bettino Craxi
Party DC PCI PSI
Last election 40.7%, 21 seats 29.4%, 15 seats 11.9%, 6 seats
Seats won 17 15 6
Seat change Decrease4 = =
Popular vote 1,747,002 1,447,823 615,644
Percentage 34.4% 28.5% 12.1%
Swing Decrease6.3% Decrease0.9% Increase0.2%

Old local plurality before election

DC

New local plurality

DC

The election was won by the centrist Christian Democracy, as it happened at national level. Six Lombard provinces gave a majority or at least a plurality to the winning party, while the agricultural Province of Pavia and Province of Mantua, and this time the industrial Province of Milan, preferred the Italian Communist Party.

Background edit

As the red rising seemed to be stopped in Italy, many center-right electors began to think no more necessary a vote for Christian Democracy which lost many seats to minor parties, especially to the Italian Republican Party of former Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini.

Electoral system edit

The electoral system for the Senate was a strange hybrid which established a form of proportional representation into FPTP-like constituencies. A candidate needed a landslide victory of more than 65% of votes to obtain a direct mandate. All constituencies where this result was not reached entered into an at-large calculation based upon the D'Hondt method to distribute the seats between the parties, and candidates with the best percentages of suffrages inside their party list were elected.

Results edit

Party votes votes (%) seats swing
Christian Democracy 1,747,002 34.4 17  4
Italian Communist Party 1,447,823 28.5 15 =
Italian Socialist Party 615,644 12.1 6 =
Italian Republican Party 349,351 6.9 3  2
Italian Social Movement 255,667 5.0 2  1
Italian Liberal Party 197,084 3.9 2  1
Italian Democratic Socialist Party 192,172 3.8 2 =
Radical Party 103,697 2.0 1 =
Others 168,885 3.3 - =
Total parties 5,076,325 100.0 48 =

Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Constituencies edit

Constituency Elected Party Votes % Others
1 Bergamo Angelo Castelli Christian Democracy 49.6%
2 Clusone Enzo Berlanda Christian Democracy 55.8%
3 Treviglio Vincenzo Bombardieri Christian Democracy 49.6%
4 Brescia Pietro Padula
Gino Torri
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
37.5%
28.5%
5 Breno Franco Salvi Christian Democracy 48.4%
6 Chiari Giovanni Prandini Christian Democracy 49.3%
7 Salò Elio Fontana Christian Democracy 42.2% Italo Nicoletto (PCI) 26.2%
8 Como Gianfranco Aliverti
Gianfranco Conti Persini
Christian Democracy
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
35.7%
7.5%
9 Lecco Maria Paola Colombo
Pietro Fiocchi
Christian Democracy
Italian Liberal Party
41.4%
9.0%
10 Cantù Vittorino Colombo Christian Democracy 41.6%
11 Cremona Renzo Antoniazzi
Vincenzo Vernaschi
Italian Communist Party
Christian Democracy
35.9%
34.7%
12 Crema Francesco Rebecchini
Unconstitutional result [2]
Christian Democracy

42.6%
28.1%
Maurizio Noci (PSI) 13.6%
seat ceded to Pintus
13 Mantua Giuseppe Chiarante
Gino Scevarolli
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
34.6%
14.6%
14 Ostiglia Maurizio Lotti
Enrico Novellini
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
42.5%
16.7%
15 Milan 1 Guido Carli^
Giovanni Spadolini
Giovanni Malagodi
Christian Democracy
Italian Republican Party
Italian Liberal Party
28.2%
20.6%
9.9%
16 Milan 2 Giorgio Pisanò
Spadolini's third election
Italian Social Movement

9.2%
18%

seat ceded to Ferrara
17 Milan 3 Giorgio Covi
Cesare Biglia
Mario Signorino
Italian Republican Party
Italian Social Movement
Radical Party
14.2%
8.5%
3.2%
18 Milan 4 Roberto Romei^
Spadolini's second election
Christian Democracy

23.5%
19%

seat ceded to Covi
19 Milan 5 Giuliano Procacci
Giovanni Ferrara
Italian Communist Party
Italian Republican Party
30.6%
11.1%
20 Milan 6 Eliseo Milani Italian Communist Party 32.3%
21 Abbiategrasso Massimo Riva Italian Communist Party (Gsi) 34.3%
22 Rho Rodolfo Bollini Italian Communist Party 36.2%
23 Monza Libero Riccardelli Italian Communist Party 30.9% Felice Calcaterra (DC) 32.9%
24 Vimercate Luigi Granelli
Marina Rossanda
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
35.6%
31.0%
25 Lodi Antonio Taramelli
Alfredo Diana
Italian Communist Party
Christian Democracy
37.3%
34.4%
26 Pavia Armelino Milani
Renato Garibaldi
Italian Communist Party (Gsi)
Italian Socialist Party
35.6%
14.3%
27 Voghera Luigi Meriggi
Luigi Panigazzi
Renzo Sclavi
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
31.7%
15.2%
6.0%
28 Vigevano Armando Cossutta Italian Communist Party 41.6%
29 Sondrio Eugenio Tarabini
Libero Della Briotta
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
48.6%
17.4%
30 Varese Francesco Pintus Italian Communist Party (Gsi) 27.2%
31 Busto Arsizio Andrea Buffoni Italian Socialist Party 13.8% Gian Pietro Rossi (DC) 34.1%
  • No senator obtained a direct mandate. Please remember that the electoral system was, in the other cases, a form of proportional representation and not a FPTP race: so candidates winning with a simple plurality could have (and usually had) a candidate (usually a Christian democrat) with more votes in their constituency.
  • ^ Linked to Spadolini's triple election.

Substitutions edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Howard R. Penniman, “Italy at the Polls, 1983: A Study of the National Elections”
  2. ^ Incumbent MP Paolo Zanini helped his party running for this seat. However, according to the Italian Constitution, MPs can't be senators, so he ceded his senatorial seat to his party-mate Francesco Pintus.