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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Notes

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  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.