Italian general election, 1900

Italian general election, 1900
All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy
Prime Minister before election; Luigi Pelloux ; Military	Elected Prime Minister ; Giuseppe Saracco ; Historical Left

Last updated April 10, 2019

General elections were held in Italy on 3 June 1900, with a second round of voting on 10 June.^[1] The "ministerial" left-wing bloc remained the largest in Parliament, winning 296 of the 508 seats.^[2]

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.

Electoral system

The election was held using 508 single-member constituencies. However, prior to the election the electoral law was amended so that candidates needed only an absolute majority of votes to win their constituency, abolishing the second requirement of receiving the votes of at least one-sixth of registered voters.^[3]

Historical background

Upon the fall of Antonio Starabba di Rudinì in June 1898, General Luigi Pelloux was entrusted by King Umberto with the formation of a cabinet, and took for himself the post of minister of the interior. He resigned office in May 1899 over his Chinese policy, but was again entrusted with the formation of a government. His new cabinet was essentially military and conservative, the most decisively conservative since 1876.^[4]

Luigi Gerolamo Pelloux was an Italian general and politician, born of parents who retained their Italian nationality when Savoy was annexed to France. He was the Prime Minister of Italy from 29 June 1898 to 24 June 1900.

Umberto I, nicknamed the Good, was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900.

He took stern measures against the revolutionary elements in southern Italy. The Public Safety Bill for the reform of the police laws, taken over by him from the Rudinì cabinet, and eventually promulgated by royal decree. The law made strikes by state employees illegal; gave the executive wider powers to ban public meetings and dissolve subversive organisations; revived the penalties of banishment and preventive arrest for political offences; and tightened control of the press by making authors responsible for their articles and declaring incitement to violence a crime.^[4] The new coercive law was fiercely obstructed by the Socialist Party of Italy (PSI), which, with the Left and Extreme Left, succeeded in forcing General Pelloux to dissolve the Chamber in May 1900, and to resign office after the general election in June.

Parties and leaders

	Ideology	Leader
Historical Left	Liberalism, Centrism	Giovanni Giolitti
Historical Right	Conservatism, Monarchism	Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
Italian Socialist Party	Socialism, Revolutionary socialism	Filippo Turati
Historical Far Left	Republicanism, Radicalism	Ettore Sacchi
Italian Republican Party	Republicanism, Radicalism	Napoleone Colajanni

Results

← Summary of June 1900 Chamber of Deputies election results →
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−

	Historical Left	663,418	52.3	296	−33
	Historical Right	271,698	21.4	116	+17
	Italian Socialist Party	164,946	13.0	33	+18
	Historical Far Left	89,872	7.1	34	−8
	Italian Republican Party	79,127	6.2	29	+4
Invalid/blank votes		38,888	–	–	–
Total		1,310,480	100	508	±0
Registered voters/turnout		2,248,509	58.3	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote

Left			52.3%
Right			21.4%
PSI			13.0%
Far Left			7.1%
PRI			6.2%

Parliamentary seats

Left			58.3%
Right			22.8%
Far Left			6.7%
PSI			6.5%
PRI			5.7%

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See also: 1897 in Italy, other events of 1898, 1899 in Italy.

See also: 1896 in Italy, other events of 1897, 1898 in Italy.

See also: 1899 in Italy, other events of 1900, 1901 in Italy.

References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1083
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1039
1 2 Seton-Watson, Italy from liberalism to fascism, 1870-1925 , p. 193

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[NS-1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, p1083

[3] Nohlen & Stöver, p1039

[seton193-4] 1 2 Seton-Watson, Italy from liberalism to fascism, 1870-1925 , p. 193

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