Italian general election, 1983

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Italian general election, 1983
Flag of Italy.svg
  1979 26 June 1983 1987  

All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies
315 (of the 322) seats in the Italian Senate
Turnout 88.0%

  Majority party Minority party Third party
  Ciriaco De Mita.jpg Enrico Berlinguer.jpg Bettino Craxi 2.jpg
Leader Ciriaco De Mita Enrico Berlinguer Bettino Craxi
Party Christian Democracy Communist Party Socialist Party
Leader since 1982 1972 1976
Leader's seat XXIV - Eastern Campania XX - Latium III - Milan
Seats won225 C / 120 S 198 C / 107 S 73 C / 38 S
Seat changeDecrease2.svg37 C / Decrease2.svg18 SDecrease2.svg3 C / Decrease2.svg2 SIncrease2.svg11 C / Increase2.svg6 S
Popular vote12,153,081 C
10,077,204 S
11,032,318 C
9,577,071 S
4,223,362 C
3,539,593 S
Percentage32.9% (C)
32.4% (S)
29.9% (C)
30.8% (S)
11.4% (C)
11.4% (S)
SwingDecrease2.svg5.4% C
Decrease2.svg5.9% S
Decrease2.svg0.5% C
Decrease2.svg0.7% S
Increase2.svg1.5% C
Increase2.svg1.0% S

Italia Election 1983 Province.png 1983 Italian Senate election map.png

Election results maps for the Chamber of Deputies (on the left) and for the Senate (on the right). Light Blue 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

Amintore Fanfani
Christian Democracy

Elected Prime Minister

Bettino Craxi
Socialist Party

General elections were held in Italy on 26 June 1983, to select the Ninth Republican Parliament. [1] The Pentaparty formula, the governative alliance between five centrist parties, caused unexpected problems to Christian Democracy. The alliance was fixed and universal, extended both to the national government and to the local administrations. Considering that the election result did not longer depend by the strength of the DC, but by the strength of the entire Pentapartito , centrist electors began to look at the Christian Democratic vote as not necessary to prevent a Communist success. More, voting for one of the four minor parties of the alliance was seen as a form of moderate protest against the government without giving advantages to the PCI. Other minor effects of this election were a reduction of the referendarian Radical Party and the appearance of some regional forces.

Italy republic in Southern Europe

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.

Centrism describes a political outlook or specific position

In politics, centrism—the centre or the center —is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society strongly to either the left or the right.

Christian Democracy (Italy) Italian political party, founded in 1943 and dissolved in 1994

Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic political party in Italy.

Contents

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.

Party-list proportional representation family of voting systems

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation (PR) in elections in which multiple candidates are elected through allocations to an electoral list. They can also be used as part of mixed additional member systems.

Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, party officials, or consultants to determine the order of its candidates and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list. Additionally, an open list system allows voters to select individuals rather than parties. Different systems give voter different amounts of influence. Voter's choice is usually called preference vote.

The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with various divisor methods.

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.

The D'Hondt method or the Jefferson method is a highest averages method for allocating seats, and is thus a type of party-list proportional representation. The method described is named in the United States after Thomas Jefferson, who introduced the method for proportional allocation of seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and in Europe after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt, who described it in 1878 for proportional allocation of parliamentary seats to the parties. There are two forms: closed list and an open list.

Historical background

Rescue teams making their way through the rubble after the explosion in Bologna. Stragedibologna-2.jpg
Rescue teams making their way through the rubble after the explosion in Bologna.

On 2 August 1980, a bomb killed 85 people and wounded more than 200 in Bologna. Known as the Bologna massacre, the blast destroyed a large portion of the city's railway station. This was found to be a fascist bombing, mainly organized by the NAR, who had ties with the Roman criminal organization Banda della Magliana . In the following days the central square of Bologna, Piazza Maggiore, hosted large-scale demonstrations of indignation and protest among the population, in which were not spared harsh criticism and protests addressed to government representatives, who attended the funerals of the victims celebrated in the San Petronio Basilica on 6 August.

Bologna Comune in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Bologna is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, at the heart of a metropolitan area of about one million people.

Bologna massacre terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy

The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Bologna Centrale railway station in Bologna, Italy, on the morning of 2 August 1980 which killed 85 people and wounded over 200. Several members of the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari were sentenced for the bombing, although the group denied involvement.

In 1981 at a meeting of the Congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), was officially launched a centrist political alliance called Pentapartito , when the Christian Democrat Arnaldo Forlani and Socialist Secretary Bettino Craxi signed an agreement with the "blessing" of Giulio Andreotti. Because the agreement was signed in a trailer, it was called the "pact of the camper." The pact was also called "CAF" for the initials of the signers, Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani. With this agreement, the DC party recognized the equal dignity of the so-called "secular parties" of the majority (i.e., the Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals and Republicans) and also guaranteed an alternation of government (in fact, Giovanni Spadolini of the PRI and Bettino Craxi of the PSI became the first non-Christian Democrats to hold the Presidency of the Council). With the birth of the Pentapartito, the possibility of the growth of the majority toward the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was finally dismissed. The Christian Democrats remained the leaders of the coalition, and managed several times to prevent representatives of the secular parties from becoming President of the Councill.

Italian Socialist Party former Italian political party (1892–1994)

The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in Genoa in 1892, the PSI dominated the Italian left until after World War II, when it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party. The Socialists came to special prominence in the 1980s, when their leader Bettino Craxi, who had severed the residual ties with the Soviet Union and re-branded the party as liberal-socialist, served as Prime Minister (1983–1987). The PSI was disbanded in 1994 as a result of the Tangentopoli scandals. Prior to World War I, future dictator Benito Mussolini was a member of the PSI.

The Pentapartito, commonly shortened to CAF refers to the coalition government of five Italian political parties that formed between June 1981 and April 1991. The coalition comprised the Christian Democracy (DC) party and four secular parties: the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), Italian Liberal Party (PLI) and Italian Republican Party (PRI).

Arnaldo Forlani Italian politician

Arnaldo Forlani, is an Italian politician who served as the 43rd Prime Minister of Italy from 18 October 1980 to 28 June 1981. He also held the office of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence.

Parties and leaders

PartyIdeologyLeader
Christian Democracy (DC) Christian democracy Ciriaco De Mita
Italian Communist Party (PCI) Communism Enrico Berlinguer
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) Social democracy Bettino Craxi
Italian Social Movement (MSI) Neo-fascism Giorgio Almirante
Italian Republican Party (PRI) Social liberalism Giovanni Spadolini
Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) Social democracy Pietro Longo
Italian Liberal Party (PLI) Conservative liberalism Valerio Zanone
Radical Party (PR) Radicalism Marco Pannella
Proletarian Democracy (DP) Trotskyism Mario Capanna

Results

The DC respected the pact of an alternance of leadership between the parties of the alliance and accepted the Socialist secretary, Bettino Craxi, as the new Prime Minister of Italy. The Christian Democrats hoped that their minor responsibility could drive away some popular discontent from their party. The Italian Socialist Party so arrived to the highest office of the government for the first time in history. Differently from the DC, which had an oligarchic structure, the PSI was strongly ruled by its secretary, so the Craxi's premiership resulted the longest one without any political crisis in post-war Italy, despite some international tensions with the United States about the Palestine Liberation Organization. Craxi formed a renewed government in 1986, but could not survive in 1987 to a dispute with DC's secretary Ciriaco De Mita, who was searching and effectively obtained an early national election, ruled by an electoral Christian Democratic government with old Amintore Fanfani as PM.

Bettino Craxi Italian politician

Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993 and Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first member of the PSI to hold the office and the third Prime Minister from a socialist party. He led the third-longest government in the Italian Republic and he is considered one of the most powerful and prominent politicians of the so-called First Republic.

Prime Minister of Italy head of government of the Italian Republic

The President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, commonly referred to in Italy as Presidente del Consiglio, or informally as Premier and known in English as the Prime Minister of Italy, is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of Prime Minister is established by Articles 92 through to 96 of the Constitution of Italy. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic after each general election and must have the confidence of the Italian Parliament to stay in office.

Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may be distinguished by nobility, wealth, family ties, education or corporate, religious, political, or military control. Such states are often controlled by families who typically pass their influence from one generation to the next, but inheritance is not a necessary condition for the application of this term.

Chamber of Deputies

Summary of the 26 June 1983 Chamber of Deputies election results
Italian Chamber of Deputies, 1983.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/−
Christian Democracy 12,153,08132.93225−37
Italian Communist Party 11,032,31829.89198−3
Italian Socialist Party 4,223,36211.4473+11
Italian Social Movement 2,511,4876.8142+12
Italian Republican Party 1,874,5125.0829+13
Italian Democratic Socialist Party 1,508,2344.0923+3
Italian Liberal Party 1,066,9802.8916+7
Radical Party 809,8102.1911−7
Proletarian Democracy 542,0391.477+7
National Pensioners Party 503,4611.360New
South Tyrolean People's Party 184,9400.503−1
Liga Veneta 125,3110.341New
List for Trieste 92,1010.250−1
Sardinian Action Party 91,9230.251+1
Aosta Valley coalition (UVUVPDP)26,0860.081±0
Others158,3600.420±0
Invalid/blank votes2,282,177
Total39,188,182100630±0
Registered voters/turnout44,526,35788.01
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
DC
32.93%
PCI
29.89%
PSI
11.44%
MSI
6.81%
PRI
5.08%
PSDI
4.09%
PLI
2.89%
PR
2.19%
DP
1.47%
PNP
1.36%
Others
1.84%
Seats
DC
35.71%
PCI
31.43%
PSI
11.59%
MSI
6.67%
PRI
4.60%
PSDI
3.65%
PLI
2.54%
PR
1.75%
DP
1.11%
Others
0.95%

Senate of the Republic

Summary of the 26 June 1983 Senate of the Republic election results
Italian Senate, 1983.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/−
Christian Democracy 10,077,20432.41120−18
Italian Communist Party 9,577,07130.81107−2
Italian Socialist Party 3,539,59311.3938+6
Italian Social Movement 2,283,5247.3518+5
Italian Republican Party 1,452,2794.6710+4
Italian Democratic Socialist Party 1,184,9363.818−1
Italian Liberal Party 834,7712.696+4
Radical Party 548,2291.761−1
National Pensioners' Party 370,7561.190New
Proletarian Democracy 327,7501.050New
South Tyrolean People's Party 157,4440.513±0
PLIPRI 127,5040.411±0
PLIPRIPSDI 100,2180.320±0
Liga Veneta 91,1710.291New
List for Trieste 85,5420.280±0
Sardinian Action Party 76,7970.251+1
PLIPSDI 72,2980.230±0
For the Renewal of Molise33,5250.110New
Valdostan Union 26,5470.091
Others122,8520.410±0
Invalid/blank votes2,313,128
Total33,402,139100315±0
Registered voters/turnout37,603,81788.83
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
DC
32.41%
PCI
30.81%
PSI
11.39%
MSI
7.35%
PRI
4.67%
PSDI
3.81%
PLI
2.69%
PR
1.76%
PNP
1.19%
DP
1.05%
Others
2.87%
Seats
DC
38.10%
PCI
33.97%
PSI
12.06%
MSI
5.71%
PRI
3.17%
PSDI
2.54%
PLI
1.90%
PR
0.32%
Others
2.22%

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References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1048 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7