Italian general election, 1919

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Italian general election, 1919
Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg
←  1913 16 November 1919 1921  →
All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy

 Majority partyMinority partyThird party
  Nicola Bombacci.jpg Don Luigi Sturzo.jpg Vittorio Emanuele Orlando.jpeg
Leader Nicola Bombacci Don Luigi Sturzo Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
Party Socialist Party People's Party Liberal Democratic
Seats won15610191
Seat changeIncrease2.svg104new partynew party
Popular vote1,834,7921,167,354904,195
Percentage32.3%20.5%15.9%
SwingIncrease2.svg14.7%new partynew party
Prime Minister before election

Francesco Saverio Nitti
Radical Party

Elected Prime Minister

Francesco Saverio Nitti
Radical Party

General elections were held in Italy on 16 November 1919. [1] The fragmented Liberal governing coalition lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, due to the success of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party.

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.

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.

Italian Peoples Party (1919) Former Italian political party

The Italian People's Party, sometimes called Italian Popular Party, was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy inspired by Catholic social teaching. It was active in the 1920s, but fell apart because it was deeply deep split between the pro-and anti-fascist elements. Its platform called for an elective Senate, proportional representation, corporatism, agrarian reform, women's suffrage, political decentralization, independence of the Catholic Church, and social legislation.

Contents

Electoral system

The old system of using single-member constituencies with two-round majority voting was abolished and replaced with proportional representation in 58 constituencies with between 5 and 20 members. [2]

Historical background

The election took place in the middle of Biennio Rosso ("Red Biennium") a two-year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy, following the First World War. [3] The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922.

Biennio Rosso

The Biennio Rosso was a two-year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy, following the First World War. The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922.

Kingdom of Italy kingdom on the Appenine Peninsula between 1861 and 1946

The Kingdom of Italy was a state which existed from 1861—when King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy—until 1946—when civil discontent led a constitutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and form the modern Italian Republic. The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

The Biennio Rosso took place in a context of economic crisis at the end of the war, with high unemployment and political instability. It was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factories occupations. [3] In Turin and Milan, workers councils were formed and many factory occupations took place under the leadership of anarcho-syndicalists. The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the Padan plain and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests and guerrilla conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias.

Turin Comune in Piedmont, Italy

Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Turin and of the Piedmont region, and was the first capital city of Italy from 1861 to 1865. The city is located mainly on the western bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley, and is surrounded by the western Alpine arch and Superga Hill. The population of the city proper is 878,074 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million.

Milan Italian city

Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,372,810 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres. The wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age.

In the general election, the fragmented Liberal governing coalition lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, due to the success of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party. The Socialists of Nicola Bombacci received the most votes in almost every region and especially in Emilia-Romagna (60.0%), Piedmont (49.7%), Lombardy (45.9%), Tuscany (41.7%) and Umbria (46.5%), while the People's Party were the largest party in Veneto (42.6%) and came second in Lombardy (30.1%) and the Liberal lists were stronger in Southern Italy (over 50% in Abruzzo, Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily). [4]

Nicola Bombacci Italian politician and revolutionary

Nicola Bombacci, born at Civitella di Romagna, was an Italian Marxist revolutionary, prominent during the first half of the 20th century. He began in the Italian Socialist Party as an opponent of the reformist wing and became a founding member of the Communist Party of Italy in 1921, sitting on the fifteen-man Central Committee. During the latter part of his life, particularly during the Second World War, Bombacci allied with Benito Mussolini and the Italian Social Republic against the Allied invasion of Italy. He met his death after being shot by partisans and his cadaver was subsequently strung up in Piazzale Loreto.

Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy

Emilia-Romagna is an administrative region of Northeast Italy comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of 22,446 km2 (8,666 sq mi), and about 4.4 million inhabitants.

Piedmont Region of Italy

Piedmont is a region in northwest Italy, one of the 20 regions of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east and the Aosta Valley region to the northwest; it also borders France to the west and Switzerland to the northeast. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres (9,808 sq mi) and a population of 4 377 941 as of 30 November 2017. The capital of Piedmont is Turin.

Parties and leaders

PartyIdeologyLeader
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) Socialism, Revolutionary socialism Nicola Bombacci
Italian People's Party (PPI) Christian democracy, Popularism Luigi Sturzo
Democratic Liberal Party (PLD) Liberalism, Radicalism Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
Social Democratic Party (PDSI) Social liberalism, Radicalism Giovanni Antonio Colonna
Liberal Union (UL) Liberalism, Centrism Giovanni Giolitti
Combatants' Party (PdC) Italian nationalism, Veteran interests several
Radical Party (PR) Radicalism, Republicanism Francesco Saverio Nitti
Economic Party (PE) Conservatism, Liberism Ferdinando Bocca
Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI) Social democracy, Social liberalism Leonida Bissolati
Italian Republican Party (PRI) Republicanism, Radicalism Salvatore Barzilai

Coalitions

CoalitionParties
Majority
 Italian People's Party (PPI)
Democratic Liberal Party (PLD)
Social Democratic Party (PDSI)
Liberal Union (UL)
Radical Party (PR)
Italian Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI)
Opposition
 Italian Socialist Party (PSI)
Combatants' Party (PdC)
Economic Party (PE)
Italian Republican Party (PRI)

Results

← Summary of the 16 November 1919 Chamber of Deputies election results →
Italian Parliament, 1919.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/−
Italian Socialist Party 1,834,79232.3156+104
Italian People's Party 1,167,35420.5100New
Democratic Liberal Party 904,19515.996New
Italian Social Democratic Party 622,31010.960New
Liberal Union 490,3848.641−229
Combatants' Party 232,9234.120New
Radical Party 110,6971.912−50
Economic Party 87,4501.57New
Italian Reformist Socialist Party 82,1571.46−13
Dissident People's Party 65,4211.20New
Italian Republican Party 53,1970.99+1
Independent Socialists 33,9380.61−7
Invalid/blank votes108,674–––
Total5,793,492100508±0
Registered voters/turnout10,239,32656.6––
Popular vote
PSI
 
32.28%
PPI
 
20.53%
PLD
 
15.91%
PDSI
 
10.95%
UL
 
8.63%
PdC
 
4.10%
PR
 
1.95%
PE
 
1.54%
PSRI
 
1.45%
Others
 
2.68%
Seats
PSI
 
30.71%
PPI
 
19.69%
PLD
 
18.90%
PDSI
 
11.81%
UL
 
8.07%
PdC
 
3.94%
PR
 
2.36%
PE
 
1.38%
PSRI
 
1.18%
Others
 
1.97%

First party by Region

RegionFirst partySecond partyThird party
Abruzzo-Molise PLD–UL PSI PPI
Apulia PLD–UL PSI PPI
Basilicata PLD–UL PSI PPI
Calabria PLD–UL PPI PSI
Campania PLD–UL PPI PSI
Emilia-Romagna PSI PLD–UL PPI
Lazio PLD–UL PPI PSI
Liguria PLD–UL PSI PPI
Lombardy PSI PPI PLD–UL
Marche PSI PLD–UL PPI
Piedmont PSI PLD–UL PPI
Sardinia PLD–UL PPI PSI
Sicily PLD–UL PPI PSI
Tuscany PSI PLD–UL PPI
Umbria PSI PLD–UL PPI
Veneto PPI PSI PLD–UL

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References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1032
  3. 1 2 Brunella Dalla Casa, Composizione di classe, rivendicazioni e professionalità nelle lotte del "biennio rosso" a Bologna, in: AA. VV, Bologna 1920; le origini del fascismo, a cura di Luciano Casali, Cappelli, Bologna 1982, p. 179.
  4. ↑ Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009
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