Italian presidential election, 1985

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Italian presidential election, 1985
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  1978 24 June 1985 1992  

1008 voters: 315 Senators, 8 Senators for life,
630 Deputies and 58 regional representatives

674 or 505 votes needed to win

  Cossiga Francesco.jpg Arnaldo Forlani 2.jpg
Nominee Francesco Cossiga Arnaldo Forlani
Party Christian Democracy Christian Democracy
Electoral vote752 16
Percentage75.4% 1.58%

President before election

Sandro Pertini
Socialist Party

Elected President

Francesco Cossiga
Christian Democracy


The 1985 election of the President of the Italian Republic was held on June 24, 1985. As a second-level, indirect election, only Members of Parliament and regional deputies were entitled to vote. Francesco Cossiga was elected head of state of the Italian Republic, a role of representation of national unity and guarantee that Italian politics comply with the Constitution, in the framework of a parliamentary system.

Francesco Cossiga 8th President of Italy

Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, member of the Christian Democracy. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1979 to 1980 and the 8th President of Italy from 1985 to 1992. Cossiga is widely considered one of the most prominent and influential politicians of the so-called First Republic. He has been often described as a strongman and accused of being an "iron minister", who brutally repressed the public protests.

A head of state is the public persona who officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. Depending on the country's form of government and separation of powers, the head of state may be a ceremonial figurehead or concurrently the head of government. In a parliamentary system the head of state is the de jure leader of the nation, and there is a separate de facto leader, often with the title of prime minister. In contrast, a semi-presidential system has both heads of state and government as the leaders de facto of the nation.

Parliamentary system form of government

A parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance of a state where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the confidence of the legislature, typically a parliament, and is also held accountable to that parliament. In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a person distinct from the head of government. This is in contrast to a presidential system, where the head of state often is also the head of government and, most importantly, the executive does not derive its democratic legitimacy from the legislature.

On June 24, 1985, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy Nilde Iotti, in agreement with Senate Speaker Francesco Cossiga, convened the two houses of the Italian Parliament, integrated with a number of representatives appointed by the twenty Italian regions, in a common session in order to commence voting for the election of the new President of the Italian Republic.

Nilde Iotti Italian politician

Leonilde Iotti, commonly known as Nilde Iotti was an Italian politician of the Communist Party, the first woman to become president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for three consecutive legislatures from 1979 to 1992.

Italian Parliament legislature of Italy

The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. The Parliament is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861) and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946). It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members and a small number of unelected members (parlamentari). It is composed of the Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members (deputati) elected on a national basis, and the Senate of the Republic, with 315 members (senatori) elected on a regional basis, plus a small number of senators for life, either appointed or ex officio. The two houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution.

According to the Italian Constitution, the election must be held in the form of secret ballot, with the Senators, the Deputies and 59 regional representatives allowed to cast their votes. When the 1985 election was held, the Senate counted 322 members and the Chamber of Deputies counted 630 members; the electors were in total 1011. The election is held in the Palazzo Montecitorio , home of the Chamber of Deputies, with the capacity of the building being expanded for the purpose. The first three ballots require a two-thirds majority of the voters in order to elect a President, in this election equivalent to 674 votes. Starting from the fourth ballot, an absolute majority is required for candidates to be elected. The election is conducted by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, who has the authority to proceed to the public counting of the votes. The presidential mandate lasts seven years.

Constitution of Italy supreme law of Italy

The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 15 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947. The Constituent Assembly was elected by universal suffrage on 2 June 1946, at the same time as a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy. The Constitution came into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the Statuto Albertino had been enacted. Although the latter remained in force after Benito Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, it had become devoid of substantive value.

Palazzo Montecitorio palazzo

The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

Outgoing President Sandro Pertini, was elected in 1978 at the 16th ballot, becoming only the first president from the Italian Socialist Party.

Sandro Pertini 7th President of Italy

Alessandro "Sandro" Pertini, was an Italian journalist, partisan and socialist politician who served as the seventh President of the Italian Republic, from 1978 to 1985.

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.

On June 24, Francesco Cossiga, the candidate endorsed by the Christian Democracy, was elected on the first ballot with 752 votes, becoming the first president ever elected on the first ballot. His term officially started with a swearing-in ceremony held on July 3.

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

Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic political party in Italy.

Ballots

First ballot (June 24)

The voting operations ended at 18:00 CEST.

NameVotes
Francesco Cossiga 752
Arnaldo Forlani 16
Alessandro Pertini 12
Other candidates49
Blank votes141
Invalid votes7
Abstentions2


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