Italian general election, 1958

Italian general election, 1958

1953 ← 25 May 1958 → 1963

All 596 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 299 seats were needed for a majority in the Chamber 246 (of the 253) seats in the Italian Senate   Majority party Minority party   Leader Amintore Fanfani Palmiro Togliatti Party DC PCI Leader since 1954 1938 Leader's seat XVII - South Tuscany XX - Latium Last election 263 & 116 seats, 40.1% 143 & 51 seats, 22.6% Seats won 273 (H) 123 (S) 140 (H) 59 (S) Seat change +17 +1 Popular vote 12,522,279 6,704,706 Percentage 42.3% 22.7% Swing +2.3% +0.1%

Legislative election results map. White 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 Adone Zoli DC New Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani DC

General elections were held in Italy on 25 May 1958. They selected the third Parliament of the Italian Republic. The number of MPs to be elected was calculated upon the population's size for the last time.

Electoral system

Minor changes were made to the electoral law in 1958, creating a system which would remain unchanged until its abrogation in 1993.

The pure party-list proportional representation was definitely adopted 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 was divided using the Hare quota, and automatically distributed to best losers into the local lists.

For the Senate, 237 single-seat constituencies were established, even if the assembly had 9 more members. The candidates needed a landslide victory of two thirds of votes to be elected: only 5 hoping senators reached this goal. 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.

Results

Regional pluralities in Senate

The election gave similar results of five years before and, consequently, the same problems of political instability of the centrist formula. Christian Democracy was polarized by a fraction which liked more leftist politics, and another one which urged for a rightist route. Party's secretary Amintore Fanfani was in the first field, and called for a dialogue with the Italian Socialist Party, which had frozen its relationships with the Italian Communist Party after the Hungarian Revolution. Fanfani led a year-term government, but the reaction of the conservative fraction gave the power to Antonio Segni, followed by Fernando Tambroni who received a decisive vote of confidence by neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. The MSI had been banned by any type of political power since its birth under the theory of the Constitutional Arch, which stated that any government or opposition party which had voted the Italian Constitution, had to refuse any relationship with fascist and monarchist forces, seen as anti-constitutional groups. Strikes and revolts causing some casualties erupted through the country, and Tambroni had to resign. Fanfani returned to the premiership, this time with an openly centre-left programme supported by the socialist abstention. The government created the middle school for workers' sons, and the ENEL after the electric energy nationalisation.

Chamber of Deputies

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Christian Democracy	12,522,279	42.3	273	+10
Italian Communist Party	6,704,706	22.7	140	–3
Italian Socialist Party	4,208,111	14.2	84	+9
Italian Social Movement	1,407,913	4.8	24	–5
Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,345,750	4.6	22	+3
Italian Liberal Party	1,046,939	3.5	17	+4
People's Monarchist Party	776,942	2.6	14	New
Monarchist National Party	659,865	2.2	11	–29
Italian Republican Party	405,574	1.6	6	+1
South Tyrolean People's Party	135,495	0.5	3	0
Community Movement	203,853	0.7	1	New
Valdotanian Union			1	New
Others	146,206	0.5	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	874,137	–	–	–
Total	30,437,770	100	596	+6
Registered voters/turnout	32,446,892	93.8	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Senate

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Christian Democracy	10,782,262	41.2	123	+10
Italian Communist Party	5,701,019	21.8	59	+8
Italian Socialist Party	3,682,806	14.1	35	+9
Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,165,402	4.5	5	+1
Italian Social Movement	1,149,873	4.4	8	–1
Italian Liberal Party	1,008,830	3.9	4	+1
People's Monarchist Party	773,959	3.0	5	New
Monarchist National Party	510,823	2.0	2	–14
Italian Republican Party	363,461	1.4	0	0
South Tyrolean People's Party	120,086	0.5	2	0
PCI-PSI-IS	213,781	0.8	2	0
Valdotanian Union			1	New
Others	679,697	2.6	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	1,239,240	–	–	–
Total	27,391,239	100	246	+9
Registered voters/turnout	29,174,858	93.9	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

External links

• Chronology of Italian elections results (Italian)