Italian general election, 1983

Italian general election, 1983

1979 ← June 26, 1983 → 1987

All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 316 seats were needed for a majority in the Chamber 315 (of the 322) seats in the Italian Senate   Majority party Minority party   Leader Ciriaco De Mita Enrico Berlinguer Party DC PCI Leader's seat XXIV - Eastern Campania XX - Latium Last election 262 & 138 seats, 38.3% 201 & 109 seats, 30.4% Seats won 225 (H) 120 (S) 198 (H) 107 (S) Seat change -55 -5 Popular vote 12,153,081 11,032,318 Percentage 32.9% 29.9% Swing -5.4% -0.5%

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 Amintore Fanfani DC New Prime Minister Bettino Craxi PSI

General elections were held in Italy on 27 June 1983. 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 Pentaparty, 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.

Electoral system

Regional pluralities in Senate

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 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 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.

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.

Chamber of Deputies

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Christian Democracy	12,153,081	32.9	225	–37
Italian Communist Party	11,032,318	29.9	198	–3
Italian Socialist Party	4,223,362	11.4	73	+11
Italian Social Movement	2,511,487	6.8	42	+12
Italian Republican Party	1,874,512	5.1	29	+13
Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,508,234	4.1	23	+3
Italian Liberal Party	1,066,980	2.9	16	+7
Radical Party	809,810	2.2	11	–7
Proletarian Democracy	542,039	1.5	7	New
South Tyrolean People's Party	184,940	0.5	3	0
Valdotanian Union	245,320	0.7	1	0
Liga Veneta			1	+1
Sardinian Action Party			1	+1
Others	753,922	2.0	0	–
Invalid/blank votes	2,282,177	–	–	–
Total	39,188,182	100	630	0
Registered voters/turnout	44,047,478	89.0	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Senate

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Christian Democracy	10,081,819	32.4	120	–18
Italian Communist Party	9,579,699	30.8	107	–2
Italian Socialist Party	3,541,101	11.4	38	+6
Italian Social Movement	2,283,870	7.3	18	+5
Italian Republican Party	1,452,912	4.7	10	+4
Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,183,912	3.8	8	–1
Italian Liberal Party	834,228	2.7	6	+4
Radical Party	548,863	1.8	1	–1
Proletarian Democracy	327,307	1.1	0	New
South Tyrolean People's Party	157,478	0.5	3	0
Valdotanian Union	26,547	0.1	0	0
PLI-PRI	295,379	0.9	1	–
Liga Veneta			1	+1
Sardinian Action Party			1	+1
Others	783,086	2.5	1	0
Invalid/blank votes	2,212,399	–	–	–
Total	33,308,600	100	315	0
Registered voters/turnout	37,603,817	88.6	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver