1976 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy elected its seventh delegation to the Italian Senate on June 20, 1976. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1976 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

1976 Italian Senate election in Lombardy
June 20, 1976
All 48 Lombard seats to the Italian Senate
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Benigno Zaccagnini Enrico Berlinguer Francesco De Martino
Party DC PCI PSI
Last election 41.7%, 20 seats 24.5%, 12 seats 13.0%, 6 seats
Seats won 21 16 6
Seat change Increase1 Increase4 =
Popular vote 2,170,893 1,598,097 613,253
Percentage 41.8% 30.7% 11.8%
Swing Increase0.1% Increase6.2% Decrease1.2%
Old local plurality before election

DC

 New local plurality

DC

Lombardy obtained three more seats to the Senate, following the redistricting subsequent to the 1971 Census.

The election was won by the centrist Christian Democracy, as it happened at national level. Seven Lombard provinces gave a majority or at least a plurality to the winning party, while the agricultural Province of Pavia and Province of Mantua preferred the Italian Communist Party.

Background

The Italian Communist Party, which had annexed the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, strengthened under Enrico Berlinguer's leadership, reducing the gap with the Christian Democracy, which by its part obtained some votes from minor forces, as the Italian Liberal Party and the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, to face the red rising.

Electoral system

The electoral system for the Senate was a strange hybrid which established a form of proportional representation into FPTP-like constituencies. A candidate needed a landslide victory of more than 65% of votes to obtain a direct mandate. All constituencies where this result was not reached entered into an at-large calculation based upon the D'Hondt method to distribute the seats between the parties, and candidates with the best percentages of suffrages inside their party list were elected.

Results
Party votes votes (%) seats swing
Christian Democracy 2,170,893 41.8 21 Increase1
Italian Communist Party 1,598,097 30.7 16 Increase4
Italian Socialist Party 613,253 11.8 6 =
Italian Social Movement 210,741 4.1 2 =
Italian Republican Party 185,899 3.6 1 =
Italian Democratic Socialist Party 183,383 3.5 1 Decrease1
Italian Liberal Party 109,028 2.1 1 Decrease1
Others 136,997 2.4 - =
Total parties 5,198,291 100.0 48 Increase3

Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Constituencies
N° Constituency Elected Party Votes % Others
1 Bergamo Angelo Castelli Christian Democracy 59.1%
2 Clusone Leandro Rampa Christian Democracy 63.8%
3 Treviglio Vincenzo Bombardieri Christian Democracy 57.3%
4 Brescia Mino Martinazzoli Christian Democracy 45.6%
5 Breno Giacomo Mazzoli Christian Democracy 55.3%
6 Chiari Mario Pedini Christian Democracy 57.3%
7 Salò Fabiano De Zan
Egidio Ariosto		 Christian Democracy
Italian Democratic Socialist Party		 48.3%
5.8%
8 Como Luigi Borghi Christian Democracy 44.8%
9 Lecco Tommaso Morlino Christian Democracy 52.3%
10 Cantù Siro Lombardini Christian Democracy 49.6%
11 Cremona Vincenzo Vernaschi
Giuseppe Garoli		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party		 39.6%
36.5%
12 Crema Ferdinando Truzzi
Giacomo Carnesella		 Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party		 49.0%
13.1%		 Paolo Zanini (PCI) 28.4%
13 Mantua Carlo Grazioli
Tullia Romagnoli		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party (Gsi)		 37.0%
35.8%
14 Ostiglia Agostino Zavattini
Renato Colombo		 Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party		 42.6%
14.8%
15 Milan 1 Luigi Noè
Enzo Bettiza		 Christian Democracy
Italian Liberal Party		 37.1%
9.3%
16 Milan 2 Gastone Nencioni Italian Social Movement 9.0%
17 Milan 3 Vera Squarcialupi
Giorgio Pisanò		 Italian Communist Party
Italian Social Movement		 28.9%
7.4%
18 Milan 4 Urbano Aletti
Giovanni Spadolini		 Christian Democracy
Italian Republican Party		 36.5%
9.3%
19 Milan 5 Mario Venanzi Italian Communist Party 34.5%
20 Milan 6 Lelio Basso
Carlo Polli		 Italian Communist Party (Gsi)
Italian Socialist Party		 36.9%
13.8%
21 Abbiategrasso Ada Valeria Ruhl
Agostino Viviani		 Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party		 38.0%
13.0%
22 Rho Giorgio Milani
Bruno Luzzati		 Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party		 39.6%
13.1%
23 Monza Vittorino Colombo
Generoso Petrella		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party		 41.0%
32.7%
24 Vimercate Giovanni Marcora
Angelo Romanò		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party (Gsi)		 43.6%
33.6%
25 Lodi Camillo Ripamonti
Rodolfo Bollini		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party		 39.6%
39.3%
26 Pavia Renato Cebrelli Italian Communist Party 39.5%
27 Voghera Giovanni Bellinzona Italian Communist Party 36.1%
28 Vigevano Armando Cossutta Italian Communist Party 45.3%
29 Sondrio Eugenio Tarabini
Edoardo Catellani		 Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party		 52.1%
15.5%
30 Varese Aristide Marchetti
Claudio Donelli		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party		 40.8%
29.9%
31 Busto Arsizio Gian Pietro Rossi
Modesto Merzario		 Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party		 44.1%
29.6%
  • No senator obtained a direct mandate. Please remember that the electoral system was, in the other cases, a form of proportional representation and not a FPTP race: so candidates winning with a simple plurality could have (and usually had) a candidate (usually a Christian democrat) with more votes in their constituency.

Substitutions

Notes
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