1972 Italian general election

The 1972 Italian general election was held in Italy on 7 May 1972.[1] The Christian Democracy (DC) remained stable with around 38% of the votes, as did the Communist Party (PCI) which obtained the same 27% it had in 1968. The Socialist Party (PSI) continued in its decline, reducing to less than 10%. The largest increase in vote share was that of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, which nearly doubled its votes from 4.5% to about 9%, after its leader Giorgio Almirante launched the formula of the National Right, proposing his party as the sole group of the Italian right wing. After a disappointing result of less than 2%, against the 4.5% of 1968, the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity was disbanded; a majority of its members joined the PCI.

1972 Italian general election
Italy
7 May 1972
Chamber of Deputies

All 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
316 seats needed for a majority
Turnout93.2% (Increase 0.4 pp)
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
DC Arnaldo Forlani 38.66 266 0
PCI Enrico Berlinguer 27.15 179 +2
PSI Francesco De Martino 9.61 61 -1
MSI Giorgio Almirante 8.67 56 +26
PSDI Mauro Ferri 5.14 29 0
PLI Giovanni Malagodi 3.89 21 -10
PRI Ugo La Malfa 2.86 15 +6
SVP Silvius Magnago 0.46 3 0
UV Severino Caveri 0.10 1 +1
Senate of the Republic

All 315 seats in the Senate of the Republic
162[lower-alpha 1] seats needed for a majority
Turnout93.3% (Increase 0.3 pp)
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
DC Arnaldo Forlani 38.07 135 0
PCIPSIUP Enrico Berlinguer 28.23 94 -7
PSI Francesco De Martino 10.71 33 -3
MSI Giorgio Almirante 9.19 26 +13
PSDI Mauro Ferri 5.36 11 +1
PLI Giovanni Malagodi 4.38 8 -8
PRI Ugo La Malfa 3.05 5 +3
SVP Silvius Magnago 0.38 2 0
UV Severino Caveri 0.10 1 +1
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after the election
Giulio Andreotti
DC
Giulio Andreotti
DC

Electoral system

The electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies was pure party-list proportional representation. Italian provinces were grouped into 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 were 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 automatically elected, a goal which could be reached only by the German minorities in South Tirol. All remaining 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.

Historical background

The period of the late 1960s–1970s came to be known as the Opposti Estremismi, (from left-wing and right-wing extremists riots), later renamed anni di piombo ("years of lead") because of a wave of bombings and shootings — the first victim of this period was Antonio Annarumma, a policeman, killed on 12 November 1969 in Milan during a left-wing demonstration.

In December, four bombings struck the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome (Altare della Patria), the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, and in Milan the Banca Commerciale and the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura. The latter bombing, known as the Piazza Fontana bombing of 12 December 1969, killed 17 and injured 88.

Communist Secretary Luigi Longo suffered a stroke in late 1968; although partially recovering in the following months, from February 1969 he was assisted in most decisions by Enrico Berlinguer acting as cive-secretary. Longo resigned the position of party secretary in 1972, supporting the choice of Berlinguer as his successor.

Berlinguer's unexpected stance made waves: he gave the strongest speech by a major Communist leader ever heard in Moscow. He refused to "excommunicate" the Chinese communists, and directly told Leonid Brezhnev that the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact countries (which he termed the "tragedy in Prague") had made clear the considerable differences within the Communist movement on fundamental questions such as national sovereignty, socialist democracy, and the freedom of culture.

Arturo Michelini, leader of the Italian Social Movement, died in 1969, and the party's first and charismatic leader Giorgio Almirante regained control. He attempted to revitalise the party by pursuing an aggressive policy against left-wing student uprisings; the 1968 student movement had been devastating for the party's youth organisation. Following Michelini's failed approach of inserimento, Almirante introduced a double strategy of hard anti-systemic discourse combined with the creation of a broader "National Right" (Destra Nazionale) coalition.[2]

Parties and leaders

Party Ideology Leader Seats in 1968
C S Total
Christian Democracy (DC) Christian democracy Arnaldo Forlani
266
135
401
Italian Communist Party (PCI) Communism Enrico Berlinguer
177
101
278
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) Democratic socialism Francesco De Martino
61
33
94
Italian Liberal Party (PLI) Conservative liberalism Giovanni Malagodi
31
16
47
Italian Social Movement (MSI) Neo-fascism Giorgio Almirante
30
13
43
Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) Social democracy Mauro Ferri
29
10
39
Italian Republican Party (PRI) Republicanism Ugo La Malfa
9
2
11

Results

Mathematically, the election seemed to give the same results of four years before, the three major parties receiving quite the same preferences. However, the success of the operation of the National Right by MSI, gave a golden share to the PSI, because the Christian Democrats had no more possibilities to look at their right to build a democratic government, the alliance with the Socialists becoming quite obliged. Incumbent Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti tried to continue his centrist strategy, but his attempt only lasted a year. Former Premier Mariano Rumor so returned at the head of the government with his traditional centre-left alliance between DC, PSI, PSDI and PRI, but he was abandoned by the Republicans after eight months. He continued with a new squad, but he couldn't withstand the shocks deriving by the divorce referendum of 1974. After the consequent great controversies between Catholics and secularists, former Premier Aldo Moro persuaded the Socialists to accept a minority government composed only of the Christian Democrats and the Republicans. However, new problem arose from the regional elections of 1975, which marked a great success of the left, which consequently called for new national elections. When the Republicans too left Moro in 1976, no possibilities of a new government remained, and an early general election was found necessary.

Chamber of Deputies

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Christian Democracy12,912,46638.662660
Italian Communist Party9,068,96127.15179+2
Italian Socialist Party3,208,4979.6161
Italian Social Movement2,894,7228.6756+32
Italian Democratic Socialist Party1,718,1425.1429
Italian Liberal Party1,300,4393.8920−11
Italian Republican Party954,3572.8615+6
Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity648,5911.940−23
il manifesto224,3130.670New
South Tyrolean People's Party153,6740.4630
Workers' Political Movement120,2510.360New
Italian (Marxist–Leninist) Communist Party86,0380.260New
UVDCRVPSDI34,0830.101+1
Popular Democracy28,8860.090New
Autonomous Party of Italy's Pensioners15,3040.0500
Red Star–Socialist Revolution9,1080.030New
Popular Christian Action9,0680.030New
National Democratic Renewal5,8930.020New
Sicilian Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist)2,9580.010New
Sicilian National Front2,8840.010New
Union of Democratic Forces2,1900.010New
Farmers' Party1,7060.0100
Common Man's Front1,0170.000New
Total33,403,548100.006300
Valid votes33,403,54896.75
Invalid/blank votes1,122,1393.25
Total votes34,525,687100.00
Registered voters/turnout37,049,35193.19
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
DC
38.66%
PCI
27.15%
PSI
9.61%
MSI
8.67%
PSDI
5.14%
PLI
3.89%
PRI
2.86%
PSIUP
1.94%
Others
2.09%
Seats
DC
42.22%
PCI
28.41%
PSI
9.68%
MSI
8.89%
PSDI
4.60%
PLI
3.17%
PRI
2.38%
Others
0.63%

Results by constituency

Constituency Total
seats
Seats won
DC PCI PSI MSI PSDI PLI PRI Others
Turin 34 12 10 4 2 2 3 1
Cuneo 14 7 3 2 1 1
Genoa 22 8 7 3 1 1 1 1
Milan 45 16 13 6 3 2 3 2
Como 17 9 3 2 1 1 1
Brescia 20 12 3 2 1 1 1
Mantua 8 4 3 1
Trentino 10 5 1 1 3
Verona 28 17 5 2 1 1 1 1
Venice 18 9 4 2 1 1 1
Udine 14 7 3 2 1 1
Bologna 27 7 12 2 1 2 1 2
Parma 20 6 9 2 1 1 1
Florence 16 5 8 1 1 1
Pisa 16 6 6 1 1 1 1
Siena 9 3 5 1
Ancona 17 7 6 1 1 1 1
Perugia 11 4 5 1 1
Rome 48 17 13 4 7 3 2 2
L'Aquila 15 8 4 1 1 1
Campobasso 4 3 1
Naples 38 14 10 3 7 2 1 1
Benevento 23 11 4 2 3 1 1 1
Bari 24 10 7 3 3 1
Lecce 18 9 5 2 2
Potenza 8 5 2 1
Catanzaro 24 10 7 3 3 1
Catania 30 12 7 2 6 1 1 1
Palermo 30 13 7 3 4 1 1 1
Cagliari 17 8 5 1 2 1
Aosta Valley 1 1
Trieste 4 2 1 1
Total 630 266 179 61 56 29 20 15 4

Senate of the Republic

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Christian Democracy11,465,52938.071350
Italian Communist PartyPSIUP8,312,82827.6091−10
Italian Socialist Party3,225,70710.7133
Italian Social Movement2,766,9869.1926+15
Italian Democratic Socialist Party1,613,8105.3611
Italian Liberal Party1,319,1754.388−8
Italian Republican Party918,4403.055+3
PSd'AzPCIPSIUP189,5340.6330
SVPPPTT113,4520.3820
PCIPSIUPPSI41,8330.1400
PSDIPRI31,9530.1100
UVDCRVPSDI31,1140.101+1
Tyrol Party28,7350.100New
Italian (Marxist–Leninist) Communist Party27,8760.090New
Popular Democracy26,3720.090New
Popular Christian Action2,7130.010New
Total30,116,057100.003150
Valid votes30,116,05795.65
Invalid/blank votes1,370,3424.35
Total votes31,486,399100.00
Registered voters/turnout33,739,59293.32
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
DC
38.07%
PCIPSIUP
27.60%
PSI
10.71%
MSI
9.19%
PSDI
5.36%
PLI
4.38%
PRI
3.05%
Others
1.64%
Seats
DC
42.86%
PCIPSIUP
28.89%
PSI
10.48%
MSI
8.25%
PSDI
3.48%
PLI
2.54%
PRI
1.59%
Others
1.90%

Results by constituency

Constituency Total
seats
Seats won
DC PCIPSIUP PSI MSI PSDI PLI PRI Others
Piedmont 24 9 7 3 1 2 2
Aosta Valley 1 1
Lombardy 45 20 12 6 2 2 2 1
Trentino-Alto Adige 7 5 2
Veneto 23 14 4 2 1 1 1
Friuli-Venezia Giulia 7 4 2 1
Liguria 11 5 5 1
Emilia-Romagna 22 6 11 2 1 1 1
Tuscany 20 7 9 2 1 1
Umbria 7 3 3 1
Marche 8 4 3 1
Lazio 24 8 7 2 4 1 1 1
Abruzzo 7 4 2 1
Molise 2 2
Campania 29 11 7 3 5 1 1 1
Apulia 21 9 6 2 3 1
Basilicata 7 4 2 1
Calabria 12 5 4 1 2
Sicily 29 11 7 3 5 1 1 1
Sardinia 9 4 1 1 3
Total 315 135 91 33 26 11 8 5 6

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010), Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 1048 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Gallego, 1999, pp. 7–8.
  1. Taking into account the unelected Senators for life, who accounted for 8 seats at the time the election took place
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