1983 Italian general election

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 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 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.

Rescue teams making their way through the rubble after the explosion in Bologna.

On 2 August 1980, a bomb killed 85 people and wounded more than 200 in Bologna. Known as the Bologna massacre, the blast destroyed a large portion of the city's railway station. This was found to be a fascist bombing, mainly organized by the NAR, who had ties with the Roman criminal organization Banda della Magliana. In the following days the central square of Bologna, Piazza Maggiore, hosted large-scale demonstrations of indignation and protest among the population, in which were not spared harsh criticism and protests addressed to government representatives, who attended the funerals of the victims celebrated in the San Petronio Basilica on 6 August.

In 1981 at a meeting of the Congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), was officially launched a centrist political alliance called Pentapartito, when the Christian Democrat Arnaldo Forlani and Socialist Secretary Bettino Craxi signed an agreement with the "blessing" of Giulio Andreotti. Because the agreement was signed in a trailer, it was called the "pact of the camper." The pact was also called "CAF" for the initials of the signers, Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani. With this agreement, the DC party recognized the equal dignity of the so-called "secular parties" of the majority (i.e., the Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals and Republicans) and also guaranteed an alternation of government (in fact, Giovanni Spadolini of the PRI and Bettino Craxi of the PSI became the first non-Christian Democrats to hold the Presidency of the Council). With the birth of the Pentapartito, the possibility of the growth of the majority toward the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was finally dismissed. The Christian Democrats remained the leaders of the coalition, and managed several times to prevent representatives of the secular parties from becoming President of the Councill.

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	32.93	225	−37
	Italian Communist Party	11,032,318	29.89	198	−3
	Italian Socialist Party	4,223,362	11.44	73	+11
	Italian Social Movement	2,511,487	6.81	42	+12
	Italian Republican Party	1,874,512	5.08	29	+13
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,508,234	4.09	23	+3
	Italian Liberal Party	1,066,980	2.89	16	+7
	Radical Party	809,810	2.19	11	−7
	Proletarian Democracy	542,039	1.47	7	+7
	Pensioners' National Party	503,461	1.36	0	New
	South Tyrolean People's Party	184,940	0.50	3	−1
	Liga Veneta	125,311	0.34	1	New
	List for Trieste	92,101	0.25	0	−1
	Sardinian Action Party	91,923	0.25	1	+1
	Aosta Valley (UV–UVP–DP)	28,086	0.08	1	0
	Friuli Movement	26,190	0.07	0	0
	Trentino Tyrolean People's Party	18,656	0.05	0	New
	Pensioners' Defence Union	15,182	0.04	0	New
	Monarchist National Party	13,573	0.04	0	New
	South Tyrol Party	12,270	0.03	0	New
	Union of Pensioners and Retirees of Italy	9,944	0.03	0	New
	Slovene Union	9,434	0.03	0	New
	European Workers' Party	8,074	0.02	0	0
	Struggle List	6,863	0.02	0	New
	Christian Social Action Party	6,354	0.02	0	0
	Living Liberation	5,257	0.01	0	New
	Sicilian National Front	5,228	0.01	0	0
	National Party of Tenants	4,768	0.01	0	New
	Sardinian Ecological Movement	4,263	0.01	0	New
	PLI–PRI–PSDI	4,239	0.01	0	New
	Movement for the Independence of Trieste	2,913	0.01	0	New
	New Left	1,853	0.01	0	New
	Justice and Freedom	1,692	0.00	0	New
	Popular Christian Movement	1,607	0.00	0	0
Total		36,906,005	100.00	630	0
Valid votes		36,906,005	94.18
Invalid/blank votes		2,282,177	5.82
Total votes		39,188,182	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		44,526,357	88.01
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Popular vote DC   32.93% PCI   29.89% PSI   11.44% MSI   6.81% PRI   5.08% PSDI   4.09% PLI   2.89% PR   2.19% DP   1.47% PNP   1.36% Others   1.84%

Seats DC   35.71% PCI   31.43% PSI   11.59% MSI   6.67% PRI   4.60% PSDI   3.65% PLI   2.54% PR   1.75% DP   1.11% Others   0.95%

Senate of the Republic

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democracy	10,077,204	32.41	120	−18
	Italian Communist Party	9,577,071	30.81	107	−2
	Italian Socialist Party	3,539,593	11.39	38	+6
	Italian Social Movement	2,283,524	7.35	18	+5
	Italian Republican Party	1,452,279	4.67	10	+4
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,184,936	3.81	8	−1
	Italian Liberal Party	834,771	2.69	6	+4
	Radical Party	548,229	1.76	1	−1
	Pensioners' National Party	370,756	1.19	0	New
	Proletarian Democracy	327,750	1.05	0	New
	South Tyrolean People's Party	157,444	0.51	3	0
	PLI–PRI	127,504	0.41	1	0
	PLI–PRI–PSDI	100,218	0.32	0	0
	Liga Veneta	91,171	0.29	1	New
	List for Trieste	85,542	0.28	0	0
	Sardinian Action Party	76,797	0.25	1	+1
	PLI–PSDI	72,298	0.23	0	0
	For the Renewal of Molise	33,525	0.11	0	New
	List for Trieste–PPPIU	27,940	0.09	0	0
	Aosta Valley (UV–UVP–DP)	26,547	0.09	1	0
	Friuli Movement	23,847	0.08	0	0
	Trentino Tyrolean People's Party	17,354	0.06	0	New
	Christian Social Action Party	12,588	0.04	0	New
	Union of Pensioners and Retirees of Italy	10,895	0.04	0	New
	Slovene Union	8,904	0.03	0	New
	Sicilian National Front	8,243	0.03	0	New
	Struggle Front	6,403	0.02	0	New
	List for Trieste–UDP	5,678	0.02	0	0
Total		31,089,011	100.00	315	0
Valid votes		31,089,011	93.07
Invalid/blank votes		2,313,128	6.93
Total votes		33,402,139	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		37,603,817	88.83
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Popular vote DC   32.41% PCI   30.81% PSI   11.39% MSI   7.35% PRI   4.67% PSDI   3.81% PLI   2.69% PR   1.76% PNP   1.19% DP   1.05% Others   2.87%

Seats DC   38.10% PCI   33.97% PSI   12.06% MSI   5.71% PRI   3.17% PSDI   2.54% PLI   1.90% PR   0.32% Others   2.22%