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1979 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

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1979 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

← 1976 June 3, 1979 1983 →

All 48 Lombard seats to the Italian Senate
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Benigno Zaccagnini Enrico Berlinguer Bettino Craxi
Party DC PCI PSI
Last election 41.8%, 21 seats 30.7%, 16 seats 11.8%, 6 seats
Seats won 21 15 6
Seat change = Decrease1 =
Popular vote 2,117,789 1,530,781 620,900
Percentage 40.7% 29.4% 11.9%
Swing Decrease1.1% Decrease1.3% Increase0.1%

Old local plurality before election

DC

New local plurality

DC

Lombardy elected its eighth delegation to the Italian Senate on June 3, 1979. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1979 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

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

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For the first time the Italian Communist Party lost votes, after a period of terroristic attacks by the Red Brigades. Even the far-right Italian Social Movement was weakened. Between other minor parties, the Radical Party obtained its first seat.

Electoral system

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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

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Party votes votes (%) seats swing
Christian Democracy 2,117,789 40.7 21 =
Italian Communist Party 1,530,781 29.4 15 Decrease1
Italian Socialist Party 620,900 11.9 6 =
Italian Democratic Socialist Party 217,704 4.2 2 Increase1
Italian Social Movement 186,412 3.6 1 Decrease1
Italian Republican Party 162,090 3.1 1 =
Italian Liberal Party 156,745 3.0 1 =
Radical Party 154,257 3.0 1 Increase1
Others 63,291 1.2 - =
Total parties 5,209,969 100.0 48 =

Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Constituencies

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Constituency Elected Party Votes % Others
1 Bergamo Angelo Castelli Christian Democracy 54.8%
2 Clusone Enzo Berlanda Christian Democracy 62.1%
3 Treviglio Vincenzo Bombardieri Christian Democracy 55.7%
4 Brescia Mino Martinazzoli
Gino Torri
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
44.9%
28.3%
5 Breno Giacomo Mazzoli Christian Democracy 54.2%
6 Chiari Mario Pedini Christian Democracy 56.6%
7 Salò Fabiano De Zan
Egidio Ariosto
Christian Democracy
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
48.0%
6.5%
8 Como Luciano Forni
Gianfranco Conti Persini
Christian Democracy
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
42.0%
8.9%
9 Lecco Tommaso Morlino Christian Democracy 49.6%
10 Cantù Luigi Granelli Christian Democracy 47.5%
11 Cremona Vincenzo Vernaschi
Renzo Antoniazzi
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
39.6%
36.6%
12 Crema Ferdinando Truzzi
Maurizio Noci
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
48.4%
13.2%
13 Mantua Carlo Grazioli
Giuseppe Chiarante
Gino Scevarolli
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
36.7%
35.0%
13.4%
14 Ostiglia Agostino Zavattini
Enrico Novellini
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
42.7%
14.9%
15 Milan 1 Libero Mazza
Giovanni Malagodi
Christian Democracy
Italian Liberal Party
37.2%
9.7%
16 Milan 2 Giorgio Pisanò
Gianfranco Spadaccia
Italian Social Movement
Radical Party
7.3%
6.0%
17 Milan 3 None elected'
18 Milan 4 Giovanni Spadolini Italian Republican Party 7.9%
19 Milan 5 Mario Venanzi Italian Communist Party 32.1%
20 Milan 6 Marina Rossanda
Rino Formica
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
33.7%
13.8%
21 Abbiategrasso Ada Valeria Ruhl Italian Communist Party 35.7% Ambrogio Colombo (DC) 36.3%
22 Rho Giorgio Milani Italian Communist Party 37.7% Vincenzo La Russa (DC) 34.6%
23 Monza Vittorino Colombo
Libero Riccardelli
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party (Gsi)
39.9%
30.9%
24 Vimercate Giovanni Marcora
Angelo Romanò
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party (Gsi)
42.2%
31.8%
25 Lodi Camillo Ripamonti
Rodolfo Bollini
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
38.9%
38.1%
26 Pavia Armelino Milani Italian Communist Party 37.7% Angelo Cordara (DC) 34.1%
27 Voghera Carlo Lavezzari
Giovanni Bellinzona
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
37.4%
34.0%
28 Vigevano Armando Cossutta Italian Communist Party 43.2%
29 Sondrio Eugenio Tarabini
Libero Della Briotta
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
51.5%
17.3%
30 Varese Aristide Marchetti
Modesto Merzario
Attilio Spozio
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
39.0%
28.1%
13.7%
31 Busto Arsizio Gian Pietro Rossi Christian Democracy 42.4%
  • 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

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Notes

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