1994 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy renewed its delegation to the Italian Senate on March 27, 1994. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1994 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

Italian Senate election in Lombardy, 1994

March 27, 1994

All 47 Lombard seats in the Italian Senate
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Silvio Berlusconi Achille Occhetto
Party Forza Italia Democratic Party of the Left
Alliance Pole of Freedoms Alliance of Progressives
Last election 14 seats, 26.5%
sum of supporters[1]
19 seats, 36.0%
sum of the parties[2]
Seats won 35 6
Seat change 21 13
Popular vote 2,491,623 1,291,179
Percentage 43.6% 22.6%
Swing 17.1% 13.4%

Plurality before election

DC

New local majority

Pole of Freedoms

The election was won by the new Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition called Pole of Freedoms, which obtained a local landslide victory electing all its candidates.

Background

This election was the first one of the so-called Second Republic. If Italy had the strongest political stability in the previous 50 years, in twelve months it probably suffered the deepest democratic change ever in Western Europe. All the parties that ruled the country in the second half of the 20th century collapsed, under the political attack of the Northern League and the judiciary scandal of Mani pulite. After the electoral reform from the proportional representation to a prevalent FPTP system, the political spectrum was reorganized in three poles: the leftist Alliance of Progressives, the centrist Pact for Italy and the centre-rightist Pole of Freedoms. This latter was an alliance between the League and new liberal party Forza Italia of television entrepreneur and A.C. Milan President Silvio Berlusconi.

Berlusconi attacked the Progressives calling them a "communist" alliance, effectively subtracting quite all the former Socialist votes even if the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) was a member of that alliance: the PSI was consequently disbanded after 100 years of history, and the Alliance had little more than the traditional support of the former Italian Communist Party, then Democratic Party of the Left. Obtaining also more moderate votes than Christian Democracy's heir, the Italian People's Party (Pact), Berlusconi ensured the victory of his coalition, that in Lombardy resulted very profitable to the League, which obtained the absolute majority of the senators.

Electoral system

The intricate electoral system introduced in 1993, called Mattarella Law, provided 75% of the seats in the Senate as elected by first-past-the-post system, whereas the remaining 25% was assigned by a special proportional method that actually assigned the remaining seats to minority parties.

Redistricting

The new electoral law imposed the revision of the outdated design of the constituencies of 1948. After quite a half century, the agricultural south had lost population to the industrial Milan metropolitan area. The Province of Cremona and the Province of Pavia lost a seat, while new constituencies were added in the western and northern Milanese hinterland. The number of constituencies rose from 31 to 35.

Results

 
Coalition votes votes (%) seats Party seats change
Pole of Freedoms 2,491,623 43.6 35 Northern League 26 15
Forza Italia 8 7
Christian Democratic Centre 1 1
The Progressives 1,291,179 22.6 6 Democratic Party of the Left 3 4
Communist Refoundation Party 2 1
Democratic Alliance 1 =
Pact for Italy 837,082 14.7 3 Italy People's Party 3 9
National Alliance 380,051 6.6 1 National Alliance 1 =
Lombard Alpine League 246,046 4.3 1 Lombard Alpine League 1 =
Pannella List 217,955 3.8 1 Forza Italia 1 1
Others 245,872 4.3 - Others - 9
Total coalitions 5,709,808 100.0 47 Total parties 47 1

Sources: Ministry of the Interior, Italian Senate

Constituencies

 
Constituency Winner Alliance Party Votes % Others
1 Milan Central Marisa Bedoni Pole of Freedoms Northern League 43.8% R. De Corato (AN) 10.5%
F. Scopelliti (Pann.) 5.1%
2 Milan East Giancarlo Pagliarini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 45.5%
3 Milan West Carlo Scognamiglio Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 47.3%
4 Milan South Roberto Lasagna Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 43.2%
5 Milan North Maurilio Frigerio Pole of Freedoms Northern League 41.2% P. Giurickovic (Progr.) 30.9%
6 Milan Sesto SG Celestino Pedrazzini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 42.7% A. Crippa (Progr.) 31.6%
7 Lodi Michele Bucci Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 40.4%
8 Rozzano Gianluigi Lombardi Pole of Freedoms Northern League 40.8% C. Smuraglia (Progr.) 31.6%
9 Abbiategrasso Ivaldo Carini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 45.4%
10 Rho Gianluigi Carnovali Pole of Freedoms Northern League 44.7%
11 Bollate Erminio Busnelli Pole of Freedoms Northern League 44.0%
12 Cinisello Balsamo Domenico Contestabile Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 39.8% C. Stajano (Progr.) 32.3%
13 Seregno Roberto Radice Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 48.2%
14 Monza Giorgio Brambilla Pole of Freedoms Northern League 43.5%
15 Melzo Marcello Staglieno Pole of Freedoms Northern League 39.8%
16 Cologno Monzese Corinto Marchini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 42.4%
17 Varese Giovanni Binaghi Pole of Freedoms Northern League 50.7%
18 Gallarate Luigi Peruzzotti Pole of Freedoms Northern League 51.6%
19 Busto Arsizio Francesco Speroni Pole of Freedoms Northern League 53.0%
20 Como Gianfranco Miglio Pole of Freedoms Northern League 47.9%
21 Cantù Elia Manara Pole of Freedoms Northern League 47.1%
22 Brescia Francesco Tabladini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 37.1%
23 Lumezzane Luciano Garatti Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 41.6% A. Gregorelli (Pact) 20.1%
24 Desenzano del Garda Massimo Wilde Pole of Freedoms Northern League 40.4%
25 Chiari Giovanni Gei Pole of Freedoms Christian Democratic Centre 41.8% F. Ferrari (Pact) 22.7%
26 Suzzara Giovanni Robusti Pole of Freedoms Northern League 34.5% P. Bergonzi (Progr.) 31.7%
27 Mantua Paolo Gibertoni Pole of Freedoms Northern League 35.3% R. Borroni (Progr.) 33.2%
28 Cremona Italico Maffini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 38.8%
29 Pavia Giampiero Beccaria Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 42.0%
30 Vigevano Mario Masiero Pole of Freedoms Northern League 45.3%
31 Bergamo Livio Caputo Pole of Freedoms Forza Italia 42.3%
32 Albino Silvestro Terzi Pole of Freedoms Northern League 48.1% V. Bonandrini (Pact) 21.1%
E. De Paoli (LAL) 7.5%
33 Treviglio Massimo Dolazza Pole of Freedoms Northern League 43.6%
34 Sondrio Giampaolo Paini Pole of Freedoms Northern League 48.6%
35 Lecco Luigi Roveda Pole of Freedoms Northern League 43.2% C. Secchi (Pact) 19.8%

Additional senators

  • The Progressives
  1. Roberto Borroni (Democratic Party of the Left, 33.2%)
  2. Corrado Stajano (Democratic Party of the Left, 32.3%)
  3. Piergiorgio Bergonzi (Communist Refoundation Party, 31.7%)
  4. Carlo Smuraglia (Democratic Party of the Left, 31.6%)
  5. Aurelio Crippa (Communist Refoundation Party, 31.6%)
  6. Pietro Giurickovic (Democratic Alliance, 30.9%)
  • Pact for Italy
  1. Francesco Ferrari (Italian People's Party, 22.7%)
  2. Vincenzo Bonandrini (Italian People's Party, 21.1%), after his death in 1994 substituted by Carlo Secchi (Italian People's Party, 19.8%)
  3. Aldo Gregorelli (Italian People's Party, 20.1%)
  • National Alliance
  1. Riccardo De Corato (National Alliance, 10.5%)
  • Lombard Alpine League
  1. Elidio De Paoli (Lombard Alpine League, 7.5%)
  • Pannella List
  1. Francesca Scopelliti (Pannella ListForza Italia, 5.1%)

Notes

  1. The Pole was a two-signed agreement between Berlusconi and the League. However, Forza Italia officially signed a confederation pact with the Christian Democratic Centre, which legally inheredited ⅛ of the Christian Democracy, and included the Union of the Centre, which represented ⅞ of the Italian Liberal Party.
  2. The local members of the new coalition were Communist Refoundation Party, Democratic Party of the Left, Federation of the Greens, Italian Socialist Party, and a leftist spin-off of the Italian Republican Party which became the Democratic Alliance.
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