1968 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy elected its fifth delegation to the Italian Senate on May 19, 1968. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1968 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

Italian Senate election in Lombardy, 1968

May 19, 1968

All 45 Lombard seats to the Italian Senate
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Mariano Rumor Luigi Longo Francesco De Martino
Party Christian Democracy Communist Party Unified Socialist Party
Last election 39.9%, 19 seats 20.7%, 10 seats 24.5%, 11 seats
as PSI+PSDI
Seats won 20 12 8
Seat change 1 2 3
Popular vote 1,984,072 1,238,087 836,918
Percentage 42.2% 26.3% 17.8%
Swing 2.3% 5.6% 6.7%

Old local plurality before election

DC

New local plurality

DC

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

Following the alliance between Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), which entered into Aldo Moro's centre-left governments, the PSI created a federation with another member of the coalition, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, but it paid its toll to the Italian Communist Party, which joined its forces with the newly established Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, the former Socialist leftist wing.

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 1,984,071 42.2 20 1
Italian Communist Party & PSIUP 1,238,087 26.3 12 2
PSI & PSDI 836,918 17.8 8 3
Italian Liberal Party 397,273 8.4 4 =
Italian Social Movement 177,956 3.8 1 =
Others 70,545 1.5 - =
Total parties 4,704,850 100.0 45 -

Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Constituencies

 
Constituency Elected Party Votes % Others
1 Bergamo Giovanni Zonca Christian Democracy 58.1%
2 Clusone Giuseppe Belotti Christian Democracy 66.3%
3 Treviglio Aurelio Colleoni Christian Democracy 62.1%
4 Brescia Annibale Fada
Dolores Abbiati
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
44.6%
25.4%
5 Breno Giacomo Mazzoli Christian Democracy 58.1%
6 Chiari Faustino Zugno Christian Democracy 57.9%
7 Salò Fabiano De Zan Christian Democracy 48.8%
8 Como Pasquale Valsecchi Christian Democracy 44.0%
9 Lecco Tommaso Morlino Christian Democracy 54.3%
10 Cantù Mario Martinelli Christian Democracy 53.9%
11 Cremona Giovanni Lombardi
Arnaldo Bera
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
40.1%
34.4%
12 Crema Ennio Zelioli Christian Democracy 52.4%
13 Mantua Tullia Romagnoli Italian Communist Party (Gsi) 34.3% Leonello Zenti (DC) 35.6%
Elena Gatti (PSU) 19.4%
14 Ostiglia Teodosio Aimoni
Gastone Darè
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party (PSDI)
41.2%
21.0%
15 Milan 1 Giorgio Bergamasco Italian Liberal Party 25.7%
16 Milan 2 Francantonio Biaggi
Gastone Nencioni
Italian Liberal Party
Italian Social Movement
22.6%
7.7%
17 Milan 3 Italo Viglianesi
Arturo Robba
Italian Socialist Party
Italian Liberal Party
21.4%
18.6%
18 Milan 4 Vincenzo Palumbo
Alessandro Morino
Italian Liberal Party
Italian Socialist Party (PSDI)
21.0%
19.5%
19 Milan 5 Mario Venanzi
Pietro Caleffi
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
25.7%
22.1%
20 Milan 6 Arialdo Banfi Italian Socialist Party 22.9%
21 Abbiategrasso Luigi Noè
Ada Valeria Ruhl
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
40.9%
31.5%
22 Rho Mario Dosi
Gian Mario Albani
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party (Gsi)
39.7%
33.3%
23 Monza Vittorio Pozzar Christian Democracy 43.2%
24 Vimercate Giovanni Marcora
Gianfranco Maris
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
48.7%
27.1%
25 Lodi Camillo Ripamonti
Giovanni Brambilla
Christian Democracy
Italian Communist Party
43.1%
35.5%
26 Pavia Vittorio Naldini Italian Communist Party (PSIUP) 36.3%
27 Voghera Giorgio Piovano Italian Communist Party 32.8% Giovanni Celasco (DC) 35.2%
28 Vigevano Francesco Soliano Italian Communist Party 44.3%
29 Sondrio Athos Valsecchi
Edoardo Catellani
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
53.9%
23.1%
30 Varese Pio Alessandrini
Paolo Cavezzali
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
43.4%
20.8%
31 Busto Arsizio Natale Santero
Michele Zuccalà
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
45.3%
19.2%
  • Senators with a direct mandate have bold percentages. 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

  • Elena Gatti for Mantua (19.4%) replaced Alessandro Morino in 1969. Reason: death.
  • Leonello Zenti for Mantua (35.6%) replaced Natale Santero in 1971. Reason: death.
  • Giovanni Celasco for Voghera (35.2%) replaced Annibale Fada in 1971. Reason: death.

Notes

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