1996 Italian general election

1996 Italian general election

← 1994 21 April 1996 2001 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 315 seats in the Senate
Registered	48,744,846 (C) · 42,889,825 (S)
Turnout	40,401,774 (C) · 82.9% (3.4 pp) 35,260,803 (S) · 82.2% (3.6 pp)
Leader Romano Prodi Silvio Berlusconi Umberto Bossi Alliance The Olive Tree Pole for Freedoms Northern League Leader since 6 March 1995 18 January 1994 4 December 1989 Leader's seat Bologna (C) Milan (C) Lombardy (C)[a] Seats won 285 (C) / 157 (S) 246 (C) / 116 (S) 59 (C) / 27 (S) Seat change 20 (C) / 4 (S) 26 (C) / 40 (S) 58 (C) / 33 (S) Popular vote 15,747,455 (C) 13,434,607 (S) 15,027,030 (C) 12,185,020 (S) 3,776,354 (C) 3,394,733 (S) Percentage 42.0% (C) 41.2% (S) 40.1% (C) 37.3% (S) 10.1% (C) 10.4% (S)
Results of the single-member constituencies in the Chamber of Deputies (left) and Senate (right).
Prime Minister before election Lamberto Dini Independent Prime Minister after the election Romano Prodi The Olive Tree

The 1996 Italian general election was held on 21 April 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Romano Prodi, leader of the centre-left coalition The Olive Tree, won the election, narrowly defeating Silvio Berlusconi, who led the Pole for Freedoms centre-right coalition.

For the election, the Northern League of Umberto Bossi ran alone, after having left the Berlusconi I Cabinet in 1994, causing a crisis which drove President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to appoint a technocratic cabinet led by Lamberto Dini, which in turn lost its Parliamentary support in 1995, forcing Scalfaro to dissolve the Italian Parliament. The Communist Refoundation Party, led by Fausto Bertinotti, instead made a pre-electoral alliance with The Olive Tree, presenting its own candidates, supported by Prodi's coalition, mainly in some safe leftist constituencies, in exchange for supporting Olive Tree candidates on the other ones, and ensuring external support for a Prodi government.

Electoral system[]

The intricate electoral system of Italy, nicknamed as Mattarellum (after Sergio Mattarella, who was the official proponent), provided a 75% of the seats on the Chamber of Deputies (the Lower House) as elected by a plurality voting system, whereas the remaining 25% was assigned by proportional representation with a minimum threshold of 4%. If possible, the method associate on the Senate was even more complicated: 75% of seats by uninominal method, and 25% by a special proportional method that actually assigned the remaining seats to minority parties.

General election[]

Background[]

In December 1994, following the communication of a new investigation from Milan magistrates that was leaked to the press, Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, left the coalition claiming that the electoral pact had not been respected, forcing Berlusconi to resign from office and shifting the majority's weight to the centre-left side. The Northern League also resented the fact that many of its MPs had switched to Forza Italia, allegedly lured by promises of more prestigious portfolios.

Berlusconi remained as caretaker prime minister for a little over a month until his replacement by a technocratic government headed by Lamberto Dini. Dini had been a key minister in the Berlusconi cabinet, and Berlusconi said the only way he would support a technocratic government would be if Dini headed it. In the end, however, Dini was only supported by most opposition parties but not by Forza Italia and Northern League.

In December 1995 Dini resigned as Prime Minister and the President of the Republic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, decided to begin consultations to form a government, supported by all the parties in the Parliament to make constitutional reforms. Favourably to this proposal sided both, in a TV debate on 19 January 1996, Silvio Berlusconi and Democratic Party of the Left leader Massimo D'Alema. Although there were many problems on this theme in both coalition: in fact Gianfranco Fini and Romano Prodi wanted a snap election, not sure that the reforms would be helpful for the country. On 16 February 1996, a snap election was called.

Campaign[]

On 19 February 1996, the outgoing Prime Minister Lamberto Dini announced that he would run in the election with a new party allied with The Olive Tree rather than Berlusconi's Pole of Freedoms. Shortly after Berlusconi claimed that Dini "copied our electoral programme".^[1]

Another important declaration was Umberto Bossi's one: the leader of the regionalist Northern League, which was very important in 1994 to help Berlusconi winning the election, said that his party would not support Berlusconi anymore and run alone in the election. At the same time, Prodi's coalition made an important pre-electoral agreement with Communist Refoundation Party in which Fausto Bertinotti's party undertook to support Prodi's government after the election in the case of a no-majority Parliament.

On 25 March 1996, Berlusconi organised a great manifestation in Milan against taxes (The Tax Day) attended by lot of Milanese artisans; on the same day, in Turin, Prodi was heavily contested during his electoral speech and accused of not wanting to lower taxes.^[2]

Main coalitions and parties[]

Coalitions' leaders[]

Portrait	Name		Most recent position	Refs
		Romano Prodi (1939– )	Leader of The Olive Tree (1995–1998) Other positions President of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (1982–1989; 1993–1994) Minister of Industry, Commerce and Manufacturing (1978–1979)	[3][4]
		Silvio Berlusconi (1936– )	Prime Minister of Italy (1994–1995) Other positions Member of the Chamber of Deputies (1994–2013) President of Forza Italia (1994–2009)	[5][6]
		Umberto Bossi (1941– )	Federal Secretary of the Northern League (1989–2012) Other positions Member of the Chamber of Deputies (1992–2004) Member of the Senate of the Republic (1987–1992)	[7][8]
		Fausto Bertinotti (1940– )	Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party (1994–2006) Other positions Member of the European Parliament (1999–2006) Member of the Chamber of Deputies (1994–2008)	[9][10]
		Marco Pannella (1930–2016)	Member of the European Parliament (1979–2009) Other positions Leader of Pannella List (1992–1999) Member of the Chamber of Deputies (1992–1994; 1987–1989; 1983–1984; 1976–1978) President of the Radical Party (1986–1989; 1976–1981; 1967–1975) Secretary of the Radical Party (1981–1983; 1963–1967)	[11][12]

Results[]

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Chamber of Deputies[]

Overall results[]

← Summary of the 21 April 1996 Chamber of Deputies election results →

Coalition		Party		Proportional			First-past-the-post			Total seats	+/–
				Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	The Olive Tree		Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	7,894,118	21.06	26	15,747,455	42.01	146	172[13]	+48
			Populars for Prodi (PPI–UD–PRI–SVP)	2,554,072	6.81	4			65	69[14]	+18
			Italian Renewal (RI)	1,627,380	4.34	8			18	26[15]	New
			Federation of the Greens (FdV)	938,665	2.50	0			14	14	+3
			The Network (LR)	N/A	N/A	0			3	3	−5
			Ladin Autonomist Union (UAL)	N/A	N/A	0			1	1	+1
		Total seats				38			247	285	–
	Pole for Freedoms		Forza Italia (FI)	7,712,149	20.57	37	15,027,030	40.08	86	123[16]	−9
			National Alliance (AN)	5,870,491	15.66	28			65	93	−17
			CCD – CDU	2,189,563	5.84	12			28	30[17]	+3
		Total seats				77			169	246	–
	Northern League (LN)	3,776,354	10.07	20	4,038,239	10.77	39	59	−59
	Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)			3,213,748	8.57	20	982,505	2.62	15	35	−3
	South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)			N/A	N/A	0	156,708	0.42	3	3	±0
	Southern Action League (LAM)			72,062	0.19	0	82,373	0.22	1	1	±0
	Aosta Valley (VdA)			N/A	N/A	0	37,431	0.10	1	1	±0
Total										630	–

Proportional and FPTP[]

Senate of the Republic[]

Overall results[]

← Summary of the 21 April 1996 Senate of the Republic election results →

Coalition		Party		First-past-the-post			Proportional Seats	Total seats	+/–
				Votes	%	Seats
	The Olive Tree		Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	13,434,607	41.18	134	23	102[18]	+26
		Italian People's Party (PPI)	27					−4
		Federation of the Greens (FdV)	14					+7
		Italian Renewal (RI)	11[19]					New
		The Network (LR)	1					−5
		Venetian Autonomy League (LAV)	1					+1
		Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az)	1					+1
	Total seats						157	–
	Pole for Freedoms		Forza Italia (FI)	12,185,020	37.35	67	49	48[20]	+13
			National Alliance (AN)					43	−4
			Christian Democratic Centre (CCD)					15	+3
			United Christian Democrats (CDU)					10	New
		Total seats						116	–
	Northern League (LN)			3,394,733	10.41	18	9	27	−33
	Progressives			934,974	2.87	10	0	10	−8
	Tricolour Flame (FT)			747,487	2.29	0	1	1	New
	Pannella-Sgarbi List (LPS)			509,826	1.56	0	1	1	±0
	The Fir–SVP–PATT			178,425	0.55	2	0	2	−1
	Aosta Valley (VdA)			27,493	0.08	1	0	1	±0
Total				32,624,584	100.00	232	83	315	–

Proportional and FPTP results[]

Maps[]

Results for the Chamber of Deputies (left) and Senate of the Republic (right) in single-member constituencies. The color corresponds to the party or coalition that won the constituency. Red represents The Olive Tree, blue the Pole for Freedoms, green the Northern League, dark red the Communist Refoundation Party, black the South-Tyrolean People's Party, indigo the Southern Action League, and turquoise the Aosta Valley coalition.

Composition of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate by coalition

Leaders' races[]

References[]

External links[]

• (in Italian) Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1996 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies (compressed ZIP file)
• (in Italian) Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1996 Election Results, Senate of the Republic (compressed ZIP file)