Italian general election, 1994

Italian general election, 1994

27 March 1994
All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 315 seats in the Italian Senate
Turnout	86.3%
Leader Silvio Berlusconi Achille Occhetto Mariotto Segni Alliance Pole of Freedoms & Good Government Alliance of Progressives Pact for Italy Leader's seat Rome Centre Bologna West Sassari (lost) Seats won 366 C / 156 S 213 C / 122 S 46 C / 31 S Coalition vote 16,585,516 C 14,110,705 S 13,308,244 C 10,881,320 S 6,098,986 C 5,519,090 S Percentage 42.8% (C) 42.6% (S) 34.3% (C) 32.9% (S) 15.8% (C) 16.7% (S)
Election results maps for the Chamber of Deputies (on the left) and for the Senate (on the right). On the left, the color identifies the coalition which received the most votes in each province. On the right, the color identifies the coalition which won the most seats in respect to each Region. Blue denotes the Centre-right coalition, Red the Progressives and Gray regional parties.
Prime Minister before election Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Independent Elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Forza Italia

A snap national general election was held in Italy on 27 March 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won a large majority in the Chamber, but just missed winning a majority in the Senate. The Italian People's Party, the renamed Christian Democrats, which had dominated Italian politics for almost half a century, was decimated. It took only 29 seats versus 206 for the DC two years earlier-easily the worst defeat a sitting government in Italy has ever suffered, and one of the worst ever suffered by a Western European governing party.

New electoral system

A new electoral system was introduced in these elections, after the abolition of the proportional representation established after the end of World War II, by a referendum in 1993.

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

Historical background

In 1992, the five pro-western governing parties, Christian Democracy, the Italian Socialist Party, the Italian Social-Democratic Party, the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Liberal Party, lost much of their electoral strength almost overnight due to a large number of judicial investigations concerning the financial corruption of many of their foremost members. This led to a general expectation that upcoming elections would be won by the Democratic Party of the Left, the heirs to the former Italian Communist Party, and their Alliance of Progressives coalition unless there was an alternative.

Berlusconi during a Forza Italia rally.

On 26 January 1994, the media magnate Silvio Berlusconi announced his decision to enter politics, ("enter the field", in his own words) presenting his own political party, Forza Italia, on a platform focused on defeating the Communists. His political aim was to convince the voters of the Pentapartito, (i.e. the usual five governing parties) who were shocked and confused by Mani Pulite scandals, that Forza Italia offered both novelty and the continuation of the pro-western free market policies followed by Italy since the end of the 2nd World War.

Shortly after he decided to enter the political arena, investigators into the Mani Pulite affair were said to be close to issuing warrants for the arrest of Berlusconi and senior executives of his business group. During his years of political career Berlusconi has repeatedly stated that the Mani Pulite investigations were led by communist prosecutors who wanted to establish a soviet-style government in Italy.^[1][2]

In order to win the election Berlusconi formed two separate electoral alliances: Pole of Freedoms (Polo delle Libertà) with the Northern League (Lega Nord) in northern Italian districts, and another, the Pole of Good Government (Polo del Buon Governo), with the post-fascist National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale; heir to the Italian Social Movement) in central and southern regions.^[3] In a shrewd pragmatic move, he did not ally with the latter in the North because the League disliked them. As a result, Forza Italia was allied with two parties that were not allied with each other.

Berlusconi launched a massive campaign of electoral advertisements on his three TV networks. He subsequently won the elections, with Forza Italia garnering 21% of the popular vote, the highest percentage of any single party.^[4] One of the most significant promises that he made in order to secure victory was that his government would create "one million more jobs".

On the other side, the center-left Alliance of Progressive led by Achille Occhetto, also called the Joyful War Machine, was composed by the two party born from the dissolution of the Italian Communist Party: the Democratic Party of the Left and Communist Refoundation Party. Since the alliance was sure of victory, based his campaign accusing the communicative power of Silvio Berlusconi.

Main coalitions and parties

Main coalitions' leaders

Coalition		Portrait	Name	Most recent position
	Pole of Freedoms – Pole of Good Government		Silvio Berlusconi	President of Forza Italia (1994–incumbent)
	Alliance of Progressives		Achille Occhetto	Secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (1991–incumbent)
	Pact for Italy		Mariotto Segni	Leader of Segni Pact (1993–incumbent)

Results for the Chamber of Deputies

Overall results

← Summary of the 27 March 1994 Chamber of Deputies election results →

Coalition		Party		Proportional			First-past-the-post			Total seats	+/–
				Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Pole of Freedoms – Pole of Good Government		Forza Italia–CCD (FI–CCD)	8,136,135	21.01	30	18,179,279	47.21	102	132[5]	New
			Northern League (LN)	3,235,248	8.36	11			107	118	+63
			National Alliance (AN)	5,214,133	13.47	23			87	110	+76
			Pannella List (LP)	1,359,283	3.51	0			6	6	−1
		Total seats				64			302	366	–
	Alliance of Progressives		Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	7,881,646	20.36	38	12.632,680	32.81	86	124[6]	+17
			Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)	2,343,946	6.05	11			27	38	+3
			Democratic Alliance (AD)	456,114	1.18	0			18	18[7]	New
			Italian Socialist Party (PSI)	849,429	2.19	0			14	14	−78
			Federation of the Greens (FdV)	1,047,268	2.70	0			11	11	−5
			The Network (LR)	719,841	1.86	0			8	8	−4
		Total seats				49			164	213	–
	Pact for Italy		Italian People's Party (PPI)	4,287,172	11.07	29	6,019,038	15.63	4	33	−173
			Segni Pact (PS)	1,811,814	4.68	13			0	13	New
		Total seats				42			4	46	–
	South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)			231,842	0.60	0	188,017	0.49	3	3	±0
	Southern Action League (LAM)			59,873	0.15	0	46,820	0.13	1	1	+1
	Aosta Valley (VdA)			N/A	N/A	0	43,700	0.11	1	1	±0
Total										630	–

Results for the Senate of the Republic

← Summary of the 27 March 1994 Senate of the Republic election results →

Coalition		Party		First-past-the-post			Proportional (Seats)	Total seats	+/–
				Votes	%	Seats
	Pole of Freedoms – Pole of Good Government		Northern League (LN)	14,110,705[8]	42.66[9]	128	28	60	+35
			National Alliance (AN)					48	+32
			Forza Italia (FI)					35[10]	New
			Christian Democratic Centre (CCD)					12	New
			Pannella List (LP)					1	+1
		Total						156	–
	Alliance of Progressives		Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	10,881,320	32.90	96	26	76[11]	+12
			Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)					18	−2
			Italian Socialist Party (PSI)					9	−40
			Federation of the Greens (FdV)					7	+3
			Democratic Alliance (AD)					6	New
			The Network (LR)					6	+3
		Total seats						122	–
	Pact for Italy (PpI)			5,519,090	16.69	3	28	31	−76
	South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)			217,137	0.66	3	0	3	±0
	Lega Alpina Lumbarda (LAL)			246,046	0.74	0	1	1	±0
	Magris List (LM)			61,400	0.19	1	0	1	New
	Aosta Valley (VdA)			27,493	0.08	1	0	1	±0
	Pensioners' Party (PP)			250,637	0.76	0	0	0	±0
	Lega Autonomia Veneta (LAV)			165,370	0.50	0	0	0	−1
	Federalist Greens (VF)			100,418	0.30	0	0	0	±0
	Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az)			88,225	0.27	0	0	0	±0
	Natural Law Party (PLN)			86,579	0.26	0	0	0	New
	Social Democracy for Freedoms			80,264	0.24	0	0	0	−3
	The League of Angela Bossi			72,455	0.22	0	0	0	New
	Greens Greens (VV)			68,218	0.21	0	0	0	±0
	Veneto Autonomous Region Movement (MVRA)			64,149	0.19	0	0	0	±0
	Southern Action League (LAM)			54,395	0.16	0	0	0	±0
	League for Piedmont			49,505	0.15	0	0	0	New
	Others			931,143	2.82	0	0	0	–
Total				33,074,549	100.00	232	83	315	–

Results

On election day, Berlusconi's coalition won a decisive victory over Occhetto's one, becoming the first center-right coalition to win general election since the Second World War. In the popular vote, Berlusconi's coalition outpolled the Alliance of Progressive by over 5.1 million votes. Pole of Freedoms won in the main regions of Italy: in the North the strongest parties were the regionalist Northern League and Forza Italia, which was able to win in all province of Sicily, while in the South National Alliance received more votes. Alliance of Progressive reconfirmed itself in the ex-communist regions in the Center and in the South.

Instead of it had done in the Chamber, Pole of Freedoms failed in winning a majority in the Senate. Although, the Berlusconi I Cabinet obtained a vote of confidence also in the Senate, thanks to the defection of four PPI senators (Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Stefano Cusumano, Luigi Grillo and Tomaso Zanoletti), who decided not to participate in the vote.

The vote of the Senators for life was not decisive, as three (Gianni Agnelli, Francesco Cossiga and Giovanni Leone) voted in favour of the government, three were absent (Carlo Bo, Norberto Bobbio and Amintore Fanfani) and five voted against (Giulio Andreotti, Francesco De Martino, Giovanni Spadolini and Paolo Emilio Taviani and Leo Valiani).

The Senate finally gave Berlusconi 159 votes in favour and 153 against.^[12]

Further reading

• Carter, Nick (1998). Italy: The Demise of Post-War Partyocracy. Political Parties and the Collapse of the Old Orders. State University of New York Press. pp. 71–94.
• Diamanti, Ilvo; Mannheimer, Renato, eds. (1994). Milano a Roma: guida all'Italia elettorale del 1994. Donzelli.
• Parker, Simon (1996). Electoral reform and political change in Italy, 1991–1994. The New Italian Republic: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi. Routledge. pp. 40–56.

References

External links

• (in Italian) Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1994 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies - uninominal (compressed ZIP file)
• (in Italian) Ministry of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1994 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies - proportional
• (in Italian) Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1994 Election Results, Senate of the Republic