European Parliament election, 1984 (Italy)

European Parliament election in Italy, 1984
Italy
17 June 1984
All 81 Italian seats to the European Parliament
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Alessandro Natta Ciriaco De Mita Bettino Craxi
Party Communist Party Christian Democracy Socialist Party
Leader since 1976
Leader's seat Northwest Italy Southern Italy Northwest Italy
Last election 24 seats, 29.6% 29 seats, 36.5% 9 seats, 11.0%
Seats won 27 26 9
Seat change +3 -3 –
Popular vote 11,714,428 11,583,767 3,940,445
Percentage 33.3% 33.0% 11.2%
Swing +3.7% -3.5% +0.2%

European election results map. Red denotes those with a Communist plurality, Light Blue denotes provinces with a Christian Democratic plurality, Gray denotes those with an Autonomist plurality.

The second elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 17 June 1984.

The election took place just a week after the death of Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer: this fact greatly influenced the vote, producing a historical result.

Electoral system

The pure party-list proportional representation was the traditional electoral system of the Italian Republic since its foundation in 1946, so it had been adopted to elect the Italian representatives to the European Parliament too. Two levels were used: a national level to divide seats between parties, and a constituency level to distribute them between candidates. Italian regions were united in 5 constituencies, each electing a group of deputies. At national level, seats were divided between party lists using the largest remainder method with Hare quota. All seats gained by each party were automatically distributed to their local open lists and their most voted candidates.

Results

The public emotion caused by Berlinguer's death resulted in an extraordinary strength for the PCI: for the first time in Western Europe since the French election of 1956, and for the first time ever in Italian history, a Communist party received a plurality by a democratic vote.

However, in opposition, this result reinforced the moderate government ruling the country: the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Bettino Craxi had maintained its vote, and its major ally, the defeated Christian Democracy, did not want to take any chances of a political crisis that could lead to dangerous general election.

National party European group Main candidate Votes % +/– Seats +/–
Italian Communist Party COM 11,714,428 33.33 3.76 Increase 27 3 Increase
Christian Democracy EPP 11,583,767 32.96 3.49 Decrease 26 3 Decrease
Italian Socialist Party SOC 3,940,445 11.21 0.18 Increase 9 0 Steady
Italian Social Movement ER 2,274,556 6.47 1.02 Increase 5 1 Increase
Italian Liberal Party – Italian Republican Party LD 2,140,501 6.09 2.46 Increase 5 2 Increase
Italian Democratic Socialist Party SOC 1,225,462 3.49 0.83 Decrease 3 1 Decrease
Radical Party NI 1,199,876 3.67 0.26 Decrease 3 0 Steady
Proletarian Democracy RBW 506,753 1.44 0.72 Increase 1 0 Steady
South Tyrolean People's Party EPP 198,220 0.56 0 Steady 1 0 Steady
Federalism (UV–PSd'Az–Others) RBW 193,430 0.55 0.08 Increase 1 1 Increase
Liga Veneta None 164,115 0.47 — 0 0 Steady
Valid votes 35,141,553 94.80
Blank and invalid votes 1,928,073 5.20
Totals 37,069,626 100.00 — 81 —
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout 44,948,253 82.47 2.91 Decrease
Source: Italian Ministry of the Interior
Popular vote
PCI
  
 33.33%
DC
  
 32.96%
PSI
  
 11.21%
MSI
  
 6.47%
PLI-PRI
  
 6.09%
PR
  
 3.67%
PSDI
  
 3.49%
DP
  
 1.44%
Others
  
 1.58%

See also

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