Italian general election, 1919

Italian general election, 1919

16 November 1919

All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Nicola Bombacci Don Luigi Sturzo Vittorio Emanuele Orlando Party Socialist Party People's Party Liberal Democratic Seats won 156 100 96 Seat change 104 new party new party Popular vote 1,834,792 1,167,354 904,195 Percentage 32.3% 20.5% 15.9% Swing 14.7% new party new party

Prime Minister before election Vittorio Emanuele Orlando Liberal Democratic Elected Prime Minister Francesco Saverio Nitti Radical Party

General elections were held in Italy on 16 November 1919.^[1] The fragmented Liberal governing coalition lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, due to the success of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party.

Electoral system

The old system of using single-member constituencies with two-round majority voting was abolished and replaced with proportional representation in 58 constituencies with between 5 and 20 members.^[2]

Historical background

The election took place in the middle of Biennio Rosso ("Red Biennium") a two-year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy, following the First World War.^[3] The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922.

The Biennio Rosso took place in a context of economic crisis at the end of the war, with high unemployment and political instability. It was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factories occupations.^[3] In Turin and Milan, workers councils were formed and many factory occupations took place under the leadership of anarcho-syndicalists. The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the Padan plain and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests and guerrilla conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias.

In the general election, the fragmented Liberal governing coalition lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, due to the success of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party. The Socialists of Nicola Bombacci received the most votes in almost every region and especially in Emilia-Romagna (60.0%), Piedmont (49.7%), Lombardy (45.9%), Tuscany (41.7%) and Umbria (46.5%), while the People's Party were the largest party in Veneto (42.6%) and came second in Lombardy (30.1%) and the Liberal lists were stronger in Southern Italy (over 50% in Abruzzo, Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily).^[4]

Parties and leaders

Results

← Summary of the 16 November 1919 Chamber of Deputies election results →

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	Italian Socialist Party	1,834,792	32.3	156	+104
	Italian People's Party	1,167,354	20.5	100	New
	Democratic Liberal Party	904,195	15.9	96	New
	Italian Social Democratic Party	622,310	10.9	60	New
	Liberal Union	490,384	8.6	41	−229
	Combatants' Party	232,923	4.1	20	New
	Radical Party	110,697	1.9	12	−50
	Economic Party	87,450	1.5	7	New
	Italian Reformist Socialist Party	82,157	1.4	6	−13
	Dissident People's Party	65,421	1.2	0	New
	Italian Republican Party	53,197	0.9	9	+1
	Independent Socialists	33,938	0.6	1	−7
Invalid/blank votes		108,674	–	–	–
Total		5,793,492	100	508	±0
Registered voters/turnout		10,239,326	56.6	–	–

First party by Region

References

Elections and referendums in Italy
General elections	1861 1865 1867 1870 1874 1876 1880 1882 1886 1890 1892 1895 1897 1900 1904 1909 1913 1919 1921 1924 1929 1934 1946 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1972 1976 1979 1983 1987 1992 1994 1996 2001 2006 2008 2013 next
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Regional elections	1947 1949 1951 1953 1954 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1973 1974 1975 1976 1978 1979 1980 1981 1983 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Local elections	1946 1951 1956 1960 1964 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Referendums	1946 1974 1978 1981 1985 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2003 2005 2006 2009 2011 2016 (Apr) 2016 (Dec)
See also: Elections in Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto