European Parliament election, 1979 (Italy)

European Parliament election in Italy, 1979

10 June 1979

All 81 Italian seats in the European Parliament   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Benigno Zaccagnini Enrico Berlinguer Bettino Craxi Party Christian Democracy Communist Party Socialist Party Alliance EPP COM SOC Leader's seat Northeast Italy Central Italy Northwest Italy Seats won 29 24 9 Popular vote 12,774,320 10,361,344 3,866,946 Percentage 36.5% 29.6% 11.0%

The first elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 10 June 1979.

A week before Italy had voted for its general election: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.

Electoral system

The pure party-list proportional representation was the traditional electoral system of the Italian Republic since its foundation in 1946, so it was naturally adopted to elect the Italian representatives to the European Parliament. 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

This election taking place just a week after the general election, it obviously gave a similar result. However, the minor importance of the European ballot caused a lower turnout, which particularly punished the two major parties, the Christian Democracy and the Italian Communist Party. The small Italian Liberal Party had a breath of fresh air from this vote, doubling its percentage compared to seven days before.

National party		European group	Main candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democracy	EPP	Emilio Colombo	12,774,320	36.45	—	29	—
	Italian Communist Party	COM	Enrico Berlinguer	10,361,344	29.57	—	24	—
	Italian Socialist Party	SOC	Bettino Craxi	3,866,946	11.03	—	9	—
	Italian Social Movement	NI	Giorgio Almirante	1,909,055	5.45	—	4	—
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party	SOC	Antonio Cariglia	1,514,272	4.32	—	4	—
	Radical Party	TGI	Marco Pannella	1,285,065	3.67	—	3	—
	Italian Liberal Party	LD	Sergio Pininfarina	1,271,159	3.63	—	3	—
	Italian Republican Party	LD	Susanna Agnelli	896,139	2.56	—	2	—
	Proletarian Unity Party	TGI	Luciana Castellina	406,656	1.16	—	1	—
	Proletarian Democracy	TGI	Mario Capanna	252,342	0.72	—	1	—
	South Tyrolean People's Party	EPP	Joachim Dalsass	196,373	0.56	—	1	—
	Federalism (Valdostan Union–Others)	None		166,393	0.47	—	0	—
	National Democracy	None		142,537	0.41	—	0	—
Valid votes				35,042,601	96.94
Blank and invalid votes				1,105,579	3.06
Totals				36,148,180	100.00	—	81	—
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout				42,203,405	85.65	—
Source: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Popular vote
DC			36.45%
PCI			29.57%
PSI			11.03%
MSI			5.45%
PSDI			4.32%
PR			3.67%
PLI			3.63%
PRI			2.56%
PdUP			1.16%
Others			2.16%

External links

• Italian Minister of Interior