Lombard regional election, 1995

Lombard regional election, 1995

23 April 1995

All 90[1] seats to the Regional Council of Lombardy Turnout 84.24% ( 6.97%)   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Roberto Formigoni Diego Masi Francesco Speroni Party United Christian Democrats Pact of Democrats Lega Nord Last election N.A N.A. 15 seats, 18.9% Seats won 54 19 12 Seat change N.A. N.A. 3 Popular vote 2,200,921 1,462,438 937,649 Percentage 41.6% 27.6% 17.7% Swing N.A. N.A. 1.2%

President before election Paolo Arrigoni Lega Nord President-elect Roberto Formigoni CDU

The Lombard regional election of 1995 took place on 23 April 1995. The 6th term of the Regional Council was chosen.

For the first time the President of the Region was directly elected by the people, although the election was not yet binding and the President-elect could have been replaced during the term.

Roberto Formigoni (United Christian Democrats, then Forza Italia) was elected President of the Region, defeating Diego Masi (Pact of Democrats) and Francesco Speroni (Lega Nord).

Electoral law

Lombardy used for the first time the national Tatarella Law to elect its Council. Sixty-four councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists; remained seats and votes are grouped at regional level where a Hare quota is used, and then distributed to provincial party lists.

Sixteen councillors are elected at-large using a general ticket: parties are grouped in alliances, and the alliance which receives a plurality of votes elects all its candidates, its leader becoming the President of Lombardy. If an alliance wins more than 60% of votes, only 8 candidates from the regional list will be chosen and the number of those elected in provincial constituencies will be 72; if the winning alliance receives less than 50% of votes, special seats are added to the Council to ensure a large majority for the President's coalition.

Council apportionment

According to the official 1991 Italian census, the 64 Council seats which must be covered by proportional representation were so distributed between Lombard provinces.

BG	BS	CO	CR	LC	LO	MN	MI	PV	SO	VA	total
7	8	4	2	2	1	3	27	3	1	6	64

The allocation is not fixed. Remaining seats and votes after proportional distribution, are all grouped at regional level and divided by party lists. The consequent division of these seats at provincial level usually change the original apportionment. Only 41 seats were directly assigned at provincial level, and the final distribution between provinces changed in this way.

BG	BS	CO	CR	LC	LO	MN	MI	PV	SO	VA	total
+3	+3	+1	=	=	=	-1	+1	+2	=	+1	+10

As it can be seen, the simple plurality victory of the Pole of Freedoms caused the distribution of ten more seats to the President's majority at provincial level. Brescia and Como and Pavia received two new seats, Bergamo and Lodi and Milan and Varese one each.

Results

In the context of the profound political changes that invested Italy between 1992 and 1994, Italian Parliament changed the regional electoral law, adapting them to new majoritarian principle now in vogue in the country, trim and tend bipolar politics. The new political geography, however, did not fit properly to Lombardy where, besides a garrison of far left, assumed significant importance the presence of Umberto Bossi's Northern League, during the previous five years had not made any secret to aim the conquest of the Regional Presidency as a key step for a transformation of Italy in a federal state. In addition to the League, however, another major innovation had originated in Lombardy in 1994: the descent into the political field of Silvio Berlusconi, who by its movement Forza Italia had collected anti-Communist orphans of deceased traditional parties.

The central political alliances had not been followed up at Lombardy, with the League in sharp contrast with Forza Italia, not only for connecting the latter with the newly formed training nationalist and post-fascist of National Alliance, but mainly because the entrance into the political arena of Forza Italia, accused by the League to be the trojan horse for the recycling of the old political class, had led to the arrest of the Northern League's electoral steady ascent - which had previously yielded the capture of the City of Milan in 1993 - if not also a marked reflux into the consent of the federalist party.

Election on April 23 saw the success of the broad coalition of rightist Berlusconi, grouping conservative ex-Democrats, ex-socialist, liberals and post-fascist, and led to presidency Communion and Liberation's Roberto Formigoni that, with the majority premium, was able to give life to the first council in the history of the region that managed to last the entire legislature. They left much to be defeated forces of the left, but especially those of the League, whose disappointment was not alien to the radicalization which went towards the program of the movement in next year's national election.

Candidates	Regional lists			Provincial lists					Total
	votes	%	seats	Parties	votes	%	swing	seats	party	group
Roberto Formigoni	2,386,732	41.07	16	Forza Italia-People's Pole	1,455,706	29.24	new	28	38	54
				National Alliance	496,939	9.98	new	8	12
				Christian Democratic Centre	110,058	2.21	new	2	4
				Pensioners of Soleil	14,518	0.29	new	-	-
Diego Masi	1,591,417	27.39	-	Democratic Party of the Left	821,280	16.50	new	11	11	19
				Italian People's Party	321,314	6.45	new	4	4
				Federation of the Greens	154,624	3.11	2.1	2	2
				Pact of Democrats	146,293	2.94	new	2	2
				Labour Federation	18,682	0.38	new	-	-
				Populars and Democrats	11,146	0.22	new	-	-
Francesco Speroni	1,087,128	18.71	-	Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord	879,139	17.66	1.2	12	12	12
Giuseppe Torri	459,051	7.90	-	Communist Refoundation Party	381,221	7.66	new	5	5	5
Marco Pannella	165,838	2.85	-	Pannella List	90,445	1.82	0.8	-	-	-
				Autonomist Front	5.596	0.11	new	-	-
Carlo Fatuzzo	120,665	2.08	-	Pensioners' Party	71,608	1.44	0.4	-	-	-
Total candidates	5,810,831	100.00	16	Total parties	4,978,569	100.00	=	74	90	90

Source: Ministry of the Interior

References

1. Ten special seats added according to new electoral law.