1984 European Parliament election in Italy

European Parliament election in Italy, 1984

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%
300px 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 an 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	27	3
	Christian Democracy	EPP		11,583,767	32.96	3.49	26	3
	Italian Socialist Party	SOC		3,940,445	11.21	0.18	9	0
	Italian Social Movement	ER		2,274,556	6.47	1.02	5	1
	Italian Liberal Party – Italian Republican Party	LD		2,140,501	6.09	2.46	5	2
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party	SOC		1,225,462	3.49	0.83	3	1
	Radical Party	NI		1,199,876	3.67	0.26	3	0
	Proletarian Democracy	RBW		506,753	1.44	0.72	1	0
	South Tyrolean People's Party	EPP		198,220	0.56	0	1	0
	Federalism (UV–PSd'Az–Others)	RBW		193,430	0.55	0.08	1	1
	Liga Veneta	None		164,115	0.47	—	0	0
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
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

• European Parliament election, 1984 (Sardinia)

External links

• Italian Minister of Interior