1979 European Parliament election in Italy

The 1979 European Parliament election in Italy was held on 10 June 1979.

1979 European Parliament election in Italy

10 June 1979 1984 →
elected members
All 81 Italian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	85.7%
Party Leader Vote % Seats DC Benigno Zaccagnini 36.5% 29 PCI Enrico Berlinguer 29.6% 24 PSI Bettino Craxi 11.0% 9 MSI Giorgio Almirante 5.5% 4 PSDI Pietro Longo 4.3% 4 PR Marco Pannella 3.7% 3 PLI Valerio Zanone 3.6% 3 PRI Giovanni Spadolini 2.6% 2 PdUP Luciana Castellina 1.2% 1 DP Mario Capanna 0.7% 1 SVP Silvius Magnago 0.6% 1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Major party in each Province.

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.

Summary of 10 June 1979 European Parliament election results in Italy →

National party		EP group	Main candidate	Votes	%	Seats
	Christian Democracy (DC)	EPP	Emilio Colombo	12,774,320	36.45	29
	Italian Communist Party (PCI)	COM	Enrico Berlinguer	10,361,344	29.57	24
	Italian Socialist Party (PSI)	SOC	Bettino Craxi	3,866,946	11.03	9
	Italian Social Movement (MSI)	NI	Giorgio Almirante	1,909,055	5.45	4
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI)	SOC	Antonio Cariglia	1,514,272	4.32	4
	Radical Party (PR)	TGI	Marco Pannella	1,285,065	3.67	3
	Italian Liberal Party (PLI)	LD	Enzo Bettiza	1,271,159	3.63	3
	Italian Republican Party (PRI)	LD	Susanna Agnelli	896,139	2.56	2
	Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP)	TGI	Luciana Castellina	406,656	1.16	1
	Proletarian Democracy (DP)	TGI	Mario Capanna	252,342	0.72	1
	South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)	EPP	Joachim Dalsass	196,373	0.56	1
	Federalism (Valdostan Union–Others)	None		166,393	0.47	0
	National Democracy (DN)	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