1989 European Parliament election in Italy

The 1989 European Parliament election in Italy was held on 18 June 1989.

1989 European Parliament election in Italy

← 1984 18 June 1989 1994 →
outgoing members elected members
All 81 Italian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	81.07% ( 1.4 pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– DC Arnaldo Forlani 32.9% 26 0 PCI Achille Occhetto 27.6% 22 −5 PSI Bettino Craxi 14.8% 12 +3 MSI Gianfranco Fini 5.5% 4 −1 PLI–PRI–Fed. R. Altissimo, G. La Malfa & M. Pannella 4.4% 4 −1 Green List Gianni F. Mattioli 3.8% 3 New PSDI Antonio Cariglia 2.7% 2 −1 Rainbow Greens Mario Capanna 2.4% 2 New Lega Lombarda Umberto Bossi 1.8% 2 +2 DP Giovanni Russo Spena 1.3% 1 0 Antiprohibitionists Marco Taradash 1.2% 1 −2 PSd'Az – others Collective leadership 0.6% 1 0 SVP Silvius Magnago 0.5% 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Major party in each Province.

The election was paired with a non-binding referendum about the devolution of powers to the European Economic Community, which passed with overwhelming support from voters.

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

For more than 35 years, Italian Communists had thought that their final victory was no more than a matter of time. However, the deindustrialization of Italy during the '80s showed that the time had expired. The decline of the traditional opponents of the Christian Democracy opened the door to new forms of protests: the Green Lists and, in Northern Italy, the Lombard League.

The government of Ciriaco De Mita did not survive to this vote: declining Italian Republican Party fired its leader Giovanni Spadolini, and the new secretary Giorgio La Malfa retired his support to the old PM. The Christian Democracy so chose a very expert new PM: Giulio Andreotti.

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democracy	11,451,053	32.90	-0.06	26	0
	Italian Communist Party	9,598,369	27.58	-5.75	22	-5
	Italian Socialist Party	5,151,929	14.80	+3.59	12	+3
	Italian Social Movement	1,918,650	5.51	-0.96	4	-1
	Liberals – Republicans – Federalists (PLI–PRI–FED)	1,532,388	4.40	-1.69	4	-1
	Federation of Green Lists	1,317,119	3.78	New	3	New
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party	945,383	2.72	-0.77	2	-1
	Rainbow Greens	830,980	2.39	New	2	New
	Lega Lombarda – Alleanza Nord	636,242	1.83	+1.36	2	+2
	Proletarian Democracy	449,639	1.29	-0.15	1	0
	Antiprohibitionists on Drugs	430,150	1.24	-2.43	1	-2
	Federalism (PSd'Az–UV–MF–UfS–UPV–SSK)	207,739	0.60	+0.05	1	0
	South Tyrolean People's Party	172,383	0.50	-0.06	1	0
	Pensioners' Party	162,293	0.47	New	0	New
Total		34,804,317	100.00	–	81	–
Valid votes		34,804,317	92.63
Invalid votes		1,646,189	4.38
Blank votes		1,122,253	2.99
Total votes		37,572,759	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		46,346,961	81.07
Source: Ministry of the Interior

See also

• European Parliament