1958 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy elected its third delegation to the Italian Senate on May 25, 1958. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1958 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.

1958 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

← 1953 May 25, 1958 1963 →

All 33 Lombard seats to the Italian Senate
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Amintore Fanfani Pietro Nenni Palmiro Togliatti
Party DC PSI PCI
Last election 46.7%, 16 seats 17.4%, 6 seats 18.2%, 6 seats
Seats won 16 7 6
Seat change = Increase1 =
Popular vote 1,805,779 747,266 746,880
Percentage 44.8% 18.5% 18.5%
Swing Decrease1.9% Increase1.1% Increase0.3%

Old local majority before election

DC

New local plurality

DC

Lombardy obtained two more seats to the Senate, following the redistricting subsequent to the 1951 Census.

The election was won by the centrist Christian Democracy, as it happened at national level. All Lombard provinces gave a majority or at least a plurality to the winning party.

Background

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Even if Amintore Fanfani's Christian Democracy weakened in this election, Lombardy remained a stronghold for the national leading party.

As it happened five years before, the Communists obtained some seats in the agricultural south, while the Socialists remarked their strength in the Milanese industrial neighbourhood. The centre-left Italian Democratic Socialist Party obtained two seats in Milan, a city led by Democratic Socialist mayor Virgilio Ferrari, while the rightist Italian Social Movement and the Italian Liberal Party obtained some good results in the bourgeois center of Milan.

Electoral system

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The electoral system for the Senate was a strange hybrid which established a form of proportional representation into FPTP-like constituencies. A candidate needed a landslide victory of more than 65% of votes to obtain a direct mandate. All constituencies where this result was not reached entered into an at-large calculation based upon the D'Hondt method to distribute the seats between the parties, and candidates with the best percentages of suffrages inside their party list were elected.

Results

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Party votes votes (%) seats swing
Christian Democracy 1,805,779 44.8 16 =
Italian Socialist Party 747,266 18.5 7  1
Italian Communist Party 746,880 18.5 6 =
Italian Democratic Socialist Party 248,824 6.2 2  1
Italian Liberal Party 184,701 4.6 1  1
Italian Social Movement 151,330 3.8 1 =
Others & PNM 147,523 3.6 -  1
Total parties 4,032,303 100.0 33  2

Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Constituencies

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Constituency Elected Party Votes % Others
1 Bergamo Cristoforo Pezzini Christian Democracy 55.7%
2 Clusone Pietro Bellora Christian Democracy 67.4%
3 Treviglio Daniele Turani Christian Democracy 63.1%
4 Brescia Angelo Buizza Christian Democracy 46.7%
5 Breno Angelo Cemmi Christian Democracy 61.2%
6 Chiari Pietro Cenini Christian Democracy 59.1%
7 Salò Francesco Zane Christian Democracy 53.8%
8 Como None elected Pasquale Valsecchi (DC) 45.9%
9 Lecco Pietro Amigoni Christian Democracy 58.1%
10 Cantù Lorenzo Spallino
Ugo Bonafini
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
56.4%
20.9%
11 Cremona Bruno Gombi
Emilio Zanoni
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
26.2%
21.3%
12 Crema Ennio Zelioli Christian Democracy 52.5%
13 Mantua Alceo Negri Italian Socialist Party 24.4% Ernesto Zanardi (PCI) 23.7%
14 Ostiglia Teodosio Aimoni
Unconstitutional result[1]
Italian Communist Party

32.1%
24.8%

Seat ceded to Bonafini
15 Milan 1 Giorgio Bergamasco Italian Liberal Party 16.5%
16 Milan 2 Gastone Nencioni Italian Social Movement 7.4%
17 Milan 3 Edgardo Savio Italian Democratic Socialist Party 9.9%
18 Milan 4 Edgardo Lami Starnuti Italian Democratic Socialist Party 9.9%
19 Milan 5 None elected
20 Milan 6 Piero Montagnani
Giuseppe Roda
Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party
28.6%
23.8%
21 Abbiategrasso None elected Emanuele Samek Lodovici (DC) 44.8%
Carlo Arnaudi (PSI) 20.7%
22 Rho Guido Corbellini
Arialdo Banfi
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
46.2%
20.9%
23 Monza Gianmaria Cornaggia Christian Democracy 48.9%
24 Vimercate Cesare Merzagora Christian Democracy (Indep.) 54.8%
25 Lodi Francesco Scotti Italian Communist Party 26.3%
26 Pavia Pietro Vergani Italian Communist Party 28.0% Giuseppe Faravelli (PSDI) 5.1%
27 Voghera None elected
28 Vigevano Carlo Lombardi Italian Communist Party 36.0%
29 Sondrio Attilio Piccioni Christian Democracy 57.7%
30 Varese Noè Pajetta
Antonio Greppi
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
45.5%
21.5%
31 Busto Arsizio Natale Santero
Mario Grampa
Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party
47.8%
22.9%
  • Senators with a direct mandate have bold percentages. Please remember that the electoral system was, in the other cases, a form of proportional representation and not a FPTP race: so candidates winning with a simple plurality could have (and usually had) a candidate (always a Christian democrat) with more votes in their constituency.

Substitutions

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Notes

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  1. ^ Famous MP Alessandro Pertini helped his party running for this seat. However, according to the Italian Constitution, MPs can't be senators, so he ceded his senatorial seat to his party-mate Ugo Bonafini.