1992 Italian general election

1992 Italian general election

5–6 April 1992

All 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies  · 315 seats in the Senate
Registered47,486,964 (C) · 41,053,543 (S)
Turnout41,479,764 (C) · 87.4% (1.4 pp)
35,633,367 (S) · 86.8% (1.5 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Arnaldo Forlani Achille Occhetto Bettino Craxi
Party DC PDS PSI
Leader since 22 February 1989 21 June 1988 15 July 1976
Leader's seat Ancona (C) Rome (C) Milan (C)
Seats won 206 (C) / 107 (S) 107 (C) / 66 (S) 92 (C) / 49 (S)
Seat change 46 (C) / 18 (S) 51 (C) / 45 (S) 2 (C) / 5 (S)
Popular vote 11,637,569 (C)
9,088,494 (S)
6,317,962 (C)
5,682,888 (S)
5,343,808 (C)
4,523,873 (S)
Percentage 29.7% (C)
27.3% (S)
16.1% (C)
17.0% (S)
13.6% (C)
13.6% (S)
Swing 4.6 pp (C)
5.3 pp (S)
10.5 pp (C)
11.3 pp (S)
0.7 pp (C)
2.6 pp (S)

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Umberto Bossi Sergio Garavini Gianfranco Fini
Party LN PRC MSI
Leader since 4 December 1989 10 February 1991 6 July 1991
Leader's seat Milan (C) Rome (C) Rome (C)
Seats won 55 (C) / 25 (S) 35 (C) / 20 (S) 34 (C) / 16 (S)
Seat change 54 (C) / 24 (S) New party 1 (C) / 0 (S)
Popular vote 3,396,012 (C)
2,732,461 (S)
2,204,641 (C)
2,171,950 (S)
2,107,037 (C)
2,171,215 (S)
Percentage 8.7% (C)
8.2% (S)
5.6% (C)
6.5% (S)
5.4% (C)
6.5% (S)
Swing 8.2 pp (C)
7.8 pp (S)
New party 0.4 pp (C)
0.0 pp (S)


Prime Minister before election

Giulio Andreotti
DC

Prime Minister after the election

Giuliano Amato
PSI

General elections were held in Italy on 5 and 6 April 1992. They were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italian politics, the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which had been disbanded in 1991. Most of its members split between the more democratic socialist-oriented Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), while a minority who did not want to renounce the communist tradition became the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC); between them, they gained around 4% less than what the already declining PCI had obtained in the 1987 Italian general election, despite PRC absorbing the disbanded Proletarian Democracy (DP).

The other major feature was the sudden rise of the Northern League (LN), a federalist party that increased its vote from 0.5% of the preceding elections to more than 8%, increasing from a single member both in the Chamber and the Senate to 55 and 25, respectively. The "long wave" (onda lunga) of Bettino Craxi's now centrist-oriented Italian Socialist Party (PSI), which in the past elections had been forecast next to overcome PCI, seemed to stop. Christian Democracy (DC) and the other traditional government parties, with the exception of the Italian Republican Party (PRI) and the Italian Liberal Party (PLI), also experienced a slight decrease in their vote.