# 1979 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy elected its eighth delegation to the Italian Senate on June 3, 1979. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1979 even if, according to the Italian Constitution, every senatorial challenge in each Region is a single and independent race.
The election was won by the centrist Christian Democracy, as it happened at national level. Seven Lombard provinces gave a majority or at least a plurality to the winning party, while the agricultural Province of Pavia and Province of Mantua preferred the Italian Communist Party.

## Background

For the first time the Italian Communist Party lost votes, after a period of terroristic attacks by the Red Brigades. Even the far-right Italian Social Movement was weakened. Between other minor parties, the Radical Party obtained its first seat.

## Electoral system

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

| Party | votes | votes (%) | seats | swing |
| Christian Democracy | 2,117,789 | 40.7 | 21 | = |
| Italian Communist Party | 1,530,781 | 29.4 | 15 | 1 |
| Italian Socialist Party | 620,900 | 11.9 | 6 | = |
| Italian Democratic Socialist Party | 217,704 | 4.2 | 2 | 1 |
| Italian Social Movement | 186,412 | 3.6 | 1 | 1 |
| Italian Republican Party | 162,090 | 3.1 | 1 | = |
| Italian Liberal Party | 156,745 | 3.0 | 1 | = |
| Radical Party | 154,257 | 3.0 | 1 | 1 |
| Others | 63,291 | 1.2 | - | = |
| Total parties | 5,209,969 | 100.0 | 48 | = |
Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

### Constituencies

| N° | Constituency | Elected | Party | Votes % | Others |
| 1 | Bergamo | Angelo Castelli | Christian Democracy | 54.8% | |
| 2 | Clusone | Enzo Berlanda | Christian Democracy | 62.1% | |
| 3 | Treviglio | Vincenzo Bombardieri | Christian Democracy | 55.7% | |
| 4 | Brescia | Mino Martinazzoli Gino Torri | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 44.9% 28.3% | |
| 5 | Breno | Giacomo Mazzoli | Christian Democracy | 54.2% | |
| 6 | Chiari | Mario Pedini | Christian Democracy | 56.6% | |
| 7 | Salò | Fabiano De Zan Egidio Ariosto | Christian Democracy Italian Democratic Socialist Party | 48.0% 6.5% | |
| 8 | Como | Luciano Forni Gianfranco Conti Persini | Christian Democracy Italian Democratic Socialist Party | 42.0% 8.9% | |
| 9 | Lecco | Tommaso Morlino | Christian Democracy | 49.6% | |
| 10 | Cantù | Luigi Granelli | Christian Democracy | 47.5% | |
| 11 | Cremona | Vincenzo Vernaschi Renzo Antoniazzi | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 39.6% 36.6% | |
| 12 | Crema | Ferdinando Truzzi Maurizio Noci | Christian Democracy Italian Socialist Party | 48.4% 13.2% | |
| 13 | Mantua | Carlo Grazioli Giuseppe Chiarante Gino Scevarolli | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party Italian Socialist Party | 36.7% 35.0% 13.4% | |
| 14 | Ostiglia | Agostino Zavattini Enrico Novellini | Italian Communist Party Italian Socialist Party | 42.7% 14.9% | |
| 15 | Milan 1 | Libero Mazza Giovanni Malagodi | Christian Democracy Italian Liberal Party | 37.2% 9.7% | |
| 16 | Milan 2 | Giorgio Pisanò Gianfranco Spadaccia | Italian Social Movement Radical Party | 7.3% 6.0% | |
| 17 | Milan 3 | None elected' | | | |
| 18 | Milan 4 | Giovanni Spadolini | Italian Republican Party | 7.9% | |
| 19 | Milan 5 | Mario Venanzi | Italian Communist Party | 32.1% | |
| 20 | Milan 6 | Marina Rossanda Rino Formica | Italian Communist Party Italian Socialist Party | 33.7% 13.8% | |
| 21 | Abbiategrasso | Ada Valeria Ruhl | Italian Communist Party | 35.7% | Ambrogio Colombo (DC) 36.3% |
| 22 | Rho | Giorgio Milani | Italian Communist Party | 37.7% | Vincenzo La Russa (DC) 34.6% |
| 23 | Monza | Vittorino Colombo Libero Riccardelli | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party (Gsi) | 39.9% 30.9% | |
| 24 | Vimercate | Giovanni Marcora Angelo Romanò | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party (Gsi) | 42.2% 31.8% | |
| 25 | Lodi | Camillo Ripamonti Rodolfo Bollini | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 38.9% 38.1% | |
| 26 | Pavia | Armelino Milani | Italian Communist Party | 37.7% | Angelo Cordara (DC) 34.1% |
| 27 | Voghera | Carlo Lavezzari Giovanni Bellinzona | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 37.4% 34.0% | |
| 28 | Vigevano | Armando Cossutta | Italian Communist Party | 43.2% | |
| 29 | Sondrio | Eugenio Tarabini Libero Della Briotta | Christian Democracy Italian Socialist Party | 51.5% 17.3% | |
| 30 | Varese | Aristide Marchetti Modesto Merzario Attilio Spozio | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party Italian Socialist Party | 39.0% 28.1% 13.7% | |
| 31 | Busto Arsizio | Gian Pietro Rossi | Christian Democracy | 42.4% | |
* No senator obtained a direct mandate. 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 (usually a Christian democrat) with more votes in their constituency.

### Substitutions

* Ambrogio Colombo for Abbiategrasso (36.3%) replaced Mario Pedini in 1980. Reason: resignation.
* Vincenzo La Russa for Rho (34.6%) replaced Ferdinando Truzzi in 1981. Reason: resignation.
* Angelo Cordara for Pavia (34.1%) replaced Giovanni Marcora in 1983. Reason: death.