# 1968 Italian Senate election in Lombardy

Lombardy elected its fifth delegation to the Italian Senate on May 19, 1968. This election was a part of the national Italian general election of 1968 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 a 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

Following the alliance between Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), which entered into Aldo Moro's centre-left governments, the PSI created a federation with another member of the coalition, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, but it paid its toll to the Italian Communist Party, which joined its forces with the newly established Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, the former Socialist leftist wing.

## 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 | 1,984,071 | 42.2 | 20 | 1 |
| Italian Communist Party & PSIUP | 1,238,087 | 26.3 | 12 | 2 |
| PSI & PSDI | 836,918 | 17.8 | 8 | 3 |
| Italian Liberal Party | 397,273 | 8.4 | 4 | = |
| Italian Social Movement | 177,956 | 3.8 | 1 | = |
| Others | 70,545 | 1.5 | - | = |
| Total parties | 4,704,850 | 100.0 | 45 | - |
Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

### Constituencies

| N° | Constituency | Elected | Party | Votes % | Others |
| 1 | Bergamo | Giovanni Zonca | Christian Democracy | 58.1% | |
| 2 | Clusone | Giuseppe Belotti | Christian Democracy | 66.3% | |
| 3 | Treviglio | Aurelio Colleoni | Christian Democracy | 62.1% | |
| 4 | Brescia | Annibale Fada Dolores Abbiati | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 44.6% 25.4% | |
| 5 | Breno | Giacomo Mazzoli | Christian Democracy | 58.1% | |
| 6 | Chiari | Faustino Zugno | Christian Democracy | 57.9% | |
| 7 | Salò | Fabiano De Zan | Christian Democracy | 48.8% | |
| 8 | Como | Pasquale Valsecchi | Christian Democracy | 44.0% | |
| 9 | Lecco | Tommaso Morlino | Christian Democracy | 54.3% | |
| 10 | Cantù | Mario Martinelli | Christian Democracy | 53.9% | |
| 11 | Cremona | Giovanni Lombardi Arnaldo Bera | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 40.1% 34.4% | |
| 12 | Crema | Ennio Zelioli | Christian Democracy | 52.4% | |
| 13 | Mantua | Tullia Romagnoli | Italian Communist Party (Gsi) | 34.3% | Leonello Zenti (DC) 35.6% Elena Gatti (PSU) 19.4% |
| 14 | Ostiglia | Teodosio Aimoni Gastone Darè | Italian Communist Party Italian Socialist Party (PSDI) | 41.2% 21.0% | |
| 15 | Milan 1 | Giorgio Bergamasco | Italian Liberal Party | 25.7% | |
| 16 | Milan 2 | Francantonio Biaggi Gastone Nencioni | Italian Liberal Party Italian Social Movement | 22.6% 7.7% | |
| 17 | Milan 3 | Italo Viglianesi Arturo Robba | Italian Socialist Party Italian Liberal Party | 21.4% 18.6% | |
| 18 | Milan 4 | Vincenzo Palumbo Alessandro Morino | Italian Liberal Party Italian Socialist Party (PSDI) | 21.0% 19.5% | |
| 19 | Milan 5 | Mario Venanzi Pietro Caleffi | Italian Communist Party Italian Socialist Party | 25.7% 22.1% | |
| 20 | Milan 6 | Arialdo Banfi | Italian Socialist Party | 22.9% | |
| 21 | Abbiategrasso | Luigi Noè Ada Valeria Ruhl | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 40.9% 31.5% | |
| 22 | Rho | Mario Dosi Gian Mario Albani | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party (Gsi) | 39.7% 33.3% | |
| 23 | Monza | Vittorio Pozzar | Christian Democracy | 43.2% | |
| 24 | Vimercate | Giovanni Marcora Gianfranco Maris | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 48.7% 27.1% | |
| 25 | Lodi | Camillo Ripamonti Giovanni Brambilla | Christian Democracy Italian Communist Party | 43.1% 35.5% | |
| 26 | Pavia | Vittorio Naldini | Italian Communist Party (PSIUP) | 36.3% | |
| 27 | Voghera | Giorgio Piovano | Italian Communist Party | 32.8% | Giovanni Celasco (DC) 35.2% |
| 28 | Vigevano | Francesco Soliano | Italian Communist Party | 44.3% | |
| 29 | Sondrio | Athos Valsecchi Edoardo Catellani | Christian Democracy Italian Socialist Party | 53.9% 23.1% | |
| 30 | Varese | Pio Alessandrini Paolo Cavezzali | Christian Democracy Italian Socialist Party | 43.4% 20.8% | |
| 31 | Busto Arsizio | Natale Santero Michele Zuccalà | Christian Democracy Italian Socialist Party | 45.3% 19.2% | |
* Senators with a direct mandate have bold percentages. 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

* Elena Gatti for Mantua (19.4%) replaced Alessandro Morino in 1969. Reason: death.
* Leonello Zenti for Mantua (35.6%) replaced Natale Santero in 1971. Reason: death.
* Giovanni Celasco for Voghera (35.2%) replaced Annibale Fada in 1971. Reason: death.