1978 Italian presidential election

Election of the President of the Italian Republic January 2022 1978 Italian presidential election Italy presidential electoral no 1971 Italian presidential election 1971 29 June – 8 July 1978 1985 Italian presidential election 1985 1,011 voters(323 Senators, 630 Deputies and 58 regional representatives) 675 (1st–3rd ballots) or 506 (4th ballot onwards) 200x200px Sandro Pertini Italian Socialist Party 832 82.3% Italian Presidential Election 1978.svg 250px Result on the sixteenth ballot (8 July 1978) Italian Socialist Party darkgray Pertini 832 #C0C0C0 darkgray Others 36 #808080 darkgray Invalids, blanks, abstentions 143 President Giovanni Leone DC Sandro Pertini PSI The 1978 Italian presidential election was held in Italy between 29 June and 8 July 1978, following the resignation of incumbent President Giovanni Leone on 15 June 1978 because of the Lockheed bribery scandals. Only members of Parliament and regional delegates were entitled to vote, most of these electors having been elected in the 1976 general election and in the 1975 regional elections. As head of state of the Italian Republic, the President has a role of representation of national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Italian Constitution, in the framework of a parliamentary system. On 8 July 1978 former socialist partisan and President of the Chamber of Deputies Sandro Pertini was elected President with 832 votes out of 1,011, the biggest majority ever obtained by an elected president. Procedure In accordance with the Italian Constitution, the election was held in the form of a secret ballot, with the Senators and the Deputies entitled to vote. The election was held in the Palazzo Montecitorio, home of the Chamber of Deputies, with the capacity of the building expanded for the purpose. The first three ballots required a two-thirds majority of the 1,011 voters in order to elect a president, or 675 votes. Starting from the fourth ballot, an absolute majority was required for candidates to be elected, or 506 votes. The presidential mandate lasts seven years. The election was presided over by the President of the Chamber of Deputies Pietro Ingrao, who proceeded to the public counting of the votes, and by the Vice president of the Senate Luigi Carraro, since President Amintore Fanfani was serving as acting President of the Republic. Candidates Guido Gonella, former Minister, was the first candidate of the Christian Democracy; Giorgio Amendola, former partisan, was the candidate of the Italian Communist Party; Pietro Nenni, former leader of Italian Socialist Party, was initially proposed by his party; Sandro Pertini, one of the most prominent socialist leaders, wasn't voted till the last ballot. Political background Historic Compromise Years of Lead (Italy) thumb|left|250px|Sandro Pertini taking the oath in front of the Parliament near the President of the Chamber of Deputies Pietro Ingrao on 9 July 1978 The extremely disputed Giovanni Leone's presidency came to an end in June 1978 due to allegations made in the United States over Lockheed bribing a number of high-profile politicians in Italy to purchase Hercules Aircraft for the military. Even if the accusation was never proved, Leone decided to resign in order to prevent the beginning of the so called "white semester" (semestre bianco), the six months period before the end of a presidential mandate during which the President cannot dissolve the Parliament and call a general election. Leone's resignation came during a very difficult moment for the Italian Republic. Tight in the grip of the Years of Lead and of the strategy of tension, the country had suffered major terrorist attacks during the decade, such as 1974 Piazza della Loggia bombing and 1974 Italicus Express bombing. The climax of tension came in March 1978, when the former Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and killed by a unit of the militant far-left organisation known as the Red Brigades while on his way to a session of the Chamber of Deputies where a discussion was to take place regarding a vote of confidence for a new government that would have had for the first time ever the support of the Italian Communist Party. Politically, Moro's stance to find an accommodation between the Christian Democracy and the Italian Communist Party was a way to lead the country out of the tensions and to make the republic institutions more solid and stable as response to domestic terrorism. The Historic Compromise was made possible by the new course inaugurated by the new communist leader Enrico Berlinguer, who in 1973 launched in communist magazine Rinascita a proposal for a "democratic alliance" with Christian Democracy in order to prevent a coup d'état similar to the Chilean one. However, the sudden death of Moro was a hard blow to the Historical Compromise politics and a major defeat for the republic institutions in front of the public opinion. In that context, in summer 1978 the Italian Parliament convened to elect a new President. After 1976 general election, the left-wing parties together detained now a narrow majority in both houses of the Parliament and claimed the next President must have been a leftist one. After a long negotiation, the parties of the so-called "constitutional arch" (arco costituzionale), an expression used to indicate all the democratic parties represented in Parliament with the exception of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, found a deal on the name of the popular socialist lawmaker and former partisan Sandro Pertini. On 8 July 1978 Pertini was finally elected President with the largest majority ever obtained in an Italian presidential election and sworn in as the new President one day after. Results CandidateFirst round29 June 1978Second round30 June 1978Third round30 June 1978Fourth round1 July 1978Fifth round2 July 1978Sixth round2 July 1978Seventh round3 July 1978Eighth round4 July 1978Ninth round4 July 1978Guido Gonella392383351––––––Giorgio Amendola339337339335358350357358357Pietro Nenni888681––––––Orazio Condorelli262725––––––Ferruccio Parri202120––––––Aldo Bozzi–153523–161512Luigi Mariotti–1518––––2–Paolo Rossi–1110111513151717Benigno Zaccagnini–215––––––Sandro Pertini––546104––Other candidates292932273016171026Blank papers794848777073136142127Invalid papers1924423214Abstentions192828531534544464466471Total1,0111,0111,0111,0111,0111,0111,0111,0111,011 CandidateTenth round5 July 1978Eleventh round5 July 1978Twelfth round6 July 1978Thirteenth round7 July 1978Fourteenth round7 July 1978Fifteenth round7 July 1978Sixteenth round8 July 1978Giorgio Amendola3553553543643553474Aldo Bozzi1110121099–Luigi Mariotti–4–333–Paolo Rossi1721221818152Sandro Pertini2–––35832Francesco De Martino–––419359Other candidates16222024212221Blank papers10691101887692121Invalid papers3212116Abstentions50150650350050748217Total1,0111,0111,0111,0111,0111,0111,011Source: Presidency of the Republic Notes References Category:Presidential elections in Italy Category:1978 elections in Italy