1953 Italian Senate election in Lombardy explained

Election Name:1953 Italian Senate election in Lombardy
Country:Lombardy
Type:parliamentary
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1948 Italian Senate election in Lombardy
Previous Year:1948
Next Election:1958 Italian Senate election in Lombardy
Next Year:1958
Seats For Election:All 31 Lombard seats to the Italian Senate
Election Date:June 7, 1953
Leader1:Alcide De Gasperi
Party1:Christian Democracy (Italy)
Last Election1:53.8%, 18 seats
Seats1:16
Seat Change1:2
Popular Vote1:1,739,691
Percentage1:46.7%
Swing1:7.1%
Leader2:Palmiro Togliatti
Party2:Italian Communist Party
Last Election2:16.9%, 5 seats
as ½ of the FDP
Seats2:6
Seat Change2:1
Popular Vote2:678,804
Percentage2:18.2%
Swing2:1.3%
Leader3:Pietro Nenni
Party3:Italian Socialist Party
Last Election3:16.9%, 5 seats
as ½ the FDP
Seats3:6
Seat Change3:1
Popular Vote3:648,787
Percentage3:17.4%
Swing3:0,5%
Old local majority
Posttitle:New local majority
Before Election:DC
After Election:DC

Lombardy elected its second delegation to the Italian Senate on June 7, 1953. This election was a part of national Italian general election of 1953 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. All Lombard provinces gave a majority or at least a plurality to the winning party.

Background

Alcide De Gasperi's Christian Democracy weakened in this election, after that the exceptional conditions of 1948 had expired. However, Lombardy remained a stronghold for the national leading party.

Communists and Socialists obtained more votes running divided than they did together five years before, absorbing most of the Republican electorate. Even if the Communists obtained some seats in the agricultural south, the Socialists remarked their strength in the Milanese industrial neighbourhood. The Italian Democratic Socialist Party obtained a seat in Milan, a city led by its mayor Virgilio Ferrari, while the rightist and anti-constitutional Italian Social Movement and the Monarchist National Party took away some Conservative votes from the Christian Democracy and obtained their first seats in the bourgeois centers of Milan and Como.

Electoral system

The electoral system introduced in 1948 for the newly elected 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

|-|- bgcolor="#E9E9E9"!rowspan="1" align="left" valign="top"|Party!rowspan="1" align="center" valign="top"|votes!rowspan="1" align="center" valign="top"|votes (%)!rowspan="1" align="center" valign="top"|seats!rowspan="1" align="center" valign="top"|swing|-!align="left" valign="top"|Christian Democracy|valign="top"|1,739,691|valign="top"|46.7|valign="top"|16|valign="top"|2|-!align="left" valign="top"|Italian Communist Party|valign="top"|678,804|valign="top"|18.2|valign="top"|6|valign="top"|1|-!align="left" valign="top"|Italian Socialist Party|valign="top"|648,787|valign="top"|17.4|valign="top"|6|valign="top"|1|-!align="left" valign="top"|Italian Democratic Socialist Party|valign="top"|215,196|valign="top"|5.8|valign="top"|1|valign="top"|=|-!align="left" valign="top"|Italian Social Movement|valign="top"|140,327|valign="top"|3.8|valign="top"|1|valign="top"|1|-!align="left" valign="top"|Monarchist National Party|valign="top"|124,905|valign="top"|3.6|valign="top"|1|valign="top"|1|-!align="left" valign="top"|Others & PRI|valign="top"|175,418|valign="top"|4.7|valign="top"|-|valign="top"|2|- bgcolor="#E9E9E9"!rowspan="1" align="left" valign="top"|Total parties!rowspan="1" align="right" valign="top"|3,723,128!rowspan="1" align="right" valign="top"|100.0!rowspan="1" align="right" valign="top"|31!rowspan="1" align="right" valign="top"|=|}

Sources: Italian Ministry of the Interior

Constituencies

|-|- bgcolor="#E9E9E9"!align="left" valign="top"|N°!align="center" valign="top"|Constituency!align="center" valign="top"|Elected!align="center" valign="top"|Party!align="center" valign="top"|Votes %!align="center" valign="top"|Others|-|align="left"|1|align="left"|Bergamo|align="left"|Cristoforo Pezzini|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|61.8%|align="left"||-|align="left"|2|align="left"|Clusone|align="left"|Pietro Bellora|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|70.7%|align="left"||-|align="left"|3|align="left"|Treviglio|align="left"|Daniele Turani|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|63.4%|align="left"||-|align="left"|4|align="left"|Brescia|align="left"|Angelo Buizza|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|48.6%|align="left"||-|align="left"|5|align="left"|Breno|align="left"|Angelo Cemmi|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|64.1%|align="left"||-|align="left"|6|align="left"|Chiari|align="left"|Pietro Cenini|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|58.6%|align="left"||-|align="left"|7|align="left"|Salò|align="left"|Francesco Zane|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|54.0%|align="left"||-|align="left"|8|align="left"|Como|align="left"|Attilio Terragni|align="left"|Monarchist National Party|align="left"|6.8%|align="left"|Giuseppe Terragni (DC) 46.1%|-|align="left"|9|align="left"|Lecco|align="left"|Pietro Amigoni|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|58.4%|align="left"||-|align="left"|10|align="left"|Cantù|align="left"|Lorenzo Spallino|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|56.3%|align="left"||-|align="left"|11|align="left"|Cremona|align="left"|Antonio Banfi|align="left"|Italian Communist Party|align="left"|25.6%|align="left"||-|align="left"|12|align="left"|Crema|align="left"|Ennio Zelioli|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|52.7%|align="left"||-|align="left"|13|align="left"|Mantua|align="left"|Alceo Negri|align="left"|Italian Socialist Party|align="left"|25.2%|align="left"|Clarenzo Menotti (PCI) 21.2%|-|align="left"|14|align="left"|Ostiglia|align="left"|Arturo Colombi
Rodolfo Morandi
|align="left"|Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party|align="left"|29.3%
27.1%|align="left"||-|align="left"|15|align="left"|Milan 1|align="left"|Mario Marina|align="left"|Italian Social Movement|align="left"|8.6%|align="left"||-|align="left"|16|align="left"|Milan 2|align="left"|None elected|align="left"||align="left"||align="left"||-|align="left"|17|align="left"|Milan 3|align="left"|None elected|align="left"||align="left"||align="left"||-|align="left"|18|align="left"|Milan 4|align="left"|Emilio Canevari|align="left"|Italian Democratic Socialist Party|align="left"|9.9%|align="left"||-|align="left"|19|align="left"|Milan 5|align="left"|None elected|align="left"||align="left"||align="left"||-|align="left"|20|align="left"|Milan 6|align="left"|Piero Montagnani
Francesco Mariani
|align="left"|Italian Communist Party
Italian Socialist Party|align="left"|31.0%
22.5%|align="left"||-|align="left"|21|align="left"|Abbiategrasso|align="left"|Giorgio Marzola|align="left"|Italian Socialist Party|align="left"|21.7%|align="left"|Emanuele Samek Lodovici (DC) 46.0%|-|align="left"|22|align="left"|Rho|align="left"|Carlo Corti
Amilcare Locatelli
|align="left"|Christian Democracy
Italian Socialist Party|align="left"|49.7%
19.7%|align="left"||-|align="left"|23|align="left"|Monza|align="left"|Mario Longoni|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|50.8%|align="left"||-|align="left"|24|align="left"|Vimercate|align="left"|Cesare Merzagora
Giuseppe Roda
|align="left"|Christian Democracy (Indep.)
Italian Socialist Party|align="left"|56.2%
19.2%|align="left"||-|align="left"|25|align="left"|Lodi|align="left"|Gianmaria Cornaggia|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|47.1%|align="left"||-|align="left"|26|align="left"|Pavia|align="left"|Giovanni Farina|align="left"|Italian Communist Party|align="left"|26.6%|align="left"||-|align="left"|27|align="left"|Voghera|align="left"|Cesare Gavina|align="left"|Italian Communist Party|align="left"|23.9%|align="left"|Enrico Gazzale (PNM) 6.6%|-|align="left"|28|align="left"|Vigevano|align="left"|Giuseppe Alberganti|align="left"|Italian Communist Party|align="left"|34.1%|align="left"||-|align="left"|29|align="left"|Sondrio|align="left"|Ezio Vanoni|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|62.6%|align="left"||-|align="left"|30|align="left"|Varese|align="left"|None elected|align="left"||align="left"||align="left"||-|align="left"|31|align="left"|Busto Arsizio|align="left"|Natale Santero|align="left"|Christian Democracy|align="left"|48.2%|align="left"|Mario Grampa (PSI) 19.1%|}

Substitutions