1994 Italian general election

← 1992 27–28 March 1994 1996 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in theChamber of Deputies 316 seats needed for a majority All 315 elective seats in theSenate 163 seats needed for a majority[a]
Registered	48,135,041 (C) · 41,795,730(S)
Turnout	41,546,290 (C) · 86.3% (1.1pp) 35,873,375 (S) · 85.8% (1.0pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Silvio Berlusconi Achille Occhetto Mario Segni Party Forza Italia PDS Segni Pact Alliance Pole of Freedoms /Good Government Progressives Pact for Italy Leader since 18 January 1994 21 June 1988[b] 5 January 1994 Leader's seat Roma Centrale (C) Borgo Panigale (C) Sardegna (C)[c] Seats won 366 (C) / 156 (S) 213 (C) / 122 (S) 46 (C) / 31 (S) Constituency vote 17,746,612 (C) 14,110,705 (S) 12.632,680 (C) 10,881,320 (S) 6,019,038 (C) 5,519,090 (S) % and swing 46.1% (C) 42.6% (S) 32.8% (C) 32.9% (S) 15.6% (C) 16.7% (S) Party vote 16,585,516 (C) 13,308,244 (C) 6,098,986 (C) % and swing 42.8% (C) 34.3% (C) 15.8% (C)
Results of the single-member constituencies in the Chamber of Deputies (left) and Senate (right).
Prime Minister before election Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Independent Prime Minister after the election Silvio Berlusconi Forza Italia

The1994 Italian general election was held on 27 and 28 March 1994 to elect members of theChamber of Deputies and theSenate of the Republic for the12th legislature.Silvio Berlusconi'scentre-right coalition won a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies but just missed winning a majority in the Senate.

TheItalian People's Party, the renamedChristian Democracy (DC), which had dominated Italian politics for almost half a century, was decimated. It took only 29 seats versus 206 for the DC two years earlier—easily the worst defeat a sitting government in Italy has ever suffered, and one of the worst ever suffered by a Western European governing party.

A new electoral system was introduced in these elections, after the1993 Italian referendum repealed the "supermajority clause" concerning Senate elections. The clause had meant that Senate elections were conducted usingde facto pureproportional representation. As a result of this change, the Senate now elected 75% of its seats viaplurality voting system in single-member constituencies, with the remaining 25% assigned proportionally in a compensatory nature. Parliament passed a new electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies to bring it more in line with the Senate, assigning 75% of the seats via plurality voting, with the remaining 25% assigned proportionally in a supplementary manner using a minimum threshold of 4% of the vote. The new electoral system was nicknamedMattarellum afterSergio Mattarella, who was the official proponent.

In 1992, the five pro-Western governing parties (Christian Democracy, theItalian Socialist Party, theItalian Democratic Socialist Party, theItalian Republican Party, and theItalian Liberal Party) lost much of their electoral strength almost overnight due to a large number of judicial investigations concerning the financial corruption of many of their foremost members. This led to a general expectation that upcoming elections would be won by theDemocratic Party of the Left, the heirs to the formerItalian Communist Party, and theirProgressives coalition unless there was an alternative.

On 26 January 1994, the media magnateSilvio Berlusconi announced his decision to enter politics, ("enter the field", in his own words) presenting his own political party,Forza Italia, on a platform focused on defeating "thecommunists". His political aim was to convince the voters of thePentapartito, the usual five governing parties who were shocked and confused byMani Pulite scandals, that Forza Italia offered both novelty and the continuation of the pro-Western free-market policies followed by Italy since the end ofWorld War II. Shortly after he decided to enter the political arena, investigators into the Mani Pulite affair were said to be close to issuing warrants for the arrest of Berlusconi and senior executives of his business group. During his years of political career, Berlusconi repeatedly stated that the Mani Pulite investigations were led by communistprosecutors who wanted to establish aSoviet-style government in Italy.^[1][2]

In order to win the election, Berlusconi formed two separate electoral alliances: thePole of Freedoms (Polo delle Libertà) with theNorthern League (Lega Nord) in northern Italian districts, and another, thePole of Good Government (Polo del Buon Governo), with the post-fascistNational Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale; heir to the neo-fascistItalian Social Movement), in central and southern regions.^[3] In a shrewd pragmatic move, he did not ally with the latter in the North because the League disliked them. As a result, Forza Italia was allied with two parties that were not allied with each other.

Berlusconi launched a massive campaign of electoral advertisements on his three TV networks. He subsequently won the election, with Forza Italia garnering 21% of the popular vote, the highest percentage of any single party, narrowly ahead of the Democratic Party of the Left, which finished less than 1% behind.^[4] One of the most significant promises that he made in order to secure victory was that his government would create "one million more jobs". On the other side, the center-left Progressives led byAchille Occhetto, also called "the Joyful War Machine", was composed by the two party born from the dissolution of the Italian Communist Party: the Democratic Party of the Left andCommunist Refoundation Party. Since the alliance was sure of victory, its campaign was focused on criticizing the media power of Berlusconi.

Berlusconi's alliance won a decisive victory over the Progressives, becoming the firstcentre-right coalition to win a general election in Italy since the end of the Second World War. Berlusconi's coalition won in the mainregions of Italy: the strongest parties inNorthern Italy were the regionalistNorthern League andForza Italia, which was also able to win in all provinces ofSicily, while theNational Alliance received more votes inSouthern Italy. TheAlliance of Progressive confirmed its predominance in theRed Belt regions ofCentral Italy, and in the South.

← Summary of the 27 March 1994Chamber of Deputies election results→

Results by party Results by coalition
Coalition		Party		Proportional			First-past-the-post			Total seats	+/–
				Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Pole of Freedoms – Pole of Good Government		Forza Italia (FI)	8,136,135	21.01	30[i]	17,746,612	46.09	87	111[j]	New
			Christian Democratic Centre (CCD)						21	27	New
			National Alliance (AN)	5,214,133	13.47	23[k]			87	110	+75
			Northern League (LN)	3,235,248	8.36	11[l]			107	118	+62
		Total seats				64			302	366	–
	Progressives		Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	7,881,646	20.36	38[m]	12.632,680	32.81	87	125[n]	+17
			Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)	2,343,946	6.05	11			27	38	+4
			Federation of the Greens (FdV)	1,047,268	2.70	0			11	11	−5
			Italian Socialist Party (PSI)	849,429	2.19	0			15	15[o]	−77
			The Network (LR)	719,841	1.86	0			8	8	−4
			Democratic Alliance (AD)	456,114	1.18	0			16	16	New
		Total seats				49			164	213	–
	Pact for Italy		Italian People's Party (PPI)	4,287,172	11.07	29	6,019,038	15.63	4	33	−146
			Segni Pact (PS)	1,811,814	4.68	13			0	13	New
		Total seats				42			4	46	–
	South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)			231,842	0.60	0	188,017	0.49	3	3	±0
	Southern Action League (LAM)			59,873	0.15	0	46,820	0.13	1	1	+1
	Aosta Valley (VdA)			—	—	0	43,700	0.11	1	1	±0
Total										630	–

This sectionneeds expansion with: more detailed breakdown of "others". You can help byadding to it.(August 2022)

← Summary of the 27 March 1994Senate of the Republic election results→

Results by party Results by coalition
Coalition		Party		First-past-the-post			Proportional seats	Total seats	+/–
				Votes	%	Seats
	Pole of Freedoms – Pole of Good Government		Northern League (LN)	13,342,940[p]	40.34[q]	128	28	60	+35
			National Alliance (AN)					48	+32
			Forza Italia (FI)					36[r]	New
			Christian Democratic Centre (CCD)					12	New
		Total seats						156	–
	Progressives		Democratic Party of the Left (PDS)	10,881,320	32.90	96	26	76[s]	+12
			Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)					18	−2
			Italian Socialist Party (PSI)					9[t]	−40
			Federation of the Greens (FdV)					7	+3
			Democratic Alliance (AD)					6	New
			The Network (LR)					6	+3
		Total seats						122	–
	Pact for Italy (PpI)			5,519,090	16.69	3	28	31	−64
	Pannella List (LP)			767,765	2.32	0	1	1	+1
	Lombard Alpine League (LAL)			246,046	0.74	0	1	1	±0
	South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP)			217,137	0.66	3	0	3	±0
	Magris List (Magris)			61,400	0.19	1	0	1	New
	Aosta Valley (VdA)			27,493	0.08	1	0	1	±0
Total								315	–

Contrary to its success in the Chamber of Deputies, the Pole failed to win a majority in the Senate. Nevertheless, thefirst Berlusconi government obtained a vote of confidence in the Senate thanks to the abstention of four PPI senators (Vittorio Cecchi Gori,Stefano Cusumano,Luigi Grillo, andTomaso Zanoletti), who decided not to take part in the vote. The vote of the Senators for life was not decisive, as three (Gianni Agnelli,Francesco Cossiga, andGiovanni Leone) voted in favour of the government, three were absent (Carlo Bo,Norberto Bobbio, andAmintore Fanfani) and five voted against (Giulio Andreotti,Francesco De Martino,Giovanni Spadolini,Paolo Emilio Taviani, andLeo Valiani). As a result, the Senate gave Berlusconi 159 votes in favour and 153 against.^[5]

Commenting on the historical significance of Berlusconi's victory, together with the complexity of his alliance, the British historianMartin Clark observed: "It was an extraordinary transformation: 70 per cent of the deputies and senators won seats for the first time. The corrupt old parties were replaced by a 'new Right': 97 businessmen and media executives of FI, 122 small businessmen and artisans of the League, bent on a Sack of Rome, and 109 'post-Fascists,' advocates prominent among them, desperate to preserve 'Italy' from the League and social spending from the free marketeers."^[6]

• Carter, Nick (1998). "Italy: The Demise of Post-War Partyocracy".Political Parties and the Collapse of the Old Orders. State University of New York Press. pp. 71–94.
• Diamanti, Ilvo; Mannheimer, Renato, eds. (1994).Milano a Roma: guida all'Italia elettorale del 1994 (in Italian). Donzelli.
• Parker, Simon (1996). "Electoral Reform and Political Change in Italy, 1991–1994".The New Italian Republic: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi. Routledge. pp. 40–56.

• (in Italian)Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1994 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies - uninominal (compressed ZIP file)
• (in Italian)Ministry of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1994 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies - proportional
• (in Italian)Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1994 Election Results, Senate of the Republic

• General elections in Italy
• 1994 elections in Italy
• March 1994 in Italy

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with short description
• Short description with empty Wikidata description
• Articles to be expanded from August 2022
• All articles to be expanded
• Pages using bar box without float left or float right
• Articles with Italian-language sources (it)