1972 Italian general election

Italian general election, 1972

← 1968 7 May 1972 1976 →
All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 315 (of the 323) seats in the Italian Senate
Turnout	93.2%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Arnaldo Forlani Enrico Berlinguer Francesco De Martino Party Christian Democracy Communist Party Socialist Party Leader since 1969 1972 1963 Leader's seat XVIII - The Marches XX - Latium XI - Romagna Seats won 266 C / 135 S 179 C / 94 S 61 C / 33 S Seat change 0 C / 0 S 5 C / 10 S 30 C / 13 S Popular vote 12,919,270 C 11,465,529 S 9,072,454 C 8,312,828 S 3,210,427 C 3,225,707 S Percentage 38.7% (C) 38.1% (S) 27.1% (C) 27.6% (S) 10.0% (C) 10.7% (S) Swing 0.4% C 0.3% S 0.2% C 2.4% S 4.5% C 4.5% S
Election results maps for the Chamber of Deputies (on the left) and for the Senate (on the right). Light Blue denotes provinces with a Christian Democratic plurality, Red denotes those with a Communist plurality, Gray denotes those with an Autonomist plurality.
Prime Minister before election Giulio Andreotti Christian Democracy Elected Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti Christian Democracy

Giulio Andreotti
Christian Democracy

Giulio Andreotti
Christian Democracy

General elections were held in Italy on 7 May 1972, to select the Sixth Republican Parliament.Democrazia Cristiana (DC) remained stable with around 38% of the votes, as did the Communist Party (PCI) which obtained the same 27% it had in 1968. The Socialist Party (PSI) continued in its decline, reducing to less than 10%. The most important growth was that of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, who nearly doubled its votes from 4.5% to about 9%, after its leader Giorgio Almirante launched the formula of the National Right, proposing his party as the sole group of the Italian right wing. After a dismaying result of less than 2%, against the 4.5% of 1968, the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity was disbanded; a majority of its members joined the PCI.

The electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies was pure party-list proportional representation. Italian provinces were grouped into 32 constituencies, each electing a group of candidates. At constituency level, seats were divided between open lists using the largest remainder method with Imperiali quota. Remaining votes and seats were transferred at national level, where they were divided using the Hare quota, and automatically distributed to best losers into the local lists.