Italian general election, 1996

Italian general election, 1996

← 1994 21 April 1996 2001 →
All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 315 seats in the Italian Senate
Turnout	82.88%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Romano Prodi Silvio Berlusconi Umberto Bossi Party Independent Forza Italia Northern League Alliance The Olive Tree Pole for Freedoms Leader's seat Bologna East Milan Centre Milan Centre (lost) Seats won 322 C / 169 S 246 C / 116 S 59 C / 27 S Seat change 63 C / 47 S 26 C / 40 S 58 C / 33 S Coalition vote 16,924,099 C 13,013,276 S 15,095,436 C 12,185,020 S 3,776,354 C 3,394,733 S Percentage 45.4% (C) 39.8% (S) 43.2% (C) 37.3% (S) 10.1% (C) 10.4% (S)
Legislative election results map. Red denotes provinces with a Democratic Socialist plurality, Azure denotes those with a Forza Italia plurality, Blue denotes those with a National Alliance plurality, Green denotes those with a Lega Nord plurality, Yellow denotes those with a Populars plurality, Cyan denotes those with a Christian Democratic plurality.
Prime Minister before election Lamberto Dini Independent Elected Prime Minister Romano Prodi The Olive Tree

Lamberto Dini
Independent

Romano Prodi
The Olive Tree

A snap national general election was held in Italy on 21 April 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Romano Prodi, leader of the centre-left coalition The Olive Tree, won the election, narrowly defeating Silvio Berlusconi, who led the Pole for Freedoms centre-right coalition.

For the election, the Lega Nord of Umberto Bossi ran alone, after having left the Berlusconi I Cabinet in 1994, causing a crisis which drove President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to appoint a technocratic cabinet led by Lamberto Dini, which in turn lost its Parliamentary support in 1995, forcing Scalfaro to dissolve the Italian Parliament. The Communist Refoundation Party, led by Fausto Bertinotti, instead made a pre-electoral alliance with The Olive Tree, presenting its own candidates, supported by Prodi's coalition, mainly in some safe leftist constituencies, in exchange for supporting Olive Tree candidates on the other ones, and ensuring external support for a Prodi government.

The intricate electoral system of Italy, nicknamed as Mattarellum (after Sergio Mattarella, who was the official proponent), provided a 75% of the seats on the Chamber of Deputies (the Lower House) as elected by a plurality voting system, whereas the remaining 25% was assigned by proportional representation with a minimum threshold of 4%. If possible, the method associate on the Senate was even more complicated: 75% of seats by uninominal method, and 25% by a special proportional method that actually assigned the remaining seats to minority parties.