Italian Election Series - 1961 General Elections

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, I'll go with PSI. There's no chance the coalition can reach 50%, anyway.

[Antonio the Sixth]

We already have plenty of votes so far! I'll leave it 24 more hours and see if there is any new vote coming in. The results are pretty amazing already.

[Antonio the Sixth]

PSI: 31.9% (+21.5), 218 seats (+162)
PLI: 22.5% (-1.1), 148 seats (-21)
PCI: 14.4% (+8.6), 85 seats (+53)
PDIUM: 9.1% (-3.2), 61 seats (+4)
Pd'Az: 7.3% (+0.4), 37 seats (-3)
PSDI: 5.4% (-15.6), 39 seats (-106)
MSI: 5.2% (-4.9), 25 seats (-23)
DC: 2.8% (-5), 13 seats (-29)
Others: 1.4%, 4 seats

Five years after a historic performance for the Italian right, the pendulum brutally swung back to the left. Frustrated by stagnating salaries and the government's tight budgetary policies, working class voters turned out in high numbers in favor of the most progressive political forces. The big winner was obviously the Socialist Party, which reaped spectacular benefits from its 1957 turn. With a threefold rise in its support, the PSI reached its second-best result in history, and the best result ever for any party in postwar Italy. The party's level of support was relatively uniform throughout the country, meaning that its comfortable lead over the other parties translated into a sweep of the electoral map. The PSI was stronger in its traditional fief of Southern Lombardy, as well as in the left-wing bastions of Umbria and Tuscany, where it neared 40%. It also did well in the other central regions and in most of the North. Its results were poorer in the inland South and in the most conservative parts of the Northeast - but still extraordinary, as it marked the first time a left-wing party came ahead in the South. The Communist Party also saw an impressive growth, not only recovering from its 1956 low but almost returning to its 1946 peak. The party seemingly attracted voters from the left of the PSI who disapproved the party's abandonment of the "popular front strategy" (although this loss was more than offset by the influx of new or formerly centrist voters to the PSI). PCI naturally did best in the country's red core (Emily, Tuscany, Umbria), but failed to come ahead anywhere due to the PSI's excellent performance in these regions. With 46.3% of the vote and more than 48% of the seats in parliament, the non-governmental left had become the major player of the new legislature.

The incumbent centrist coalition, which had hoped to renew the success of the past five years of governmental stability, saw its hopes crushed by the results. PSDI, Pd'Az and PLI combined did not even come close to the absolute majority of the votes they would have needed to unlock the majority bonus once again, instead falling flat at 35.2%. The most brutal collapse was the PSDI's. Once the leading party of the left and on par with PLI, the party saw its voters massively flock to the PSI. Moderate left-wing voters, disappointed by the government's largely conservative economic policies and attracted by the PSI's new pragmatic approach, massively shunned Saragat's party, which was wiped off the map. Pd'Az suffered the same fate, despite actually gaining a few votes, since its Sardinia followed Lussu in rallying the PSI. On the other hand, PLI remained very strong, only eroding a few votes from its 1956 breakthrough. Right-wing voters seemingly approved of the party's pragmatic approach to government and its defense of free enterprise. Still, due to the geographic uniformity of the party's vote, it only finished ahead in a few constituencies at the country's opposite ends. The rest of the right also had a poor evening. Already at an all-time low, DC experienced an even more brutal collapse, losing over 3/5 of its 1956 vote and largely fading into political irrelevancy. The reunified monarchist party won less than the PNM alone in 1956, though it recaptured its Campania strongholds. Finally, MSI lost nearly half of its vote and was also wiped off the map.

With a radically changed political situation, no one knew for sure what would emerge from this legislature. PCI, PSI and MSI together held more than half of the seats, which effectively made it impossible to form a government without Socialist backing (since no one wanted to deal with either PCI or MSI). Nenni's party had become the kingmaker of the new political scene, but it itself was in a difficult spot. A purely left-wing majority would require cooperation between PCI and PSDI-Pd'Az, something impossible to conceive at that point. In practice, PSI and PLI were forced to work together. But the gap between the parties was so large that it was hard to imagine any stable government ever emerging from their cooperation.