1996 Italian general election

1996 Italian general election

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All 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 316 seats needed for a majority 315 seats in the Senate 163 seats needed for a majority[a]
Registered	48,744,846 (C) · 42,889,825 (S)
Turnout	40,401,774 (C) · 82.9% (3.4 pp) 35,260,803 (S) · 82.2% (3.6 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Romano Prodi Silvio Berlusconi Party Independent Forza Italia Alliance The Olive Tree Pole for Freedoms Leader since 6 March 1995 18 January 1994 Leader's seat Bologna (C) Milan (C) Seats won 285 (C) / 157 (S) 246 (C) / 116 (S) Seat change 20 (C) / 4 (S) 26 (C) / 40 (S) Popular vote 15,747,455 (C) 13,434,607 (S) 15,027,030 (C) 12,185,020 (S) Percentage 42.0% (C) 41.2% (S) 40.1% (C) 37.3% (S)   Third party Fourth party   Leader Umberto Bossi Fausto Bertinotti Party Lega Nord Communist Refoundation[c] Alliance — Progressives Leader since 4 December 1989 22 January 1994 Leader's seat Lombardy (C)[b] Piedmont (C) Seats won 59 (C) / 27 (S) 35 (C) / 10 (S) Seat change 58 (C) / 33 (S) 3 (C) / 8 (S) Popular vote 3,776,354 (C) 3,394,733 (S) 3,213,748 (C) 934,974 (S) Percentage 10.1% (C) 10.4% (S) 8.5% (C) 2.8% (S)
Results of the single-member constituencies in the Chamber of Deputies (left) and Senate (right)
Prime Minister before election Lamberto Dini Independent Prime Minister after the election Romano Prodi The Olive Tree

The 1996 Italian general election was held 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 The Olive Tree, won the election, narrowly defeating Silvio Berlusconi, who led the centre-right Pole for Freedoms.

For the election, the Northern League 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, 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.
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