electionstracker

Italy 1972 parliamentary election

What was the result of the 1972 parliamentary election in Italy?

Christian Democracy won 266 of 630 seats with 38.7% of the vote. 93.2% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Italy
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Christian Democracy won 266 of 630 seats with 38.7% of the vote; 93.2% of registered voters cast a ballot, up 0.4 points on 1968.

  • Christian Democracy 266 0 seats 38.7% −0.4 points
  • Italian Communist Party 179 +2 seats 27.2% +0.3 points
  • Italian Socialist Party 61 −30 seats 9.6% −4.9 points
  • Italian Social Movement 56 +32 seats 8.7% +4.2 points
  • Italian Democratic Socialist Party 29 5.1%
  • Italian Liberal Party 20 −11 seats 3.9% −1.9 points
  • Italian Republican Party 15 +6 seats 2.9% +0.9 points
  • Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity 0 −23 seats 1.9% −2.6 points
  • South Tyrolean People's Party 3 0 seats 0.5% 0.0 points
  • Valdostan Union 1 0.1%
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Italy 1968 parliamentary election, party by party.

316 of 630 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 38.7%

    Share of the vote won by Christian Democracy

    Christian Democracy won 266 of 630 seats. A majority needs 316.

  2. +32 seats

    Seats gained by Italian Social Movement

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1968. Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity lost 23 seats.

  3. 93.2%

    Voter turnout

    Up 0.4 points on 1968.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Christian Democracy266038.7−0.412,912,466
Italian Communist Party179+227.2+0.39,068,961
Italian Socialist Party61−309.6−4.93,208,497
Italian Social Movement56+328.7+4.22,894,722
Italian Democratic Socialist Party295.11,718,142
Italian Liberal Party20−113.9−1.91,300,439
Italian Republican Party15+62.9+0.9954,357
Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity0−231.9−2.6648,571
South Tyrolean People's Party300.50.0153,674
Valdostan Union10.134,083

± is the change against the Italy 1968 parliamentary election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Christian Democracy 12,912,466
  • Italian Communist Party 9,068,961
  • Italian Socialist Party 3,208,497
  • Italian Social Movement 2,894,722
  • Italian Democratic Socialist Party 1,718,142
  • Italian Liberal Party 1,300,439
  • Italian Republican Party 954,357
  • Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity 648,571
  • South Tyrolean People's Party 153,674
  • Valdostan Union 34,083

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

93.2% of the 37,049,351 registered voters cast a ballot (34,532,535 ballots), up 0.4 points on 1968. 33,403,528 of them were valid votes. The highest turnout since 1958 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Christian Democracy38.7% of votes42.2% of seats
  • Italian Communist Party27.2% of votes28.4% of seats
  • Italian Socialist Party9.6% of votes9.7% of seats
  • Italian Social Movement8.7% of votes8.9% of seats
  • Italian Democratic Socialist Party5.1% of votes4.6% of seats
  • Italian Liberal Party3.9% of votes3.2% of seats
  • Italian Republican Party2.9% of votes2.4% of seats
  • South Tyrolean People's Party0.5% of votes0.5% of seats
  • Valdostan Union0.1% of votes0.2% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 3.0 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 4.1 by votes and 3.6 by seats; Christian Democracy led Italian Communist Party by 11.5 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of