Legislature VIII of Italy

Legislature VIII of Italy VIII legislatura della Repubblica Italiana
8th legislature
Type
Type	bicameral
Houses	Chamber of Deputies Senate of the Republic
History
Founded	20 June 1979 (1979-06-20)
Disbanded	11 July 1983 (1983-07-11) (4 years, 21 days)
Preceded by	VII Legislature
Succeeded by	IX Legislature
Leadership
President of the Senate	List Amintore Fanfani, DC (20 June 1979 – 1 December 1982) Tommaso Morlino, DC (9 December 1982 – 6 May 1983) Vittorino Colombo, DC (9 May 1983 – 11 July 1983)
President of the Chamber of Deputies	Nilde Iotti, PCI
Structure
Seats	630 (C) 315+ (S)
Chamber of Deputies political groups	DC (262)   PCI (201)   PSI (62)   MSI (30)   PSDI (20)   PR (18)   PRI (16)   PLI (9)   PdUP (6)   Others (6)
Senate political groups	DC (138)   PCI (109)   PSI (32)   MSI (13)   PSDI (9)   PRI (6)   PLI (2)   PR (2)   Others (4)
Elections
Chamber of Deputies voting system	Proportional
Senate voting system	Proportional
Last general election	3 June 1979
Meeting place
Palazzo Montecitorio, Rome (C)
Palazzo Madama, Rome (S)
Website
Eighth Legislature – Chamber of Deputies Eighth Legislature – Senate
Constitution
Constitution of Italy

The Legislature VIII of Italy (Italian: VIII Legislatura della Repubblica Italiana) was the 8th legislature of the Italian Republic, and lasted from 20 June 1979 until 11 July 1983.^[1][2] Its composition was the one resulting from the general election of 3 June 1979.

Main chronology

The legislature saw the birth of a new political coalition that would have characterized the Italian politics during the 1980s. The so-called Pentapartito began in 1981 at a meeting of the Congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), when the christian democrat Arnaldo Forlani and socialist Bettino Craxi signed an agreement with the "blessing" of Giulio Andreotti. As the agreement was signed in a trailer, it was called the "pact of the camper." The pact was soon defined "CAF" for the initials of the signers: Craxi–Andreotti–Forlani. With this agreement, the DC recognized the equal dignity of the so-called "secular parties" of the majority (i.e., the Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals and Republicans) and also guaranteed an alternation of government with them. In June 1981 republican Giovanni Spadolini became the first non-christian democrat to sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy.

With the birth of the Pentapartito, the possibility of the growth of the majority toward the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was finally dismissed.

During this legislature, the list of who belonged to the secret lodge P2 was published. The P2 was a Masonic lodge founded in 1945 that, by the time its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, had transformed into a clandestine, pseudo-Masonic, ultraright^[3][4][5] organization operating in contravention of Article 18 of the Constitution of Italy that banned secret associations. In its latter period, during which the lodge was headed by Licio Gelli, P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the Vatican-affiliated Banco Ambrosiano, the murders of journalist Mino Pecorelli and banker Roberto Calvi, and corruption cases within the nationwide bribe scandal Tangentopoli. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of Michele Sindona's financial empire.^[6]

P2 was sometimes referred to as a "state within a state"^[7] or a "shadow government".^[8] The lodge had among its members prominent journalists, Members of Parliament, industrialists, and military leaders—including Silvio Berlusconi, who later became Prime Minister of Italy; the Savoy pretender to the Italian throne Victor Emmanuel;^[9] and the heads of all three Italian intelligence services (at the time SISDE, SISMI and CESIS).

When searching Licio Gelli's villa in 1982, the police found a document called the "Plan for Democratic Rebirth", which called for a consolidation of the media, suppression of trade unions, and the rewriting of the Italian Constitution.^[10]

The scandal subsequent the discovery of the members of the lodge brought to a deep crisis between the main political parties which were part of the government and ended with the official dissolution of the lodge with the Law 25 January 1982, n. 17.

Government

Prime Minister			Party	Term of office		Government	Composition
				Took office	Left office
		Francesco Cossiga (1928–2010)	Christian Democracy	4 August 1979	4 April 1980	Cossiga I	DC  • PSDI  • PLI (with PSI and PRI's external support)
				4 April 1980	18 October 1980	Cossiga II	DC  • PSI  • PRI
		Arnaldo Forlani (b. 1925)	Christian Democracy	18 October 1980	28 June 1981	Forlani	DC  • PSI  • PSDI  • PRI (Organic Centre-left)
		Giovanni Spadolini (1925–1994)	Italian Republican Party	28 June 1981	23 August 1982	Spadolini I	DC  • PSI  • PSDI  • PLI  • PRI (Pentapartito)
				23 August 1982	1 December 1982	Spadolini II
		Amintore Fanfani (1908–1999)	Christian Democracy	1 December 1982	4 August 1983	Fanfani V	DC  • PSI  • PSDI  • PLI (with PRI's external support)

Parliamentary composition

Chamber of Deputies

• President: Nilde Iotti (PCI), elected on 20 June 1979
• Vice Presidents: Loris Fortuna (PSI, till 1 December 1982), Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (DC), Maria Eletta Martini (DC), Aldo Aniasi (PSI, from 14 December 1982), Pier Luigi Romita (PSDI, till 18 October 1980), Luigi Preti (PSDI, from 14 December 1980)

Parliamentary groups in the Chamber of Deputies

Initial composition[11] (20 June 1979)					Final composition[11] (11 July 1983)
Parliamentary group			Seats		Parliamentary group			Seats	Change
	Christian Democracy		262			Christian Democracy		263	1
	Italian Communist Party		201			Italian Communist Party		193	8
	Italian Socialist Party		62			Italian Socialist Party		61	1
	Italian Social Movement		30			Italian Social Movement		29	1
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party		20			Italian Democratic Socialist Party		19	1
	Radical Party		18			Radical Party		11	7
	Italian Republican Party		16			Italian Republican Party		15	1
	Italian Liberal Party		9			Italian Liberal Party		9
	Proletarian Unity Party		6			Proletarian Unity Party		6
	Mixed		6			Mixed		24	18
		Südtiroler Volkspartei	4				Südtiroler Volkspartei	4
		List for Trieste	1				List for Trieste	1
		Union valdôtaine	1				Union valdôtaine	1
							Independent Left	11	11
							Independent–Non inscrits	7	7
Total seats			630		Total seats			630

Senate of the Republic

Presidents of the Senate: Amintore Fanfani (1979–1982), Tommaso Morlino (1982–1983), Vittorino Colombo (1983)

• Presidents:
  • Amintore Fanfani (DC), elected on 20 June 1979 and resigned on 1 December 1982;
  • Tommaso Morlino (DC), elected on 9 December 1982 and deceased in office on 6 May 1983;
  • Vittorino Colombo (DC), elected on 9 May 1983.
• Vice Presidents: Luigi Carraro (DC, till 8 November 1980), Adriano Ossicini (SI), Dario Valori (PCI), Giuseppe Ferralasco (PSI, till 6 December 1982), Tommaso Morlino (DC, from 21 January 1981 until 9 December 1982), Alberto Cipellini (PSI, from 16 December 1982), Vittorino Colombo (DC, from 20 January 1983 until 9 May 1983)

Parliamentary groups in the Senate of the Republic

Initial composition[12] (20 June 1979)					Final composition[12] (11 July 1983)
Parliamentary group			Seats		Parliamentary group			Seats	Change
	Christian Democracy		138			Christian Democracy		138
	Italian Communist Party		109			Italian Communist Party		94	15
	Italian Socialist Party		32			Italian Socialist Party		32
	Italian Social Movement		13			Italian Social Movement		13
	Italian Democratic Socialist Party		9			Italian Democratic Socialist Party		9
	Italian Republican Party		6			Italian Republican Party		6
	Mixed		8			Mixed		23	15
		Italian Liberal Party	2				Italian Liberal Party	2
		Radical Party	2				Radical Party	2
		Südtiroler Volkspartei	3				Südtiroler Volkspartei	3
		Union valdôtaine	1				Union valdôtaine	1
							Independent Left	15	15
Total seats			315		Total seats			315

Senators for Life

References