About the election
The vote was triggered when the Five Star Movement abruptly withdrew its support for Mario Draghi’s technocratic government, but an election was due next year in any event.
The last election, in 2018, brought the Five Star Movement to power, in coalition with Matteo Salvini’s rightwing populist League. Salvini later withdrew from the coalition, and Five Star formed a new government with the centre-left Democratic party. Then, in 2021, almost all parties supported the appointment of Mario Draghi as prime minister.
Italy has a truly bicameral parliament, in which the chamber of deputies and the senate have equal influence; any law must be approved by both, and any government must have the support of both.
Since 2018, the size of both chambers has been reduced, but electoral law is the same. Two thirds of seats are assigned proportionally, while the rest are assigned in first-past-the-post constituencies. This penalises smaller parties, and leads to the formation of strategic alliances aimed at winning in the single-member constituencies. Electoral alliances have no bearing on parties once members are elected, and won’t necessarily mirror the composition of the next government coalition.
Constituencies are broadly based on population, with exceptions to guarantee representation for two semi-autonomous regions, Val d’Aosta and Trentino-Alto Adige, and a small number of seats in each chamber representing Italians who live overseas.
These results are the official results as released by the interior ministry, not the projections which broadcasters and others make based on samples of results.
