President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro decided to begin consultations to form a government, supported by all the parties in the Italian Parliament to make constitutional reforms. In a TV debate on 19 January 1996, both Silvio Berlusconi and Democratic Party of the Left leader Massimo D'Alema supported constitutional reforms; however, there were many problems on this theme in both coalition, as Gianfranco Fini and Romano Prodi wanted a snap election, not sure that the reforms would be helpful for the country. On 16 February 1996, a snap election was called. Campaign On 19 February 1996, the outgoing Prime Minister Lamberto Dini announced that he would run in the election with a new party allied with The Olive Tree rather than Berlusconi's Pole of Freedoms. Shortly after, Berlusconi claimed that Dini "copied our electoral programme". Another important declaration was that of Umberto Bossi, the leader of the regionalist Northern League, which was very important in 1994 to help Berlusconi winning the election. Bossi said that his party would not support Berlusconi anymore and run alone in the election. At the same time, Prodi's coalition made a pre-electoral agreement with Communist Refoundation Party in which Fausto Bertinotti's party undertook to support Prodi's government after the election in case of no parliamentary majority. On 25 March 1996, Berlusconi organised a manifestation in Milan against taxes (The Tax Day) attended by many Milanese artisans; on the same day in Turin, Prodi was heavily contested during his electoral speech and accused of not wanting to lower taxes. Main coalitions and parties Coalitions' leaders Results Chamber of Deputies Overall results Proportional and FPTP results Senate of the Republic Maps Notes References External links Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1996 Election Results, Chamber of Deputies (compressed ZIP file) Minister of Internal Affairs of Italy: 1996 Election Results, Senate of the Republic (compressed ZIP file) General election April 1996 events in Europe 1996