In the 1983 general election the LV gained 4.3% in Veneto: Tramarin was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and Graziano Girardi to the Senate. In the "Pedemontana", the area of the Padanian-Venetian Plain at the feet of the Venetian Prealps, the LV became the second largest party after then-dominant Christian Democracy (DC). This party would be mostly damaged from the rise of the LV as both parties concurred for the support of the middle class. DC regional leader Antonio Bisaglia had proposed a regional party modelled on the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, but opposition from Rome and his sudden death stopped the plan.