Legislative elections in France (French: élections législatives en France), or general elections (French: élections générales) per the Constitution's wording, determine who becomes Members of Parliament, each with the right to sit in the National Assembly, which is the lower house of the French Parliament.[1]

Legislative elections under the Fifth Republic

Constituencies

The total number of constituencies has varied since 1958 but since the 1986 electoral reform re-establishing the two-round system for legislative elections, the total number of constituencies is 577. The last electoral boundaries readjustment dates back to 2010.

Out of the 577 existing constituencies, there are:

  • 539 constituencies in metropolitan France;
  • 27 constituencies in the Overseas;
  • 11 constituencies for French people living abroad.

Moreover, the French Constitution sets the maximum number of MPs to 577.

Timing

MPs are elected for a five-year-term.

Following the reduction of the presidential term's length from 7 to 5 years after the 2000 referendum, a 2001 organic law has set the expiration of the outgoing National Assembly's powers on the third Tuesday of June of the fifth year following the last general election. The government sets the election dates by decree.

Legislative elections need to be held during the 60-day period preceding the expiration of the outgoing Assembly's powers. Therefore, legislative elections are usually held in June, some weeks after the presidential election. Until the electoral calendar reform of 2001, legislative elections, apart from early elections, were usually held in March.

Besides, per the French Constitution (article 12), the President has the power to dissolve the National Assembly after consulting with the Prime minister and the heads of the lower and upper houses of Parliament. The Constitution does not set limits on that power apart from prohibiting another dissolution from occurring less than a year after the last one. General elections have to be held necessarily from 20 to 40 days after the Assembly has been formally dissolved.

As of 2023, the last snap legislative election dates back to 1997 when President Jacques Chirac dissolved the National Assembly a year early.

Electoral system

Along with the establishment of the Fifth Republic, the two-round system (TRS) was established as the country's voting system for legislative/general elections in 1958.

MPs are elected in single-member constituencies. A candidate who receives an absolute majority of valid votes and a vote total greater than 25% of the registered electorate is elected in the first round. If no candidate reaches this threshold, a runoff election is held between the top two candidates plus any other candidate who received a vote total greater than 12.5% of registered voters. The candidate who receives the most votes in the second round is elected.[2]

Since then, every legislative election, apart from the 1986 list-PR election, used TRS.

List of general elections in French history

Kingdom of France & First Republic

1791
136 345 264
1792
200 389 160
1795
63 54 33
1797
28 44 105
1798
106 44
1799
30 240 150 80

Bourbon Restoration & July Monarchy

  Third Party
May 1815
40 510 80
August 1815
50 350
1816
20 10 136 92
1820
80 194 160
1824
17 413
1827
170 260
1830
274 282
1831
73 282 104
1834
75 50 320 15
1837
19 142 56 64 168 15
1839
240 199 20
1842
193 266
1846
168 290

1848 Provisional Government & Second Republic

1848
80 600 200
1849
180 75 450

Second Empire

1852
3 253 7
1857
7 276
1863
17 251 15
1869
30 212 41

Third Republic

  PUP
  PCF
  SFIO
  Far-Left / Radicals and Socialists / Radical Socialists
  SI / PRS
  Miscellaneous
  SE
  PDP
  FR
1871
38 112 72 20 214 182
1876
27 98 193 48 15 22 76 40 15 24
1877
27 73 147 66 3 111 38 56
1881
48 1 47 170 157 44 8 44 38
1885
60 40 200 83 65 63 73
1889
57 13 69 214 14 3 169 37
1893
67 41 99 242 30 27 61 14
1898
97 55 86 232 5 53 39 14
1902
43 104 129 62 127 89 35
1906
54 20 132 115 90 66 78 30
1910
75 24 261 1 66 30 131 7
1914
5 102 22 192 66 77 50 88
1919
68 26 86 107 21 29 183
1924
26 104 44 139 123 29 116
1928
11 102 60 125 180 24 100
1932
9 10 132 43 160 121 49 83
1936
6 72 149 44 115 82 42 100

Provisional Government of the French Republic & Fourth Republic

  PCF
  SFIO
  Miscellaneous
  RGR
  MRP
  CNIP
  PRL
  RPF / CNRS / UNR
  UFF
1945
159 146 60 6 151 64
June 1946
151 127 31 9 166 61
November 1946
182 102 69 29 173 72
1951
103 107 90 95 96 121 13
1956
150 95 77 14 7 83 95 22 52

Fifth Republic

Election President Electoral system Winning party/coalition Government vote share
(1st round)		 Seat majority Turnout
1958 René Coty[lower-alpha 1]
(1954–1959)
 Two-round
system		 UNR-CNIP-MRP and allies 43.1%
402 / 576 (70%)
 77.2%
(1st round)
76.3%
(2nd round)
1962[lower-alpha 2] Charles de Gaulle
(1959–1969)
 UNR/UDT-RI 38.9%
268 / 482 (56%)
 68.7%
(1st round)
72%
(2nd round)
1967 UDR-FNRI-DVD 37.8%
259 / 487 (53%)
 80.9%
(1st round)
79.7%
(2nd round)
1968[lower-alpha 3] UDR-FNRI-DVD 47.8%
367 / 487 (75%)
 80%
(1st round)
77.8%
(2nd round)
1973 Georges Pompidou
(1969–1974)
 UDR-MR-FNRI-CDP-DVD 41.2%
302 / 490 (62%)
 81.2%
(1st round)
81.9%
(2nd round)
1978 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
(1974–1981)
 RPR-UDF 46.5%
277 / 491 (56%)
 82.8%
(1st round)
84.7%
(2nd round)
1981[lower-alpha 4] François Mitterrand
(1981–1995)
 PS-PCF-MRG-DVG 54.4%
329 / 491 (67%)
 70.7%
(1st round)
74.5%
(2nd round)
1986 List-PR RPR-UDF-DVD[lower-alpha 5] 44.8%
290 / 577 (50%)
 78.5%
1988[lower-alpha 6] Two-round
system		 PS-MRG-DVG
(minority government)[lower-alpha 7]		 37.5%
275 / 577 (48%)
 65.7%
(1st round)
69.9%
(2nd round)
1993 Union for France[lower-alpha 8] 42.9%
472 / 577 (82%)
 68.9%
(1st round)
67.6%
(2nd round)
1997[lower-alpha 9] Jacques Chirac
(1995–2007)
 Plural Left[lower-alpha 10] 43.1%
319 / 577 (55%)
 67.9%
(1st round)
71.1%
(2nd round)
2002 Union for the Presidential Majority 43.4%
389 / 577 (67%)
 64.4%
(1st round)
60.3%
(2nd round)
2007 Nicolas Sarkozy
(2007–2012)
 UMP-NC-MPF-DVD 45.6%
343 / 577 (59%)
 60.4%
(1st round)
60%
(2nd round)
2012 François Hollande
(2012–2017)
 PS-PRG-EELV-DVG 39.9%
328 / 577 (57%)
 57.2%
(1st round)
55.4%
(2nd round)
2017 Emmanuel Macron
(2017–present)
 LREM-MoDem-PRG 32.3%
351 / 577 (61%)
 48.7%
(1st round)
42.6%
(2nd round)
2022 Ensemble
(minority government)[lower-alpha 11]		 25.8%
251 / 577 (44%)
 47.5%
(1st round)
46.2%
(2nd round)


  PCF
  LFI
  PSU
  FGDS
  SFIO
  PS
  PRG
  TDP
  Miscellaneous
  Vacant
  REN
  CD
  UDF / MoDem
  LC
  UDI
  UDR
  RPR
  RI
  UMP / LR
  RN
1958
10 40 37 1 57 132 189
1962
41 2 65 44 6 36 233 28 27
1967
73 4 117 9 41 243
1968
34 57 9 33 354
1973
73 1 102 12 30 272
1978
86 104 10 17 121 150
1981
44 283 17 62 85
1986
35 206 2 23 127 149 35
1988
27 260 9 23 2 129 126 1
1993
24 53 50 207 242 1
1997
35 7 255 12 16 112 139 1
2002
21 3 140 7 20 29 357
2007
15 4 186 7 27 3 22 313
2012
7 17 280 12 6 45 2 12 194 2
2017
10 17 1 30 3 28 308 42 18 112 8
2022
12 72 21 26 1 3 64 150 48 27 3 61 89

References

  1. ↑ "Connaissance de l'Assemblée : L'élection des députés". www.assemblee-nationale.fr. Retrieved 2021-01-10.
  2. ↑ "Elections: France National Assembly 2017 (first round)". Election Guide. International Foundation for Electoral Systems. 11 June 2017. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2022.

Notes

  1. ↑ Coty was the last President of the Fourth Republic. Nonetheless, thanks to transitory constitutional provisions, he remained in office until handing over to his successor in January 1959.
  2. ↑ Snap election
  3. ↑ Snap election
  4. ↑ Snap election
  5. ↑ Cohabitation
  6. ↑ Snap election
  7. ↑ Hung parliament
  8. ↑ Cohabitation
  9. ↑ Snap election
  10. ↑ Cohabitation
  11. ↑ Hung parliament

See also

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