Indirect Senate elections were held for 114 of the 343 seats in the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on 21 September 2008. With this election, the number of senators was increased from 331 to 343;

Saint Barthélemy Saint Barthélemy (french: Saint-Barthélemy, ), officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. It is often abbreviated to St. Barth in French, and St. Barts in English ...

and Saint Martin elected two senators each for the first time. Furthermore, this election was the last to be held under the old system: prior to this election, senators were elected in three classes for nine-year terms. Under the new system instituted in 2011, senators are elected for six-year terms in two classes.

New seats

Twelve new seats were filled in this election. They were divided in the following way: 1 new Senator each for the

Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it ...

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and large ...

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's ...

Gironde Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,62 ...

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Guyane French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. It ...

''départements'' and one in

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of Frenc ...

. The election marked the first time that French Polynesia had two seats in the Senate instead of just one. The

President of French Polynesia , flag = , flagsize = , flagcaption = , insignia = Coat of arms of French Polynesia.svg , insigniasize = , insigniacaption = Coat of arms of French P ...

Gaston Tong Sang Gaston Tong Sang (born August 7, 1949 in Bora Bora) is a French politician and is the former President of French Polynesia. He served terms as President of French Polynesia from November 2009 until April 2011, from April 2008 until February 200 ...

and another member of his coalition,

Béatrice Vernaudon Béatrice Vernaudon (born 27 October 1953, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia) French Politician. Béatrice Vernaudon-Coppenrath is a Knight of the Legion of Honour, Legion of Honor. Life She was elected a deputy to the National Assembly of Fran ...

, a former member of the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

who lost her seat in June 2007, contested the seats. Former French Polynesian President

Gaston Flosse Gaston Flosse (born 24 June 1931) is a French politician who has been President of French Polynesia on five separate occasions. He is currently a member of the Senate of France and has been a French junior minister under Jacques Chirac. He receiv ...

ran for his Tahoeraa Huiraatira Party and teamed up with

Richard Tuheiava Richard Ari'ihau Tuheiava (born 28 February 1974) is a French Polynesian lawyer and politician. He represented French Polynesia in the Senate of France from 2008 to 2014, sitting with the Socialist Party. He is now a Member of the Assembly of Fre ...

, a member of the pro-independence party

Union for Democracy Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** Union ...

System

Electoral college

For the 114 seats up for election, the electoral college was composed of 50,720 elected officials (49,602 in metropolitan France). Of these, 48,453 were local councillors, 178 were MPs, 765 were regional councillors and 1,504 were general councillors.

Election

*Departments with 1 to 3 senators:

Two-round system The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

, using the same system as legislative elections. *Departments with 4 or more senators: Proportional representation, highest averages method, no

Panachage Panachage (, from French meaning "blend, mixture") is the name given to a procedure provided for in several open-list variants of the party-list proportional representation system. It gives voters more than one vote in the same ballot and allows ...

preferential voting {{short description, Election systems Preferential voting or preference voting (PV) may refer to different election systems or groups of election systems: * Ranked voting methods, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of pr ...

Result

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" colspan=2 , Parties and coalitions ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Abbr. ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ''a'' ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 2008 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" ,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± , - , - , style="background-color:#0233D2", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Social ...

(''Union pour un mouvement populaire'') , style="text-align:right;" , UMP , style="text-align:right;" , 159 , style="text-align:right;" , 56 , style="text-align:right;" , 151 , style="text-align:right;" , –8 , style="text-align:right;" , 132 , style="text-align:right;" , –19 , - , style="background-color:#4AAAFF", , style="text-align:left;" , Centrist Union-UDF (''Union centriste–Union pour la démocratie française'') , style="text-align:right;" , UC-UDF , style="text-align:right;" , 30 , style="text-align:right;" , 4 , style="text-align:right;" , 29 , style="text-align:right;" , –1 , style="text-align:right;" , 31 , style="text-align:right;" , +2 , - , style="background-color:#E75480", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(''Parti socialiste'') , style="text-align:right;" , PS , style="text-align:right;" , 95 , style="text-align:right;" , 29 , style="text-align:right;" , 116 , style="text-align:right;" , +21 , style="text-align:right;" , 131 , style="text-align:right;" , +15 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, Republican and Citizen (''Communiste, républicain, et citoyen'') , style="text-align:right;" , CRC , style="text-align:right;" , 23 , style="text-align:right;" , 3 , style="text-align:right;" , 23 , style="text-align:right;" , +0 , style="text-align:right;" , 21 , style="text-align:right;" , –2 , - , style="background-color:#00c000;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Europe Écologie–The Greens Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

(''Europe Écologie–Les Verts'') , style="text-align:right;" , VEC , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , +0 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , +0 , style="text-align:right;" , 10 , style="text-align:right;" , +10 , - , style="background-color:#7D05B1", , style="text-align:left;" ,

European Democratic and Social Rally The European Democratic and Social Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et social européen, abbreviated RDSE), formerly the Democratic and European Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et européen), is ...

(''Rassemblement démocratique et social européen'') , style="text-align:right;" , RDSE , style="text-align:right;" , 17 , style="text-align:right;" , 8 , style="text-align:right;" , 17 , style="text-align:right;" , +0 , style="text-align:right;" , 16 , style="text-align:right;" , –1 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total UMP, UC-UDF and one RDSE (Right) , , style="text-align:right;" , 189 , style="text-align:right;" , 60 , style="text-align:right;" , 180 , style="text-align:right;" , –9 , style="text-align:right;" , 164 , style="text-align:right;" , –16 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total "Presidential Majority" PS, CRC, VEC and all but one RDSE (Left) , , style="text-align:right;" , 118 , style="text-align:right;" , 32 , style="text-align:right;" , 139 , style="text-align:right;" , +21 , style="text-align:right;" , 177 , style="text-align:right;" , +38 , - , style="background-color:GRAY", , style="text-align:left;" , Non-Inscrits , style="text-align:right;" , NI , style="text-align:right;" , 6 , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;" , 7 , style="text-align:right;" , +1 , style="text-align:right;" , 7 , style="text-align:right;" , +0 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 331 , style="text-align:right;" , 114 , style="text-align:right;" , 343 , style="text-align:right;" , +12 , style="text-align:right;" , 348 , style="text-align:right;" , +5 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=9 , ''a'' - Seats up for election (Serie A)
Source: Public Senat

References

{{French Senate

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...