Legislative elections took place on 10 and 17 June 2012 (and on other dates for small numbers of voters outside metropolitan France) to select the members of the 14th
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
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 resu ...
.
Background
Presidential election
The elections came a month after the
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pre ...
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 t ...
. Since 2002, legislative elections immediately follow the presidential ones. This was designed to limit the possibility of a
cohabitation
Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...
, whereby the President and his or her Prime Minister, backed by a parliamentary majority, would be of opposite parties. The aim was also to give the new president and his government a "double mandate", the election of the President being followed by that of a parliamentary majority enabling him to implement his policies. This is what happened in 2002 and 2007. Thus, in 2012, the Socialist Party has asked French citizens to "confirm" the result of the presidential election; Hollande's campaign director
Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici (, ; born 16 September 1957) is a French politician who served as the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2 ...
argued it would not make sense to have elected a President only for him to be rendered "powerless" by the legislative election: "This President tomorrow must have a majority with which to govern". By contrast, the
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...
, on the right, has repeatedly asked that the left not be given "all the powers" through this election."Législatives : le PS veut "une majorité nette", l'UMP veut limiter la casse" ''Le Monde'', 8 May 2012 The legislative elections in France are often described as the "third round" of the presidential election."Un " troisième tour " déterminant" ''Ouest France'', 30 May 2012"Législatives. Le "troisième tour" en vue" ''Le Télégramme'', 8 May 2012
Ethnic and gender pluralism
In order to make possible the election of some candidates of non-European ethnic background (North African, Subsaharan African and West Indian) as well as for female candidates, the
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 t ...
had, like in 2007, reserved several constituencies for them, 22 for ethnic minorities and 49% for women.
At the end of the second round, there were 13 metropolitan deputies with non-European ethnic background, including two government members (
Kader Arif
Kader Arif ( ar, قادر عريف; born 3 July 1959 in Algiers) is a French politician of the French Socialist Party (PS) who served as Junior Minister for Veterans to the French Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian from 2012 until 2014. ...
, former Euro MP, and George Pau-Langevin, already deputy since 2007) who will be replaced by their alternate candidates:
*6 with Algerian roots:
Kader Arif
Kader Arif ( ar, قادر عريف; born 3 July 1959 in Algiers) is a French politician of the French Socialist Party (PS) who served as Junior Minister for Veterans to the French Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian from 2012 until 2014. ...
Jean-François Copé
Jean-François Copé (; born 5 May 1964) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Meaux since 1995 with an interruption from 2002 to 2005. He was Government Spokesman between 2002 and 2007, when assumed other tenures in the government—inclu ...
Pierre Lellouche
Pierre Lellouche (born 3 May 1951) is a French lawyer and politician of the Republicans who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Trade under the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Christine Lagarde in the government of Prime Minis ...
(UMP) (and Razzy Hammadi, whose mother is a Tunisian)
*1 with Chadian roots: Seybah Dagoma (PS)
*1 with Brazilian roots: Eduardo Rihan Cipel (PS)
Among the 11 deputies who represent French citizens abroad, one is from Réunion, Corinne Narassiguin (PS), another has Chilean roots, Sergio Coronado (EELV) and a third one has Iranian roots, Pouria Amirshahi (PS).
Electoral system
A total of 6,603 candidates ran for the 577 seats, an average of 11 per constituency. Some 40% are women. The law mandates that every party must have between 49 and 51% of women among its candidates, or have their public funding significantly reduced. "Some parties, among the richest, prefer to pay the fine" rather than comply with this rule, according to Libération. The law also does not take electability into account, and significant numbers of women candidates run in constituencies where their party does not stand a real chance.
French expatriates elected their own MPs for the first time – voting early, from 23 to 26 May or on 2 or 3 June for the first round and from 6 to 12 June or on 16 or 17 June for the second, depending on their location and the method by which they cast their ballot. If an expatriate votes via the Internet, he or she has a week to do so from 23 to 26 May. A
postal ballot
An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online vot ...
may be cast, if received by 31 May in the Americas or by 1 June in the rest of the world. Those who prefer to vote in person in their local consulate must do so on 2 June in the Americas or 3 June in the rest of the world.
The two-round system
Each of the 577 constituencies elects one representative to the National Assembly, in a two-round election. A candidate is elected in the first round if he or she obtains an absolute majority of the vote in his or her constituency ''and'' the votes of at least one quarter of all registered voters in the constituency. If a large number of voters abstain, an absolute majority of the vote may thus not be enough, although this rarely happens. (In the 2012 election, one surprising example was in Martinique's 3rd constituency, where incumbent MP
Serge Letchimy
Serge Letchimy (; born 13 January 1953) is the President of the Executive Council of Martinique and former member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the island of Martinique's 3rd constituency since June 2007, and is a member ...
of the
Martinican Progressive Party
The Martinican Progressive Party (french: Parti progressiste martiniquais, PPM) is a democratic socialist political party in Martinique. It was founded on March 22, 1958 by poet Aimé Césaire after breaking off from the French Communist Party. Th ...
received 63.29% of the vote, but narrowly failed to be immediately elected due to a very low turnout (30.67%).) If no candidate is elected in the first round, then the two candidates who finished first and second in the first round advance automatically to the second for a runoff. They may be joined by the third- or even fourth-placed candidate; the second round is open to any candidate who has obtained the votes of at least 12.5% of ''registered'' voters in the constituency. Low turnouts therefore decrease the likelihood of a three-person runoff (known in France as a ''triangulaire''). In the second round, the candidate who obtains the most votes is elected; an absolute majority is not required. (In the unlikely event of a tie, the elder of the tied candidates is elected.)
Candidates who advance to the second round have the option of withdrawing. Usually this happens in a ''triangulaire'', where the party and/or candidate that finished third in the first round prefers to favour one of the two leading candidates. In the 2012 election, for example, third-placed UMP candidate Roland Chassain in the Bouches-du-Rhônes's 16th constituency withdrew in order to help the National Front candidate defeat the Socialist candidate. In addition, the parties of the mainstream left (Socialist, Greens, Left Front, Radical Party of the Left, various smaller parties) have a long-standing agreement whereby they do not stand against one another in the second round. If two of them advance to the second round in the same constituency, the less-well-placed of the two automatically withdraws. In some cases, this means a ''triangulaire'' is avoided, and the left is united against a single right-wing candidate. In the 2012 election, for example, in the Hauts-de-Seine's 11th constituency, incumbent MP and Left Front candidate
Marie-Hélène Amiable
Marie-Hélène Simone Monique Amiable (born 14 March 1960) is a French politician who has served as the Mayor (France), Mayor of Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine, Bagneux since 2004. She also served as Deputy (France), Member of the National Assembly for ...
narrowly finished second (29.20%) behind Socialist candidate Julie Sommaruga (29.93%). Amiable withdrew, supporting Sommaruga in her runoff against
New Centre
The Centrists (french: Les Centristes, LC), formerly known as New Centre (''Nouveau Centre'', NC) and European Social Liberal Party (''Parti Social Libéral Européen'', PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of ...
candidate Jean-Loup Metton, who had finished third in the first round with enough support to advance to the second (24.15%). In other cases, this rule means that only one candidate remains in the "second round". Thus, Socialist Najia Amzal withdrew in favour of Left Front candidate and incumbent MP
Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet (née Kosellek; born 7 May 1949) is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and she served in the government as Minister of Youth Affairs an ...
Patrick Le Hyaric
Patrick Le Hyaric (born 4 February 1957 in Orléans, Loiret) is a French journalist, politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP), elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency. He is the director of the ne ...
Jean-Luc Laurent
Jean-Luc Laurent (born 23 June 1957) is a French politician formerly of the Citizen and Republican Movement. He was Member of Parliament for Val-de-Marne's 10th constituency from 2012 to 2017.
Political career
He was elected to Parliament in ...
in the Val-de-Marne's 10th constituency; and Green candidate Stéphane Gatignon withdrew in front of the Left Front's incumbent MP
François Asensi
François Asensi (born 1 June 1945) is a French politician who has served as the Mayor of Tremblay-en-France since 1991 and served as Member of the National Assembly for Seine-Saint-Denis' 11th constituency from 1988 to 2017.
Early life
Fran ...
in Seine-Saint-Denis's 4th constituency. In all these cases, no candidate of the right, centre or far right had reached the second round, meaning that the best-placed and sole remaining left-wing candidate was guaranteed to be elected in a one-person "runoff".
Redistricting
The Constitutional Council approved in 2010 the first redistricting of electoral boundaries since 1986 to reflect France's changing demographics. The population ratio between the most populated and least populated constituencies was reduced from 1:3.6 to 1:2. A study by Regards Citoyens indicated that the number of seats increased in areas held by the centre-right coalition led by then governing UMP at the expense of the
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
-led opposition coalition.
Officially, the dual purpose of the redistricting was to ensure a more equal number of voters per constituency, but also to provide seats in the National Assembly to French citizens resident overseas. Thirty-three constituencies were abolished, and thirty-three new ones created. Of the latter, nineteen were in France, while the rest of the world was divided into eleven
constituencies for French residents overseas
The constituencies for French residents overseas (French: ''Circonscriptions législatives des Français établis hors de France'') are eleven constituencies, each electing one member of the National Assembly.
They were created by the 2010 redist ...
.
Parties
Main parties and their aims
The
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 t ...
sought to obtain a parliamentary majority with which to implement its policies. Three possible scenarios could have occurred if the left won overall:
* The Socialist Party has an absolute majority of seats, and can govern alone, without having to rely on the support of smaller left-wing or centre-left parties.
* The Socialist Party has a majority with the support of its government partners:
Europe Ecology – The Greens
Europe Ecology – The Greens (french: Europe Écologie Les Verts , EELV ) is a centre-left to left-wing green political party in France. The party is a member of the European Green Party. The party was formed on 13 November 2010 from the merge ...
, the
Radical Party of the Left
The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Soc ...
(centre-left), and the small Citizen and Republican Movement.
* The Socialist Party and its aforementioned partners lack a majority alone, and require the support of the Left Front in order to govern. The Left Front has indicated that it would never bring down the Socialist government, but that it would not systematically support the government's policies, and would require support for some of its own policy proposals."Les enjeux des législatives, parti par parti" ''Le Monde'', 5 June 2012
The
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...
officially aimed to win the election. Its primary stated aim, however, was to obtain enough seats to prevent the left from having the 3/5ths
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
majority which would enable it to adopt constitutional reforms (such as granting the right to vote to foreign residents in local elections). The UMP's task was complicated by the popularity of the far-right National Front, which the polls indicated could obtain enough support to reach the second round in a large number of constituencies, thus splitting the right-wing vote. (Under French electoral law, in legislative elections, a third party advances to the second round if it obtains the votes of at least 12.5% of ''registered'' voters – i.e., including those who abstain.)
The Left Front aimed to have a sizable group in Parliament, with which to have meaningful influence on the policies of the Socialist government.
The National Front aimed to obtain seats in the Assembly; it had none prior to the election. A secondary aim was to "sow chaos in the UMP" by maintaining candidates in the second round and thus causing the UMP potentially to lose seats. The National Front's stated aim was eventually to replace the UMP as the main party of the right – though opinion polls credit the UMP with at least 209 seats, and the National Front with 8 at most, possibly none at all.
Europe Ecology – The Greens
Europe Ecology – The Greens (french: Europe Écologie Les Verts , EELV ) is a centre-left to left-wing green political party in France. The party is a member of the European Green Party. The party was formed on 13 November 2010 from the merge ...
aimed to form an official parliamentary group, which requires having fifteen members in the Assembly. It had only three members prior to the election.
The Democratic Movement aimed to preserve its three seats, although its earlier ambitions were much higher. Opinion polls suggest the party may disappear from the Assembly completely, and is unlikely to obtain any additional seats.
In all, twelve parties or alliances stood more than a hundred candidates. The Socialist Party had 459 candidates, and endorsed candidates of allied parties in other constituencies. The UMP had 501 candidates, and endorsed candidates of allied parties (most notably the
New Centre
The Centrists (french: Les Centristes, LC), formerly known as New Centre (''Nouveau Centre'', NC) and European Social Liberal Party (''Parti Social Libéral Européen'', PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of ...
) in 69 other constituencies. The Left Front had 531 candidates. Europe Ecologie-The Greens had 465. Marine Le Pen's "Marine Blue Gathering" had 571 candidates, and was thus present in all but six constituencies. Most of these candidates were members of the National Front; others were from small, allied extreme right parties. François Bayrou's "Centre for France" alliance had 340 candidates, most of whom were members of the Democratic Movement."La gauche est favorite, mais quelle gauche ?" ''Le Monde'', 9 June 2012
Also standing over a hundred candidates were:
* Workers' Struggle: 536
* the New Anticapitalist Party: 329
* the Independent Ecological Alliance: 292
*
Arise the Republic
Debout la France (, ; DLF) is a List of political parties in France, French political party founded by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in 1999 under the name Debout la République (''Republic Arise'', DLR) as the "genuine Gaullist" branch of the Rally for t ...
With the prospect of National Front candidates reaching the second round alongside the mainstream candidates of the left and right in a number of constituencies, the Socialist Party announced that it would withdraw its candidate from the second round in those constituencies, if and only if it appeared that the National Front candidate had a realistic prospect of winning. In such cases, the Socialists would support the UMP candidate as part of a "republican front" against the far right. The UMP, by contrast, refrained from saying it would withdraw and support a Socialist candidate in those same circumstances.
Instead, 64% of UMP voters said they would favour an alliance between their own party and the extreme right for the legislative election. Leading figures of the UMP rejected the possibility.
Chantal Jouanno
Chantal Jouanno (née Paul; born 12 July 1969 in Vernon, Eure, France) is a French politician who served as Minister of Sports in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 14 November 2010 and 26 September 2011, succeeding to Rose ...
said she was worried it might be under consideration, leading party leader
Jean-François Copé
Jean-François Copé (; born 5 May 1964) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Meaux since 1995 with an interruption from 2002 to 2005. He was Government Spokesman between 2002 and 2007, when assumed other tenures in the government—inclu ...
to assure her publicly "there will never be an alliance with the National Front". Two days before the first round,
Alain Juppé
Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...
called upon party members to resist the "temptation" of local alliances with the far right, arguing on "moral", "pragmatic" and "tactical grounds", highlighting ideological and policy incompatibility and the National Front's stated aim to "break" and replace the UMP.
The day after the first round, the UMP officially announced its position. The party told its candidates not to withdraw if they had entered the second round in third place behind a Socialist candidate and a candidate of the National Front. In addition, in constituencies where the second round was a runoff between the left and the National Front, the UMP would not support either candidate. Roland Chassain, UMP candidate in the Bouches-du-Rhône's 16th constituency, immediately disobeyed the party line, announcing he was withdrawing from the second round and supporting the National Front candidate. He explained that he considered himself "closer to Marine Le Pen than to the Socialist Party"."A Arles, l'UMP Roland Chassain se retire au profit du FN" ''Le Monde'', 11 June 2012 In the Gard's 2nd constituency, third-placed UMP candidate Etienne Mourrut also publicly considered defying party instructions and withdrawing in favour of National Front candidate Gilbert Collard. Ultimately, he decided to comply with party instructions and remain in the race.
Simultaneously, Nadine Morano (UMP), government minister from 2008 and 2012, asked National Front voters in her constituency to support her on the grounds of the "shared values" between the right and the far right, while UMP mayor of Nice
Christian Estrosi
Christian Paul Gilbert Estrosi (born 1 July 1955) is a French sportsman and politician who has served as Mayor of Nice since 2017, previously holding the office from 2008 to 2016. A former professional motorcyclist, he served as a government m ...
stated that the UMP has "no common values" with the Socialist Party. On 12 June, Morano published an interview in the far right newspaper '' Minute'', calling for "as large a gathering as possible of the right". Another UMP candidate, Jean-Paul Garraud, stated that his party and the National Front had "common beliefs", a statement which was criticised by
Alain Juppé
Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...
as being "in total contradiction" with the stated position of the UMP.
Martine Aubry
Martine Louise Marie Aubry (; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (''Parti Socialiste'', or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor (France), Mayo ...
, the leader of the Socialist Party, said that her party, by contrast, would support candidates of the right against the far right, as a "Republican principle". In Vaucluse's 3rd constituency, she therefore asked Socialist candidate Catherine Arkilovitch, who had entered the second round in third place (21.98%), to withdraw and support second-placed UMP candidate Jean-Michel Ferrand (30.03%), so as to help defeat National Front candidate Marion Marechal-Le Pen (34.63%). Arkilovitch, however, defied her party and refused to withdraw.
Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici (, ; born 16 September 1957) is a French politician who served as the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2 ...
, Socialist Minister of Finance, stated on 12 June that the UMP had lost its way and its values and no longer knew what it stood for, in response to its position on the National Front. Later that same day, Prime Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault
Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...
accused the UMP of "preparing a strategic alliance with the National Front", adding: "I think it was underway with Nicolas Sarkozy, but now the UMP really is at a turning point".
Campaign
The official campaign began, in metropolitan France, on 21 May. In every constituency, each candidate has a billboard outside every polling station, upon which to display a campaign poster. Campaign material is also distributed by candidates' supporters in the streets and in letterboxes, and many campaign posters are illegally displayed in the streets. Transmitting campaign material to voters by e-mail is, however, prohibited. Nationwide, parties represented in the National Assembly prior to the election (i.e., the
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...
New Centre
The Centrists (french: Les Centristes, LC), formerly known as New Centre (''Nouveau Centre'', NC) and European Social Liberal Party (''Parti Social Libéral Européen'', PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of ...
) have the right to broadcast campaign clips on television; an hour and a half is provided for the outgoing parliamentary majority, and an hour and a half for the outgoing opposition. Each side distributes this time as it sees fit between its constituent parties. Parties which are not represented in Parliament but which are standing at least 75 candidates are entitled to seven minutes of broadcast each. Any campaigning whatsoever is forbidden on the eve of the election.
The leaflets of the candidates for the French nationals abroad (''Français établis à l'étranger'') seats were published online on the website of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Opinion polls
Results
Overall
The election was won by the left, providing the new government with an absolute parliamentary majority. The parties of the presidential majority together have 55.97% of seats; with the Left Front providing them with supply and confidence. Among the 577 members of the Assembly, 234 were new. A record number of women were elected: 155 (26.86%). Turnout was 57.23%, a record low.
Wallis and Futuna
Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (; french: Wallis-et-Futuna or ', Fakauvea and Fakafutuna: '), is a French island collectivity in the South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji ...
's single constituency had the highest turnout of any French electorate during the first round on 10 June, with 78% voter participation.
, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"
! colspan="4" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;", Parties and coalitions
! colspan="3", First round
! colspan="3", Second round
! colspan="2", Total
, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"
! width="75", Votes
! width="30", %
! width="30", Seats
! width="75", Votes
! width="30", %
! width="30", Seats
! width="30", Seats
! width="30", %
, -
, style="background-color:#FFC6D5;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="4",
, style="background-color:",
, 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 t ...
Miscellaneous left
Miscellaneous left (', ''DVG'') in France refers to left-wing candidates who are not members of any party or a member of party that has no elected seats. They include either small left-wing parties or dissidents expelled from their parties for ru ...
Europe Ecology – The Greens
Europe Ecology – The Greens (french: Europe Écologie Les Verts , EELV ) is a centre-left to left-wing green political party in France. The party is a member of the European Green Party. The party was formed on 13 November 2010 from the merge ...
Radical Party of the Left
The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Soc ...
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...
Miscellaneous right
Miscellaneous right (', ''DVD'') in France refers to right-wing candidates who are not members of any large party. This can include members of small right-wing parties, dissidents expelled from their party for running against their party's candi ...
New Centre
The Centrists (french: Les Centristes, LC), formerly known as New Centre (''Nouveau Centre'', NC) and European Social Liberal Party (''Parti Social Libéral Européen'', PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of ...
The Socialist Party (along with a small number of affiliated miscellaneous left candidates) obtained 300 seats, an absolute majority. Favoured by electoral alliances with the Socialist Party, its close allies, the Radical Party of the Left and the Citizen and Republican Movement, obtained respectively 13 and 2 seats, for a total of 315. This meant that the Socialists could govern without having to rely on the support of other left-wing parties – the Greens, or the Left Front. ''Le Monde'', 18 June 2012"Estimations du 2nd tour – 17 juin 2012" ''Le Monde''
Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV), part of the government and of the presidential majority, also benefited from an electoral alliance with the Socialists, increasing its number of seats from just 4 to 18. (They immediately lost one, however, as EELV leader Cécile Duflot had to relinquish her seat in order to stay in government, and her seat went to her Socialist running mate.) This enabled the Greens to form an official parliamentary group. They become the third biggest party in the Assembly.
The Left Front, which decided to stand alone after electoral alliance negotiations with the Socialists broke down, lost half its seats (from 19 down to 10), despite a substantial increase in the number of votes its received. It no longer has enough seats (15) to be recognised as a parliamentary group on its own, but formed a group (the Democratic and Republican Left) with five miscellaneous left representatives from French overseas departments and territories: Huguette Bello (representing her own "For Réunion" movement; she is a dissident who left the
Communist Party of Réunion
The Communist Party of Réunion (french: Parti Communiste Réunionnais, PCR) is a communist political party in the French overseas department of Réunion (in the Indian Ocean).
History
PCR was founded in 1959, as the French Communist Party (P ...
Gabriel Serville
Gabriel Serville (born 27 September 1959) is a French-Guianese politician who was elected to the French National Assembly on 16 June 2012 representing French Guiana's 1st constituency.Guianese Socialist Party
The Guianese Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste guyanais, PSG) is a political party in the French '' overseas région'' of French Guiana, in South America.
History
It was founded in 1956 by Justin Catayée, beforehand the founder of the G ...
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...
).
The Union for a Popular Movement (and affiliated miscellaneous right candidates), now the main opposition party, lost 112 seats, and several of its prominent members were defeated. In particular, 20 of the 41 members of the "Popular Right" (hard right) faction of the party standing for re-election lost their seats – most notably, Eric Raoult and Maryse Joissains-Masini. Immediately after the defeat, leading members of the party called for a rethink of its positioning and a reassertion of its values.
Alain Juppé
Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...
stated that the UMP should stand clear on its incompatibility with the National Front;
François Baroin
François Claude Pierre René Baroin (born 21 June 1965) is a French politician and lawyer who served as Finance Minister from 2011 to 2012, following a stint as Budget Minister in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon. A member of ...
and
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005.
He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howeve ...
expressed the same view, adding that the UMP's strong "drift to the right" and increasing proximity with the ideas of the far right had been a mistake. Party leader
Jean-François Copé
Jean-François Copé (; born 5 May 1964) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Meaux since 1995 with an interruption from 2002 to 2005. He was Government Spokesman between 2002 and 2007, when assumed other tenures in the government—inclu ...
, however, replied that he disagreed with these views.
The Democratic Movement (MoDem) lost its leader, François Bayrou, beaten in his own constituency by his Socialist challenger. The party's membership in the Assembly fell from 3 to 2:
Jean Lassalle
Jean Lassalle (; oc, Joan de Lassala; born 3 May 1955) is a French politician who represented the 4th constituency of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2022. A former member of the Democratic Movement ...
(re-elected in the
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...
) and
Thierry Robert
Thierry Jean Bernard Robert (; born 1 April 1977) is a French politician who was elected to the French National Assembly on 17 June 2012 representing the Department of Réunion.
He has been the mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highe ...
(who gained a seat from the UMP in
La Réunion
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
)."Bayrou quitte une Assemblée où le centre perd en influence" ''Le Point'', 17 June 2012 (In
Mayotte
Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...
, incumbent MoDem MP
Abdoulatifou Aly
Abdoulatifou Aly (12 April 1960 – 26 June 2020) was a Malagascar-born French Mahoran politician, a long-term representative of the island of Mayotte at the National Assembly of France, and a member of the executive bureau of the Democra ...
was eliminated with a crushingly low score in the first round.) Bayrou's defeat was seen as a potentially crippling blow not just for his own career, but for the party which he had founded, and for the centre in French politics more generally. All the more so as the two centre-right parties, the New Centre and the Radical Party, both lost seats, despite an electoral alliance with the UMP. The New Centre's representation in the Assembly fell from 25 members to 14, meaning that it would no longer be recognised as a parliamentary group in itself. The Radical Party obtained just 9 seats.
The far right obtained representatives in the Assembly for the first time since the 1997 election. Party leaders Marine Le Pen and
Louis Aliot
Louis Aliot (; born 4 September 1969) is a French politician, a lawyer by profession, and the vice president of the National Rally (previously named National Front) since 16 January 2011. A member of the FN Executive Office, Executive Committee a ...
were defeated, as was party spokesman
Florian Philippot
Florian Philippot (born 24 October 1981) is a French politician. He served as Vice President of the National Front from 2012 to 2017 before quitting the party to found The Patriots in September 2017, which has failed to win any representation ...
Carpentras
Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal Occitan: ''Carpentràs'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; la, Carpentoracte) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. ...
, benefiting from a split opposition due to Socialist candidate Catherine Arkilovitch's refusal, in defiance of party instructions, to withdraw in support of the better-placed UMP candidate. Marine Le Pen's lawyer Gilbert Collard, who is not a member of the National Front but was endorsed by it, was also elected, giving the party two seats (for the first time in twenty-four years). In addition, a former member of the National Front and Movement for France, and now independent far right politician,
Jacques Bompard
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
, was elected in a constituency neighbouring Maréchal-Le Pen's, in the
Vaucluse
Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.
In overseas departments and territories, several local parties gained or maintained representation. The
Guianese Socialist Party
The Guianese Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste guyanais, PSG) is a political party in the French '' overseas région'' of French Guiana, in South America.
History
It was founded in 1956 by Justin Catayée, beforehand the founder of the G ...
won a seat, returning to the Assembly for the first time since 1993. Its MP,
Gabriel Serville
Gabriel Serville (born 27 September 1959) is a French-Guianese politician who was elected to the French National Assembly on 16 June 2012 representing French Guiana's 1st constituency.Martinican Independence Movement obtained two seats (up one from the previous election). Boinali Said, leader of the miscellaneous left "Movement against the high cost of living", won one of the two available seats in
Mayotte
Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...
. In New Caledonia, both seats were won by the centre-right, anti-independence
Caledonia Together
Caledonia Together (french: Calédonie ensemble) is a political party in New Caledonia. The party was established on 14 October 2008 as a split from Future Together led by Philippe Gomès. The party is centrist and opposed to independence.
Fu ...
party, which gained them from the UMP. In French Polynesia, the conservative, pro-autonomy but anti-independence Tahoeraʻa Huiraatira won all three seats.
The far left parties, as well as the Pirate Party and the small environmentalist parties, failed to reach the second round in any constituency.
Gains and losses
Based on notional party affiliation on dissolution after redistricting, regardless of party affiliation on previous election.
Based on notional distribution of seats before dissolution and after the 2010 redistricting, 149 seats switched party (26% of the National Assembly, more than in any of the three previous elections). 8 seats switched from the left to the right, 9 from the extreme-left to the left, 119 from the right to the left, 3 from the right to the extreme-right, 3 from the right to the extreme-left, 2 from Modem to the left, 1 from the right to Modem. Four seats switched party within the left (two from PS to PRG, one from PRG to PS, one from PS to EELV) as a result of coalition agreements.
Notable individual results
Government ministers
It is not compulsory in France for a government minister to obtain an electoral mandate, but ministers usually do seek the legitimacy it implies. As no person may simultaneously be a member of the executive and the legislature, any government minister elected to Parliament must immediately resign from their newly obtained seat in the Assembly, in order to remain a minister. Their running mate then takes their seat, and holds it until and unless they cease to be a minister, whereupon they revert to being a member of the Assembly. Prior to the 2012 election, new Prime Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault
Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...
ruled that any minister who stood in the election and was beaten would have to resign from government. Two ministers,
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (; ar, link=no, نجاة فالو بلقاسم; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a former Moroccan-French jurist and politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who was the first Fre ...
and
Christiane Taubira
Christiane Marie Taubira (; born 2 February 1952) is a French politician who served as Minister of Justice of France in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault and Manuel Valls under President François Hollande from 2012 until 20 ...
, opted to withdraw their candidacies in their respective constituencies. Twenty-five ministers (including Ayrault) did decide to stand, while the remaining eight had never expressed an intention to do so.
All government ministers standing as candidates were elected or re-elected, and were thus able to remain in government. Specifically, they fared as follows:"Le résultat des principaux candidats aux législatives" ''Le Monde'', 11 June 2012
Others
Other notable national political figures fared as follows:
Elected or re-elected:
Beaten:
Notable races
These constituencies attracted particular media interest, due to the presence of a notable candidate facing for example unexpected difficulties, or on the contrary an unexpectedly easy race, or due to the prospect of a significant and meaningful change in fortune for a party. '' Libération'' published a list of "twenty-five constituencies to watch out for", with commentaries.
France 24
France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market.
Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Mo ...
identified eleven "constituencies to watch out for".
Hénin-Beaumont
Hénin-Beaumont (; pcd, Hinnin-Biaumont) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
Geography
Hénin-Beaumont used to be a coalmining town and is now a light industrial town situated some east of L ...
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 t ...
, is not standing for re-election; the Socialist candidate is Philippe Kemel. The Le Pen-Mélenchon duel attracted international media attention, including for what it revealed of attitudes and expectations in an area of northern France hit hard by deindustrialisation and unemployment. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' noted that, in that regard, "Mélenchon blames what he sees as pernicious free-market capitalism and bankers; Le Pen points the finger at immigrants and Europe".
On the first round, Le Pen won a plurality of the vote. The left-wing vote was split, with the Socialist candidate
Philippe Kemel
Philippe Kemel (born 28 June 1948) is a French politician who is the mayor of Carvin and a former member of the National Assembly of France. He is a member of the Socialist Party.
Early life
Kemel was born in Emmerin, Nord.
Kemel completed h ...
receiving more votes than Mélenchon. All three candidates qualified for the run-off, but Mélenchon withdrew and supported Kemel for the second round. Kemel narrowly won the seat (retaining it for the Socialist Party) with 50.1% of the vote, defeating Marine Le Pen.
Pyrénées-Atlantiques 2nd
Attention was also drawn to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques's 2nd constituency, where presidential candidate François Bayrou of the centrist Democratic Movement was hoping to retain his seat. Bayrou had held the seat continuously since 1988, but the press raised the possibility that he might this time be beaten. Until 2002, the mainstream right had not stood a candidate against him, and in 2007 the candidate of the
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...
had withdrawn in his favour in the second round. Following Bayrou's personal endorsement of François Hollande for the second round of the 2012 presidential election, however, the UMP maintained a candidate against him. He also had to contend with a
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
opponent, despite there having been talk in the Socialist Party of not standing a candidate in his constituency, as a gesture of acknowledgment for his endorsement of Hollande.
Bayrou was defeated, with the seat going to Socialist candidate Nathalie Chabanne.
Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election.
Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 201 ...
, the Socialist Party's candidate to the 2007 presidential election (who obtained 32.03% in the first round) and a dissident Socialist, Olivier Falorni (28.91%).
Falorni won the seat, defeating Royal by a comfortable margin.
Paris 4th
In well-off Paris's 4th constituency, the opposite situation arose: the two candidates qualified for the second round were both from the right:
Bernard Debré
Bernard Debré (30 September 194413 September 2020) was a French urologist at Hôpital Cochin and a member ( deputy) of the National Assembly of France. He was one of the representatives of the city of Paris, and was a member of the Union ...
for the UMP (45.07% in the first round), and Brigitte Kuster, a UMP dissident (23.01%). Immediately after the first round, however, Kuster withdrew. There was a second round nonetheless, but with only one candidate, who needed simply to receive one vote in order to be elected. This configuration also happened in several constituencies on the left (see subsection "The two-round electoral system", below).
Hauts-de-Seine 9th
The
Hauts-de-Seine's 9th constituency
The 9th constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine is a French legislative Constituency (France), constituency in the Hauts-de-Seine departments of France, ''département''.
Description
Hauts-de-Seine's 9th constituency is entirely composed of the tow ...
, traditionally a very safe seat for the right, raised unexpected difficulties for UMP candidate and former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant. A dissident member of the UMP, Thierry Solere, contested his legitimacy, stood against him, and reached the second round, precipitating a three-way runoff between two candidates of the right and one of the left.
Solere narrowly won the seat, obtaining votes from the left given Gueant's unpopularity on that side. The total share of the vote for left-wing candidates was 28%, in the first round, plus 4% for the Modem candidate.
Meurthe-et-Moselle 5th
This constituency drew attention due to the behaviour and situation of UMP candidate Nadine Morano, who had been Minister for Professional Training in
François Fillon
François Charles Armand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a retired French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of the Republicans (previously known as the Union ...
's government from 2010 to 2012. She finished second in the first round (34.33%) behind Socialist candidate Dominique Potier (39.29%) and, in the hopes of obtaining more votes in the second, appealed explicitly to the voters of the eliminated National Front, on the grounds of "common values" in what she called a "duel between the right and the left". She defined her common values with far right voters as including "control over immigration, refusing to give foreigners the right to vote" and "the protection of our borders". After she had published an appeal in a far right newspaper, Prime Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault
Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...
and the leader of the Greens and Minister for Housing Cécile Duflot both described her behaviour as symptomatic of a worrying shift of part of the right towards the extreme right; Ayrault accused her of renouncing her party's values to try and save her seat. Her situation made headlines again when humorist Gérald Dahan phoned her, pretending to be National Front vice-president
Louis Aliot
Louis Aliot (; born 4 September 1969) is a French politician, a lawyer by profession, and the vice president of the National Rally (previously named National Front) since 16 January 2011. A member of the FN Executive Office, Executive Committee a ...
, and recorded her expressing her sympathy and closeness to the National Front. François Fillon publicly rebuked her for not having immediately hung up, saying "we don't talk to the leaders of the National Front. We must reject all forms of extremism". Morano hit back, telling him she was a "free politician".
Morano, the incumbent, lost her seat to Socialist candidate Dominique Potier by a 10% margin.
Bouches-du-Rhône 5th
Marie-Arlette Carlotti, junior Minister for the Disabled, stood in this constituency against the UMP incumbent Renaud Muselier, who had held the seat since 1993. On paper, media reported that, of all the twenty-six ministers standing in the legislative elections, she seemed the least likely to win her constituency. Had she lost, she would have had to resign from the government. She was elected with 51.8%, a result which was also described as having a significant impact on local politics in Marseilles. As minister, she would not be able to sit in Parliament; as long as she stays in the government, her seat goes to her running mate, Avi Assouly, locally famous as a former radio football presenter.
Essonne 8th
In addition to Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Bayrou, three candidates from the presidential election were standing in this legislative election.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (; born 7 March 1961), sometimes referred to by his initials NDA, is a French politician serving since 2008 as President of minor party Debout la France. He is its only member of the National Assembly, elected for Essonne' ...
(
Arise the Republic
Debout la France (, ; DLF) is a List of political parties in France, French political party founded by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in 1999 under the name Debout la République (''Republic Arise'', DLR) as the "genuine Gaullist" branch of the Rally for t ...
) finished first in the first round in
Essonne's 8th constituency
The 8th constituency of Essonne is a French legislative constituency in the Essonne department. Its member of the National Assembly has been Nicolas Dupont-Aignan since 1997.
Description
The 8th constituency of Essonne is in the north east of ...
, with 42.82% of the vote, heading into a runoff with Socialist candidate Aude Bristot (30.2%), and eliminating UMP candidate Laurent Béteille (9.52%). In the
Gironde's 5th constituency
The 5th constituency of the Gironde (French: ''Cinquième circonscription de la Gironde'') is a French legislative constituency in Gironde ''département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is ...
Nathalie Arthaud
Nathalie Yvonne Thérèse Arthaud (; born 23 February 1970) is a French secondary school (lycée) economics teacher and politician. Since 2008, she has served as the spokesperson for the Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Struggle), a communist party, and ...
( Workers' Struggle) finished sixth with 2.47%, far behind the Socialist incumbent and former Minister for Social Affairs Élisabeth Guigou (46.12%) and the director of ''
l'Humanité
''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist."
History and profile
Pre-World Wa ...
'',
Patrick Le Hyaric
Patrick Le Hyaric (born 4 February 1957 in Orléans, Loiret) is a French journalist, politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP), elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency. He is the director of the ne ...
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...