The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th

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 ...

of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions. Early first-round results projected a large majority for

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP and its allies; however, second-round results showed a closer race and a stronger left. Nevertheless, the right retained its majority from 2002 despite losing some 40 seats to the

Socialists 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 eco ...

. Taking place so shortly after the presidential poll, these elections provided the newly elected president with a legislative majority in line with his political objectives – as was the case in 2002, when presidential victor Jacques Chirac's UMP party received a large majority in the legislative elections. It is the first time since the

1978 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1978. Africa * 1978 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1978 Comorian legislative election * 1978 Comorian presidential election * 1978 Egyptian protection of national unity and social peace refer ...

that the governing coalition has been returned after a second consecutive election. The majority, however, was slimmer than the "blue wave" predicted by opinion polls (blue being the colour of French conservatives).

Election system

The procedure by which deputies are elected is a mixture of

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

and run-off systems. A candidate must take an absolute majority (more than 50%) in their constituency to win in the first round, and receive the support of at least 25% of all registered voters. Otherwise, if they get at least 12.5% of the votes of all registered voters in the first round, or are one of the top two candidates remaining, they go through to the second round, where only a simple plurality is needed to win. In most cases, there are only two candidates remaining for the second round: one left-wing (generally from 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 ...

) and one right-wing (generally from 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 ...

). ''Triangulaires'' happen when a third candidate reaches the second round and refuses to either abandon his candidacy or to enter any form of electoral alliance. In 2007, only one constituency experienced a ''triangulaire'' in the second round (in which

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 ...

, a

MoDem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

candidate, was elected). The Constitutional Council had beforehand warned the government of the necessity to renew the electoral map, as the 577 electoral districts are made on the basis of the 1982 census of the population (thus being 25 years late on the current spread-out of the population). Because of this miscorrelation between the electoral map and the geographical map of the population, a deputy would need only 5,000 votes to be elected in some districts (such as in Saint-Barthélemy) while it would need 180,000 votes in others (such as the

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobig ...

). The Constitutional Council noted that this contradicted article 6 of the 1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

as well as articles 3 and 24 of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

Campaign

Opinion polls and seat projections gave

Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP-led coalition a wide lead, sometimes nearing three-quarters of all 577 seats. The UMP polled marginally above 40%, around a 10-point increase over its score of 33% in the first round of the 2002 elections. Prime Minister

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 ...

, also a candidate in

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

, led the UMP campaign. On the far-right, following

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

's relatively low score in the presidential election, the National Front tried to regain lost ground in the legislative election, but opinion polls gave the FN only 4 or 5 per cent of votes, one of its lowest scores in a general election.

Socialist Party

The

's defeated 2007 presidential candidate,

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 ...

, also campaigned on behalf of her party, even though she did not run for re-election as a deputy in

Deux-Sèvres Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019.

. The Socialists sought to prevent the UMP from winning too wide a majority that would give Sarkozy "full powers".

Union for French Democracy

Between the two rounds of the presidential election, the UDF leader François Bayrou had announced the creation of a new political party, the Democratic Movement (MoDem), and refused to continue the alliance between centrists and the UMP. This strategy was dangerous for the centrist MPs, one month before the legislative election. The ballot system for the election of the deputies favoured the coalitions to the detriment of the isolated parties. In this, contrary to Bayrou, the most part of the UDF deputies and senators called to vote for Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round of the presidential election, then joined the "Presidential Majority" and founded 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 ...

. Incumbent president of the UDF group in the

Hervé Morin Hervé Morin (born 17 August 1961) is a French politician of the Centrists who has been serving as the first President of the Regional Council of Normandy since January 2016. Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was the Minister of Defence. Po ...

, led this new political formation and was nominated Defense Minister. For the first time, François Bayrou was challenged by a right-wing candidate in his constituency. Interest in one local election race surrounded Gérard Vignoble of the UDF, who had represented

Roubaix Roubaix ( or ; nl, Robaais; vls, Roboais) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial commune in the Nord department, which grew rapidly in the 19th century ...

since 1988. Vignoble announced that he would not stand again since this would put him against

cardiologist Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular ...

Salem Kacet of the UMP, who had operated on him in 1999 and saved his life. The two candidates had become close friends. Vignoble said that it was impossible for him to come to any other decision.source:

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...

news, Thursday, 17 May 2007 Nevertheless, Kacet still failed to take the seat, the winner being the Socialist Dominique Baert.

French Communist Party

The

Communists 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 ...

hoped that their vote would hold up following their lowest percentage vote ever (1.93%) in the presidential race in May. While polls seemed unfriendly to the Communists, with some predicting less than 10 seats for the party, the second round's left surge prevented a massive Communist defeat. Although losing seats, they were able to gain or hold 15 seats. However, the PCF lost previously safe seats.

VAT Polemic

During the electoral TV programme of the first round, the former Socialist Prime Minister

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Mar ...

called out to the Minister of Economy

Jean-Louis Borloo Jean-Louis Marie Borloo (; born 7 April 1951) is a French politician who served as president of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) from 2012 to 2014. He also was Minister of the Economy, Finance and Employment in 2007 and Minister of ...

about the project of a new

VAT A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...

to finance the social security. Borloo confirmed it was examined by the government. This new tax was the main theme of campaign between the two rounds. It was criticized by the left because it could rise the prices for all the housekeepings. This project was perceived as contradictory to candidate Sarkozy's promise to be "President of the purchasing power". According to the former UMP Prime Minister

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 ...

, in re-mobilizing the left-wing voters, this controversy caused the defeat of around 60 UMP candidates in the second round. In this, if the right stood majority, the left won 49 seats since 2002. Accused to be responsible of this result, Jean-Louis Borloo was nominated Minister of Ecology, replacing

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 ...

, beaten in his constituency.

Results

, - 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="3", 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:#B9DAFF;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="4", , style="background-color:" width=1 , , style="text-align:left;",

, UMP , 10,289,737 , , 39.54 , , 98 , 9,460,710 , , 46.36 , , 215 , 313 , , 54.25 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

, NC , 616,440 , , 2.37 , , 8 , 433,057 , , 2.12 , , 14 , 22 , , 3.81 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, DVD , 641,842 , , 2.47 , , 2 , 238,588 , , 1.17 , , 7 , 9 , , 1.56 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Movement for France The Movement for France (french: Mouvement pour la France, MPF; ) was a conservative, soft Eurosceptic and Gaullist French political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It was led by Philippe de ...

, MPF , 312,581 , , 1.20 , , 1 , – , , – , , – , 1 , , 0.17 , - style="background-color:#B9DAFF" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Presidential majority (right) , 11,860,600 , , 45.58 , , 109 , 10,132,355 , , 49.65 , , 236 , 345 , , 59.79 , - , style="background-color:#FFC6D5;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="5", , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

, PS , 6,436,520 , , 24.73 , , 1 , 8,624,861 , , 42.27 , , 185 , 186 , , 32.24 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

, PCF , 1,115,663 , , 4.29 , , 0 , 464,739 , , 2.28 , , 15 , 15 , , 2.60 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, DVG , 513,407 , , 1.97 , , 0 , 503,556 , , 2.47 , , 15 , 15 , , 2.60 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, PRG , 343,565 , , 1.32 , , 0 , 333,194 , , 1.63 , , 7 , 7 , , 1.21 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

, VEC , 845,977 , , 3.25 , , 0 , 90,975 , , 0.45 , , 4 , 4 , , 0.69 , - style="background-color:#FFC6D5" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Parliamentary left , 9,255,132 , , 35.56 , , 1 , 10,017,325 , , 49.10 , , 226 , 227 , , 39.34 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", UDF-Democratic Movement , MoDem , 1,981,107 , , 7.61 , , 0 , 100,115 , , 0.49 , , 3 , 3 , , 0.52 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Miscellaneous , DIV , 267,760 , , 1.03 , , 0 , 33,068 , , 0.16 , , 1 , 1 , , 0.17 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Regionalists and separatists , REG , 133,473 , , 0.51 , , 0 , 106,484 , , 0.52 , , 1 , 1 , , 0.17 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", National Front , FN , 1,116,136 , , 4.29 , , 0 , 17,107 , , 0.08 , , 0 , 0 , , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#bb0000;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Far-left , EXG , 888,250 , , 3.41 , , 0 , – , , – , , – , 0 , , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions The Rurality Movement (, LMR), formerly Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions (french: Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions; ; CPNT, ) is an agrarianist political party in France that aims to defend the traditional values of rural France. It ...

, CPNT , 213,427 , , 0.82 , , 0 , – , , – , , – , 0 , , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#77ff77;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Ecologists , ECO , 208,456 , , 0.80 , , 0 , – , , – , , – , 0 , , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#404040;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Far-right , EXD , 102,124 , , 0.39 , , 0 , – , , – , , – , 0 , , 0.00 , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - style="font-weight:bold;" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Total , 26,026,465 , , 100.00 , , 110 , 20,406,454 , , 100.00 , , 467 , 577 , , 100.00 , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:left;", Valid votes , , , , rowspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , , , , rowspan="5" colspan="3" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:left;", Spoilt and null votes , , , , , , , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:left;", Votes cast / turnout , , , , , , , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:left;", Abstentions , , , , , , , - , colspan="4" style="text-align:left;", Registered voters , , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;", , , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;", , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan="12" style="text-align:left;", Source
Official Voting Results: Ministry of the Interior
Contrary to the polls, the UMP lost ground, but it maintained a workable majority. The Socialists unexpectedly gained seats. Their plea to voters to prevent an overwhelming UMP dominance of the legislature appears to have paid off, providing the Socialists with a measure of redemption from the election loss. UDF splinter groups, François Bayrou's MoDem and the New Centre, contested their first elections. MoDem won 4 seats (including

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 ...

regionalist

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 ...

), while the New Centre was able to form a parliamentary group, with 22 seats. It remains to be seen whether Bayrou's party, which polled the third highest vote (7.61% in round one), will develop into a major political force. Their result is an improvement on the UDF's result of 4.9% in 2002. The National Front (FN) polled its lowest vote since its splash onto the political scene in 1986. The FN lost more than 60% of its support base since 2002. Support for the Communist Party also declined, and they saw a loss of several seats, whilst several other left-wing parties won nine new seats. The Greens gained one new seat, despite a fall in their vote. One of the most stunning results was the surprise defeat of UMP party leader

by the Socialist Party candidate Michèle Delaunay. Culture Minister

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (born 13 March 1954 in Neuilly-sur-Seine), often known as RDDV, is a French politician, France's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2007. He is a member of the UMP center-right party, and the grandson of Henri Donnedie ...

was defeated as well losing to Socialist Party candidate Jean-Patrick Gille. The far right did not win any seats.

Change since 2002

*Both formed from a split of the UDF, a traditionally centre-right party, in early 2007. The MoDems pursued a path of independence from the right-wing while the Nouveau Centre supported Nicolas Sarkozy (and was supported by the UMP).

13th Assembly by Parliamentary Group

Opinion polls

References

External links

The resultsElection-Politique Legislatives 2007Election-Politique Election Night 2007Le Figaro Legislatives 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:French Legislative Election, 2007

legislative election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

2007