# Legislative elections in France

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

## Legislative elections under the Fifth Republic
### Constituencies

The total number of constituencies has varied since 1958 but since the 1986 electoral reform re-establishing the two-round system for legislative elections, the total number of constituencies is 577. The last electoral boundaries readjustment dates back to 2010.
Out of the 577 existing constituencies, there are:
* 539 constituencies in metropolitan France;
* 27 constituencies in the Overseas;
* 11 constituencies for French people living abroad.
Moreover, the French Constitution sets the maximum number of MPs at 577.

### Timing

MPs are elected for a five-year-term.
Following the reduction of the presidential term's length from 7 to 5 years after the 2000 referendum, a 2001 organic law has set the expiration of the outgoing National Assembly's powers on the third Tuesday of June of the fifth year following the last general election. The government sets the election dates by decree.
Legislative elections need to be held during the 60-day period preceding the expiration of the outgoing Assembly's powers. Therefore, legislative elections are usually held in June, some weeks after the presidential election. Until the electoral calendar reform of 2001, legislative elections, apart from early elections, were usually held in March.
Besides, per the French Constitution (article 12), the President has the power to dissolve the National Assembly after consulting with the Prime minister and the heads of the lower and upper houses of Parliament. The Constitution does not set limits on that power apart from prohibiting another dissolution from occurring less than a year after the last one. General elections have to be held necessarily from 20 to 40 days after the Assembly has been formally dissolved.
A snap legislative election, held on 30 June and 7 July 2024, was called on 9 June by President Emmanuel Macron in the aftermath of the European Parliament elections. It was the first snap election since 1997 when President Jacques Chirac dissolved the National Assembly a year early.

### Electoral system

Along with the establishment of the Fifth Republic, the two-round system (TRS) was established as the country's voting system for legislative/general elections in 1958.
MPs are elected in single-member constituencies. A candidate who receives an absolute majority of valid votes and a vote total greater than 25% of the registered electorate is elected in the first round. If no candidate reaches this threshold, a runoff election is held between the top two candidates plus any other candidate who received a vote total greater than 12.5% of registered voters. The candidate who receives the most votes in the second round is elected.
Since then, every legislative election, apart from the 1986 list-PR election, used TRS.

## List of general elections in French history
### Kingdom of France & First Republic

Extreme Left
  Montagnards
  Jacobin
  The Plain
  Girondins
  Thermidorians
  Independent
  Feuillant
  Clichy Club
  Ultra Royalists :
| 1791 | 136 345 264 |
| 1792 | 200 389 160 |
| 1795 | 63 54 33 |
| 1797 | 28 44 105 |
| 1798 | 106 44 |
| 1799 | 30 240 150 80 |

### Bourbon Restoration & July Monarchy

Jacobin Republicans
  Miscellaneous left
  Republicans
  Liberals
  Movement Party
  Third Party [fr]
  Doctrinaires
  Resistance Party
  Orléanist
  Bonapartists
  Ultra Royalists / Legitimists :
| May 1815 | 40 510 80 |
| August 1815 | 50 350 |
| 1816 | 20 10 136 92 |
| 1820 | 80 194 160 |
| 1824 | 17 413 |
| 1827 | 170 260 |
| 1830 | 274 282 |
| 1831 | 73 282 104 |
| 1834 | 75 50 320 15 |
| 1837 | 19 142 56 64 168 15 |
| 1839 | 240 199 20 |
| 1842 | 193 266 |
| 1846 | 168 290 |

### 1848 Provisional Government & Second Republic

The Mountain
  Republicans
  Party of Order :
| 1848 | 80 600 200 |
| 1849 | 180 75 450 |

### Second Empire

Republicans
  Bonapartists
  Legitimists :
| 1852 | 3 253 7 |
| 1857 | 7 276 |
| 1863 | 17 251 15 |
| 1869 | 30 212 41 |

### Third Republic

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

### Provisional Government of the French Republic & Fourth Republic

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

### Fifth Republic

| Election | President | Electoral system | Winning party/coalition | Government vote share (1st round) | Seat majority | Turnout |
| 1958 | René Coty (1954–1959) | Two-round system | UNR-CNIP-MRP and allies | 43.1% | 402 / 576 (70%) | 77.2% (1st round) 76.3% (2nd round) |
| 1962 | Charles de Gaulle (1959–1969) | Two-round system | UNR/UDT-RI | 38.9% | 268 / 482 (56%) | 68.7% (1st round) 72% (2nd round) |
| 1967 | Charles de Gaulle (1959–1969) | Two-round system | UDR-FNRI-DVD | 37.8% | 259 / 487 (53%) | 80.9% (1st round) 79.7% (2nd round) |
| 1968 | Charles de Gaulle (1959–1969) | Two-round system | UDR-FNRI-DVD | 47.8% | 367 / 487 (75%) | 80% (1st round) 77.8% (2nd round) |
| 1973 | Georges Pompidou (1969–1974) | Two-round system | UDR-MR-FNRI-CDP-DVD | 41.2% | 302 / 490 (62%) | 81.2% (1st round) 81.9% (2nd round) |
| 1978 | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974–1981) | Two-round system | RPR-UDF | 46.5% | 277 / 491 (56%) | 82.8% (1st round) 84.7% (2nd round) |
| 1981 | François Mitterrand (1981–1995) | Two-round system | PS-PCF-MRG-DVG | 54.4% | 329 / 491 (67%) | 70.7% (1st round) 74.5% (2nd round) |
| 1986 | François Mitterrand (1981–1995) | List-PR | RPR-UDF-DVD | 44.8% | 290 / 577 (50%) | 78.5% |
| 1988 | François Mitterrand (1981–1995) | Two-round system | PS-MRG-DVG (minority government) | 37.5% | 275 / 577 (48%) | 65.7% (1st round) 69.9% (2nd round) |
| 1993 | François Mitterrand (1981–1995) | Two-round system | Union for France | 42.9% | 472 / 577 (82%) | 68.9% (1st round) 67.6% (2nd round) |
| 1997 | Jacques Chirac (1995–2007) | Two-round system | Plural Left | 43.1% | 319 / 577 (55%) | 67.9% (1st round) 71.1% (2nd round) |
| 2002 | Jacques Chirac (1995–2007) | Two-round system | Union for the Presidential Majority | 43.4% | 389 / 577 (67%) | 64.4% (1st round) 60.3% (2nd round) |
| 2007 | Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012) | Two-round system | UMP-NC-MPF-DVD | 45.6% | 343 / 577 (59%) | 60.4% (1st round) 60% (2nd round) |
| 2012 | François Hollande (2012–2017) | Two-round system | PS-PRG-EELV-DVG | 39.9% | 328 / 577 (57%) | 57.2% (1st round) 55.4% (2nd round) |
| 2017 | Emmanuel Macron (2017–present) | Two-round system | LREM-MoDem-PRG | 32.3% | 351 / 577 (61%) | 48.7% (1st round) 42.6% (2nd round) |
| 2022 | Emmanuel Macron (2017–present) | Two-round system | Ensemble (minority government) | 25.8% | 251 / 577 (44%) | 47.5% (1st round) 46.2% (2nd round) |
| 2024 | Emmanuel Macron (2017–present) | Two-round system | Ensemble-LR (minority coalition government) | 31.5% | 212 / 577 (37%) | 66.7% (1st round) 66.6% (2nd round) |
PCF
  LFI
  PSU
  G.s
  FGDS
  The Greens / EELV / PE
  SFIO
  PS
  PRG
  TDP
  PRRRS / RP
  Miscellaneous
  Vacant
  REN
  CD
  UDF / MoDem
  Horizons
  LC
  UDI
  UDR
  RPR
  RI
  UMP / LR
  UDX
  RN :
| 1958 | 10 40 37 1 57 132 189 |
| 1962 | 41 2 65 44 6 36 233 28 27 |
| 1967 | 73 4 117 9 41 243 |
| 1968 | 34 57 9 33 354 |
| 1973 | 73 1 102 12 30 272 |
| 1978 | 86 104 10 17 121 150 |
| 1981 | 44 283 17 62 85 |
| 1986 | 35 206 2 23 127 149 35 |
| 1988 | 27 260 9 23 2 129 126 1 |
| 1993 | 24 53 50 207 242 1 |
| 1997 | 35 7 255 12 16 112 139 1 |
| 2002 | 21 3 140 7 20 29 357 |
| 2007 | 15 4 186 7 27 3 22 313 |
| 2012 | 7 17 280 12 6 45 2 12 194 2 |
| 2017 | 10 17 1 30 3 28 308 42 18 112 8 |
| 2022 | 12 72 4 21 26 1 3 60 150 48 27 3 61 89 |
| 2024 | 9 74 6 28 59 2 51 102 33 26 5 39 17 126 |