General election in France 2017

The parliamentary elections in France took place on June 11th and 18th, 2017. The 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic were elected in two ballots . In the presidential election on May 7, 2017, a few weeks earlier, Emmanuel Macron prevailed in the runoff against Marine Le Pen from the Front National . Macron's party La République en Marche achieved an absolute majority in the elections with 308 seats . The turnout in both rounds was at an all-time low.

Election mode

The MPs are elected in two ballots using a majority vote. In the first ballot, a member of a constituency is elected if he has received more than half of the valid votes, provided that his number of votes is at least 25% of the number of eligible voters in the constituency. Should no candidate be able to achieve this, those candidates who have received at least 12.5% of those eligible to vote in the constituency will advance to the second ballot; but always at least the two candidates who were able to achieve most of the votes cast in the first ballot. In the second ballot, a relative majority is sufficient.

The voting mode is the same as for the last election. Originally, President François Hollande had promised the introduction of proportional parliamentary elections in his manifesto for the 2012 presidential election. However, this plan was abandoned in 2015.

The constituencies (circonscriptions) were unchanged from the 2012 general election . The constituencies are generally subdivisions of the departments , with the last adjustment to the population trend in 2010. Of the 577 constituencies, 539 are in European France and 27 in overseas territories , 19 of which are in the five overseas departments . While there is only one constituency in the two departments of Creuse and Lozère , there are 16 constituencies in the Bouches-du-Rhône department with Marseille and Arles, 18 in the department in the center of Paris and 21 in the north . In addition to the 566 French constituencies, there are 11 foreign constituencies.

The number of inhabitants per constituency varies considerably between 6,079 in the constituency of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and 157,363 in the first foreign constituency (North America), and also at the departmental constituency level between 62,082 in the second constituency of the Hautes-Alpes department around Briançon and 146,866 in the sixth Constituency in the Seine-Maritime department around Dieppe .

While in European France the elections took place on June 11th and 18th, the first round in the foreign constituencies 3 to 11 took place on June 4th, while the second round also took place on June 18th. Because of the time difference, elections were held in French Polynesia and America (two foreign constituencies and twelve French constituencies) on June 3rd and 17th.

Starting position

In the 2012 parliamentary elections , the Parti socialiste (PS) of François Hollande, who had recently been elected president, received 280 seats; it just missed an absolute majority (289 seats). The PS and its closest ally, the PRG ( Parti radical de gauche , 12 mandates) had an absolute majority.

Since 1958, a newly elected president has always achieved a majority in subsequent parliamentary elections that he needs to implement his policy. La République en Marche, as a party that had only been founded in 2016, was only represented in the National Assembly by a few defected MPs. The candidates of the two parties most represented in the National Assembly, the Parti socialiste (PS) and Les Républicains (LR, the new name of the UMP), were both eliminated in the first round of the presidential election.

Parties and candidates

7,877 candidates applied for the 577 constituencies (circonscriptions) , of which 11 are foreign constituencies and 566 are French constituencies (2012: 6,500 candidates; “record election” 2002: 8,444 candidates). With 4,536 men and 3,341 women, the legally required parity was not met. Between three candidates (in Wallis and Futuna ) and 27 candidates (in the ninth international constituency of North West Africa) ran in the constituencies.

The main parties and movements in the parliamentary elections:

La France insoumise (FI)

The left-wing socialist communist movement La France insoumise , founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2016, ran its own candidates in most of the electoral districts. The election manifesto L'Avenir en commun was identical to that from the presidential election, in which Mélenchon was able to achieve 19.6% of the vote in the first round.

Parti communiste français (PCF)

The Communist Party , which Mélenchon had supported in the presidential election, tried in vain to form an alliance with La France insoumise for the parliamentary election. She eventually ran with 536 of her own candidates. Only the incumbent MPs of the PCF who had made a declaration of support for Mélenchon did not have a direct opponent from FI.

Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV)

After Yannick Jadot's EELV candidacy was withdrawn in favor of Benoît Hamon in the presidential elections, the Socialist Party renounced its own candidates in 42 constituencies, especially against the incumbent Green MPs. In total, EELV put up its own candidates in 459 constituencies and supported PS, PCF and FI candidates in the other constituencies.

Parti socialiste (PS) and allies

The Parti socialiste , the party of the previous President François Hollande , ran with over 400 of its own candidates. The other constituencies were reserved for their allies Europe Écologie Les Verts, UDE and Parti radical de gauche . There were some changes compared to Benoît Hamon's program for the presidential election, for example the phase-out of diesel and nuclear energy was removed.

La République En Marche (LREM) and Mouvement démocrate (MoDem)

The social liberal party En Marche , founded by the newly elected President Emmanuel Macron in 2016, ran its own candidates. Only in 51 electoral districts with MPs that were considered to be cooperative in the National Assembly were no opposing candidates put up, such as against Manuel Valls , Marisol Touraine , Stéphane Le Foll , Myriam El Khomri and George Pau-Langevin (all Parti socialiste ), Sylvia Pinel (PRG), Yves Jégo (UDI) and Franck Riester (LR). A little more than half of the candidates came from civil society without a previous political office, including personalities such as the entrepreneur Bruno Bonnell , the mathematician Cédric Villani and the former bullfighter Marie Sara. In addition, around half of all candidates were female. 24 previous members of the Parti Socialiste now ran for En Marche. 80 constituencies were reserved for members of François Bayrou's MoDem .

Les Républicains (LR) and allies

After the departure of François Fillon in the first round of the presidential election, François Baroin took over the leadership of the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in the conservative Les Républicains . After Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and two ministers from the ranks of LR were already in the government under Emmanuel Macron , the aim of the campaign was a real change of government and cohabitation. 96 constituencies were reserved for the centrist electoral alliance UDI .

Debout la France (DLF)

The national conservative sovereignist party Debout la France ran in most constituencies. After the support of DLF candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential elections, agreements were originally planned with the Front National for the parliamentary elections. In the end, these did not materialize.

Front National (FN)

The right-wing extremist Front National ran in all constituencies, almost half of all candidates were female. Marine Le Pen ran in the constituency of Hénin-Beaumont in the Pas-de-Calais department , where she had achieved her best result in the second round of the presidential election with 60.52%.

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen , niece of Marine Le Pen, announced her retirement from politics after the presidential election. Until then she had campaigned for ecology, for a more important role for the Catholic Church in the state, against gay marriage, against abortion and against the economic protectionism of part of the party. She was very popular with the party base and with many voters. After that, Florian Philippot was in the spotlight for the time being . He was co-head of the party and repeatedly stressed that it was "neither right nor left". Philippot stands for many things that Maréchal-Le Pen and the majority of the FN cadres reject. He is openly gay, advocates gay marriage and abortion, is a populist, against the EU and for social redistribution. He calls for “economic patriotism” and the unconditional, non-negotiable exit from the euro . Philippot threatened to resign should the FN deviate from this position. In addition to Marine Le Pen, he was considered the only nationwide known FN functionary. In September 2017, Philippot left the FN and founded his own party, Les Patriotes .

Others

Smaller parties that also had their own candidates put up in at least 400 of the 577 electoral districts:

Union populaire républicaine (UPR) - skeptical of the EU
Lutte Ouvrière (LO) - Trotskyist
Mouvement 100% - alliance of environmental and regional parties

Survey

The first polls on parliamentary elections have been in place since the end of April 2017. Previously, poll results had only been published for the presidential elections previously held . The forecasts saw the possibility of a majority for the En Marche party! of the newly elected President Emmanuel Macron . The following forecasts were published:

source	date	Respondents	LO	NPA	FI	PG	PCF	PS	PRG	EELV	LREM	Modem	UDI	LR	DLF	FN	Otherwise.
source	date	Respondents															Otherwise.
Ipsos	2-4 June 2017	1126	1 %		12.5%	-	2%	8.5%		2.5%	29.5%		23%		1.5%	17%	2.5%
Harris	9-11 May 2017	941	2%		14%	-	2%	7%		3%	29%		20%		3%	20%	-
Harris	May 7, 2017	2376	1 %		13%	-	2%	8th %		3%	26%		22%		3%	22%	-
Cantar Sofres	4th to 5th May 2017	1507	2%		15%		1 %	9%	-	3.5%	24%		22%		2.5%	21%	-
Ifop fiducial	4th to 5th May 2017	1405	1 %		16%	-	2%	9%	-	3%	22%	-	2.5%	20%	-	20%	3%

2012	June 10, 2012	-	0.5%	0.3%	6.9% ( FG )			29.4%	1.7%	5.5%	-	1.8%	4.0%	27.1%	0.6%	13.6%	8.6%

Results

La République en Marche achieved an absolute majority with 308 seats , together with the allied Mouvement démocrate , Emmanuel Macron has a majority of 350 seats. The strongest party to date, the Parti socialiste , only had 30 seats, and Les Républicains also suffered losses, with only 112 members. For the first time, La France insoumise is represented in the National Assembly , with 17 MPs being able to form its own parliamentary group. Eight candidates from the Front National were also elected to the assembly.

The turnout was 48.7 percent in the first round and 42.6 percent in the second round, an all-time low.

Nomination		1st ballot			2nd ballot			Total seats
Nomination		Votes (absolute)	Votes (in%)	Seats	Votes (absolute)	Votes (in%)	Seats	absolutely	+/-	in %
	La République en Marche (LREM)	6,390,856	28.21	2	7,826,432	43.06	306	308	308	53.03
	Les Républicains (LR)	3,573,388	15.77	0	4,040,016	22.23	112	112	82	19.58
	Mouvement démocrate (MoDem)	932.231	4.11	0	1,100,790	6.06	42	42	40	7.28
	Parti socialiste (PS)	1,685,781	7.44	0	1,032,985	5.68	30th	30th	250	5.03
	Union des démocrates et indépendants (UDI)	687.162	3.03	1	551.760	3.04	17th	18th	18	3.12
	La France insoumise (FI)	2,497,636	11.02	0	883.786	4.86	17th	17th	17	2.95
	Various leftists ( Divers gauche , DVG)	362,326	1.60	1	263,619	1.45	11	12	10	2.08
	Parti communiste français (PCF)	615,556	2.72	0	217.833	1.20	10	10	10	1.73
	Front National (FN)	2,990,561	13.20	0	1,590,858	8.75	8th	8th	6	1.37
	Various rights ( Divers droite , DVD)	625.423	2.76	0	306.240	1.68	6th	6th	9	1.04
	Regionalists	204.080	0.90	0	137,453	0.76	5	5	3	0.87
	Other ( various )	500,629	2.21	0	100,574	0.55	3	3	27	0.52
	Parti radical de gauche (PRG)	106.287	0.47	0	64,860	0.36	3	3	9	0.52
	Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV)	973.842	4.30	0	23,197	0.13	1	1	16	0.17
	Debout la France (DLF)	265.457	1.17	0	17,344	0.10	1	1	1	0.17
	Extreme right ( extrême droite )	68,326	0.30	0	19,030	0.10	1	1		0.17
	Extreme left (extreme gauche )	175,446	0.77	0	0	0	0	0		0
Registered voters		47,571,492	100.0		47.292.967	100.0
Non-voters		24,400,440	51.29		27.125.535	57.36
Votes cast		23,171,052	48.71		20.167.432	42.64
Valid votes		22,654,987			18,176,777
Source: Ministry of the Interior

First ballot

Map of the constituencies and representation of the political affiliation of the candidate who received the most votes in the first ballot

Map of the constituencies and the candidates elected in the first ballot

Because of the low turnout in this election, only four candidates received an absolute majority in the first round and at least 25% of the votes of all eligible voters. You were thus directly elected (in 2012 there were 36).


Surname		Constituency	Votes in%
Stéphane Demilly	UDI	Somme 5	53.77
Sylvain Maillard	LREM	Paris 1st	50.80
Paul Molac	LREM	Morbihan 4	54.00
Napole Polutélé	DVG	Wallis and Futuna	50.24

A second ballot was necessary in all of the remaining 573 constituencies. In the 2nd constituency of the Aveyron department , only the LREM candidate, Anne Blanc , ran, who received 38.8% of the votes in the first ballot, as the opposing candidate for the second ballot, André At from Les Républicains (20.2% in the first ballot). Due to the low turnout, three candidates were only able to qualify for the second ballot in one constituency: In the first constituency in the Aube department , candidates from LREM (29.9% in the first ballot), Les Républicains (25.7%) and des Front national (24.9%) opposite. In all other 571 constituencies there was a duel.

Numerous long-standing politicians left parliament in the first ballot. Well-known politicians from the Parti socialiste include chairman Jean-Christophe Cambadélis , former ministers Matthias Fekl , Aurélie Filippetti and Élisabeth Guigou, and presidential candidate Benoît Hamon .

Second ballot

Map of the constituencies and representation of the political affiliation of the candidate who received the most votes in the second ballot

Of the former members of the National Assembly, 216 did not stand again. Of the 361 MPs who ran again, 136 were eliminated in the first ballot, 82 were defeated in the second ballot, and only 143 were re-elected. This means that 434 members (75.2%) have entered the National Assembly. This is the highest rate of newcomers in the entire Fifth Republic, since 1958, and is itself higher than in the first election in the Fifth Republic (310 new members were elected in 1958, compared to the last National Assembly of the Fourth Republic).

At the same time, there are more women in the new National Assembly than ever before, there are 223 members (38.6%, compared to 2012 = 26.9% and 1958 only 1.4%). En marche has almost achieved its parity target with 47%, ahead of MoDem with 46% and La France insoumise with 41%, while the Socialists 38%, the Front National 25%, the Republicans 23%, the Communists 20% and the UDI have 17% women in their ranks.

The average age has fallen from 54 years at the beginning of the previous legislative period in 2012 to 48.6 years, with La France Insoumise with an average of 43.3 years and En marche with an average of 45.5 years, and UDI with an average of 56 , 5 years has the highest average age.

Four candidates in the 2017 presidential election won the second ballot in their constituency: Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and Jean Lassalle were able to defend their seats, while Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon were newly elected to the National Assembly.

Web links

Commons : General Election in France 2017 - Collection of images

Comments after the election:

Christian Schubert on FAZ.NET : Get to work!
Stefan Simons on Spiegel Online : Emmanuel I.
Georg Blume on time online : The perfect change of power
Christian Wernicke on sueddeutsche.de : Macron's superiority irritates France

Individual evidence

↑ L'élection présidentielle française se tiendra les 23 avril et 7 may 2017. In: Le Monde online. May 4, 2016, accessed May 4, 2016 (French).
↑ Results 2d tour. In: Ministère de l'intérieur, de l'outre-mer, des collectivités territoriales et de l'immigration . Retrieved June 20, 2017 (French).
↑ Francois Hollande enterré la proportionnelle. In: valeursactuelles.com. December 17, 2015, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).
↑ Ordonnance n ° 2009-935 on 29 June 2009 portant répartition des sièges et délimitation des circonscriptions pour l'élection des députés . In: legifrance.gouv.fr . July 31, 2009, accessed June 11, 2017 (French).
^ Benjamin Masse: La méthode Macron à l'épreuve des législatives . In: La Libre Belgique . June 10, 2017, p. 3.
↑ Legislatives: pas de candidat La République en marche dans 51 circonscriptions. In: France Soir. May 20, 2017, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).
^ Aurélie Rossignol: Legislatives: Les Républicains jouent la carte du rassemblement lors d'un grand meeting. In: Le Parisien online. May 21, 2017, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).
↑ Outside on the right . In: zeit.de . June 10, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
↑ Legislatives: le FN en pleine crise d'identité . In: leparisien.fr . June 4, 2017, accessed June 11, 2017 (French).
↑ Fabien Dabert: Législatives 2017: résultat du dernier sondage, l'élection en direct. In: liberation.fr. June 9, 2017, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).
↑ Historically low turnout - Macron leaves everyone behind . In: tagesspiegel.de . June 12, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
↑ Historic low in French voter turnout. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online. June 18, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .
↑ Geoffroy Clavel, Alexandre Boudet: Résultats législatives 2017: comment être élu au 1er tour (la réponse n'est pas si évidente)? . In: Huffington Post . June 11, 2017, accessed June 18, 2017 (French).
↑ Jean Paul Couffin: Le candidat LR André At DECIDE de ne pas se présenter et seule Anne Blanc (LREM) sera en lice. ladepeche.fr., June 12, 2017, accessed on June 17, 2017 (French).
↑ Julia Amalia Heyer: The moaning of the serving . In: Spiegel Online . Comment. June 12, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
↑ Patrick Roger: L'abstention record ternit le succès de Macron Le Monde edition 22.529 of June 20, 2017, page 13
↑ Leila Al-Serori : The true face of the Marine Le Pen. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online. June 18, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .

[1] L'élection présidentielle française se tiendra les 23 avril et 7 may 2017. In: Le Monde online. May 4, 2016, accessed May 4, 2016 (French).

[2] Results 2d tour. In: Ministère de l'intérieur, de l'outre-mer, des collectivités territoriales et de l'immigration . Retrieved June 20, 2017 (French).

[3] Francois Hollande enterré la proportionnelle. In: valeursactuelles.com. December 17, 2015, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).

[4] Ordonnance n ° 2009-935 on 29 June 2009 portant répartition des sièges et délimitation des circonscriptions pour l'élection des députés . In: legifrance.gouv.fr . July 31, 2009, accessed June 11, 2017 (French).

[5] Benjamin Masse: La méthode Macron à l'épreuve des législatives . In: La Libre Belgique . June 10, 2017, p. 3.

[6] Legislatives: pas de candidat La République en marche dans 51 circonscriptions. In: France Soir. May 20, 2017, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).

[7] Aurélie Rossignol: Legislatives: Les Républicains jouent la carte du rassemblement lors d'un grand meeting. In: Le Parisien online. May 21, 2017, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).

[8] Outside on the right . In: zeit.de . June 10, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017.

[9] Legislatives: le FN en pleine crise d'identité . In: leparisien.fr . June 4, 2017, accessed June 11, 2017 (French).

[futurpresidtent-10] Fabien Dabert: Législatives 2017: résultat du dernier sondage, l'élection en direct. In: liberation.fr. June 9, 2017, accessed June 9, 2017 (French).

[11] Historically low turnout - Macron leaves everyone behind . In: tagesspiegel.de . June 12, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017.

[12] Historic low in French voter turnout. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online. June 18, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .

[13] Geoffroy Clavel, Alexandre Boudet: Résultats législatives 2017: comment être élu au 1er tour (la réponse n'est pas si évidente)? . In: Huffington Post . June 11, 2017, accessed June 18, 2017 (French).

[14] Jean Paul Couffin: Le candidat LR André At DECIDE de ne pas se présenter et seule Anne Blanc (LREM) sera en lice. ladepeche.fr., June 12, 2017, accessed on June 17, 2017 (French).

[15] Julia Amalia Heyer: The moaning of the serving . In: Spiegel Online . Comment. June 12, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

[16] Patrick Roger: L'abstention record ternit le succès de Macron Le Monde edition 22.529 of June 20, 2017, page 13

[17] Leila Al-Serori : The true face of the Marine Le Pen. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online. June 18, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .