Presidential election in France 1969

The 1969 French presidential election took place on June 1st and 15th, 1969. The Gaullist Georges Pompidou emerged as the winner .

Starting position

The election was made necessary by the resignation of Charles de Gaulle on April 28, 1969. The president had failed because of a referendum (53.5 percent against), which was supposed to promote decentralization by recognizing the regions as collectivité territoriale .

Former Prime Minister Georges Pompidou ran for the Gaullists. Because of the economic growth during his tenure (1962 to 1968) and dealing with May 1968 , he was very popular with the Conservatives. The Parti communiste français offered the social democratic Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière to nominate a common candidate due to the difficult initial situation, which they refused. The PCF then took on Jacques Duclos , the SFIO with Gaston Defferre . Defferre was supported by Pierre Mendès France . The surprising candidacy of the centrist transitional president Alain Poher further reduced the chances of the left. Poher had led the opponents of the reform planned by de Gaulle. The two candidates Michel Rocard from the left-wing socialist Parti socialiste unifié and Alain Krivine from the Trotskyist Ligue communiste révolutionnaire were close to the 1968 movement, with Krivine being much more radical.

Results

First round

candidate	be right	proportion of
Georges Pompidou	10,051,816	44.47%
Alain Poher	5,268,561	23.31%
Jacques Duclos	4,808,285	21.27%
Gaston Defferre	1,133,222	5.01%
Michel Rocard	816.471	3.61%
Louis Ducatel	286,447	1.27%
Alain Krivine	239.106	1.06%

With more than twenty percent of the vote, Duclos achieved the best result of the communists in a presidential election in France. Defferre suffered badly from the mutual competition (Poher, Duclos) and only got five percent of the vote.

Second round

Results of the second round: dark blue Pompidou, light blue Poher

candidate	be right	proportion of
Georges Pompidou	11,064,371	58.21%
Alain Poher	7,943,118	41.78%

Pompidou was elected French President with a comfortable majority. He held this office from June 20, 1969 until his death on April 2, 1974.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The results of the first round on the website of the Constitutional Council
2. ^ The results of the second round on the website of the Constitutional Council