General election in France in 2002

← 1997General election in France in 20022007 →

First ballot

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

33.30

24.11

11.34

4.86

4.82

4.51

3.65

1.67

11.74

UMP ^a

PS

FN

UDF

PCF

Verts

DVD

CPNT

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1997

 % p

 18th

 16

 14th

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

+17.65

+0.62

-3.60

-9.36

-5.10

-2.32

-0.57

+1.67

+1.01

UMP ^a

PS

FN

UDF

PCF

Verts

DVD

CPNT

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^a 1997: result of the RPR

The parliamentary elections in France in 2002 for the election of the French National Assembly took place on June 9 and 16, 2002. The election ended with a victory for the civil rights of the Union pour la majorité présidentielle . Immediately beforehand, the 2002 presidential election took place.

background

The 1997 French parliamentary elections were won by the left of the gauche plurielle led by the Parti Socialiste . The resulting government led by Lionel Jospin held office until the 2002 presidential elections.

As a result of a regulation implemented by the Jospin government together with some bourgeois MPs, the elections took place after the 2002 presidential election and not immediately before it, as originally planned. This timing of elections connected to the force from 2,002 shortening the term of office of the President for five years and in the same length as the legislature of the National Assembly led to the still ongoing tight Vertaktung of presidential and parliamentary elections, which have always led to the political direction of the president also obtained a majority in the national assembly, whereby a cohabitation does not take place.

The presidential election ended in a debacle for the left when incumbent Prime Minister Lionel Jospin missed the runoff, in which incumbent President Jacques Chirac and right-wing extremist candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen from the National Front faced each other. Immediately after the second ballot, Jospin resigned as prime minister and announced his retirement from politics.

The result of the first round of the presidential election also led to a regrouping of the civil rights. Before the second ballot, the Union pour la majorité présidentielle (UMP, "Union for the majority of the president") was founded, to which the Gaullist RPR and many member parties of the centrist UDF belonged. From this alliance, the Union pour un mouvement populaire emerged in 2002 , which until 2012 provided the government majority and the state president. The civil rights entered the parliamentary elections largely united, which significantly increased their chances of voting in view of the majority vote . However, some previous member parties of the UDF continued to run under this name, but also supported Chirac. In addition, after Jospin's resignation, Jacques Chirac appointed Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a bourgeois prime minister, who acted as the “top candidate” for the parliamentary elections.

For the Front National, which achieved a strong result in 1997 and with this performance helped to bring about the defeat of the bourgeois right by triple-run elections, the strong performance in the presidential elections meant a problem for the parliamentary elections: there was a high level of voter mobilization, which in the end has to do with led to a drop in the result for the FN.

Results

21st

140

7th

7th

3

1

27

2

358

11

21st 140 7th 7th 3 1 27 2 358 11 

A total of 577 seats

• PCF : 21
• PS : 140
• PRG : 7
• DVG : 7
• Verts : 3
• Reg .: 1
• UDF : 27
• DL : 2
• UMP : 358
• DVD : 11

The election ended with a clear absolute majority for the UMP. It reached 62 percent of the seats, together with the other Jacques Chirac supporting parties, it came to almost 70 percent. On the left, the Parti Socialiste in particular lost a lot of seats, even though it had slightly gained votes in the first ballot compared to the 1997 election. The UDF recorded a massive decrease in votes and mandates, which is, however, largely due to the transfer of member parties to the UMP.

political parties		Votes (first ballot)			Votes (second ballot)			Seats
		absolutely	in %	Elected MPs	absolutely	in %	Elected MPs	Elected MPs	in %
	Extreme left	706.922	2.7	0	-	-	-	0	0.0
	Parti communiste français (PCF)	1,267,789	4.9	0	690.807	3.3	21st	21st	3.6
	Parti socialiste (PS)	6,142,656	23.8	2	7,481,990	35.3	138	140	24.3
	Parti radical de gauche (PRG)	389.780	1.5	0	455.360	2.1	7th	7th	1.2
	Pôle republicain	308,666	1.2	0	12,679	0.1	0	0	0.0
	Various lefts ( Divers gauche )	355.363	1.4	0	268,530	1.3	7th	7th	1.2
	Les Verts	1,145,781	4.4	0	677.929	3.2	3	3	0.5
	Green parties	297,333	1.2	0	-	-	-	0	0.0
	Regional parties	93,304	0.3	0	28,689	0.1	1	1	0.2
	Other	639,522	2.5	0	13,036	0.1	0	0	0
	Union for French Democracy (UDF)	1.240.104	4.8	6th	832.785	3.9	21st	27	4.7
	Démocratie libérale (DL)	156.026	0.4	2	123.352	-	-	2	0.3
	Union pour la majorité presidentielle (UMP)	8,620,070	33.4	46	10,029,762	47.3	312	358	62.0
	Various rights ( Divers droite )	1,299,174	5.0	4th	335.979	1.6	7th	11	1.9
	Front National (FN)	2,873,556	11.1	0	393.205	1.9	0	0	0.0
	Extreme rights	341,988	1.3	0	-	-	-	0	0.0
Registered voters		40.969.239	100.0		36,784,296	100.0
Non-voters		14,578,765	35.6		14,599,383	39.7
Voting total		26,390,474	64.4		22.184.913	60.3
Invalid votes and blank ballot papers		559,643	1.4		964.162	2.6
Total votes		25,830,831	63.0		21,220,751	57.7
Source: French Ministry of the Interior

Web links

• www.assemblee-nationale.fr (German)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lutz Krusche: First the President. Jospin forces Chirac to change the election calendar. Berliner Zeitung, December 22, 2000, accessed on June 27, 2012 .