French Elections
AS OF 2026-07-22 · 77 CONTESTS · legislative, June–July 2024 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
Next election · presidential, April 2027 · Capital · Paris in the metro rankings →
Where the chamber sits · 4.1 of 10, left to right, spread 2.5 →
Every French legislative election from the Revolution of 1791 to the snap vote of 2024, and every Fifth Republic presidential election from 1958 to 2022: the results, the leaders and the story of each, across five republics, two empires and three monarchies.
Legislative elections
65
1791–2024, across every regime since 1791
Presidential elections
12
1958–2022, Fifth Republic
National Assembly seats
577
289 for a majority
President today
Emmanuel Macron
re-elected 2022 · next due 2027
Presidential elections
The Fifth Republic's twelve presidential contests, newest first, one by electoral college in 1958, then by direct two-round vote since 1965. Click any election for both rounds in full.
Shocks and recompositions · 2002–2022
Le Pen's 2002 first-round shock and the republican front, Sarkozy and Hollande's single terms, and Macron's 2017 demolition of the old party system, confirmed in the 2022 rematch — every election since 2002 has had a National Front or National Rally candidate in or near the runoff.
The age of alternance · 1974–1995
Giscard's narrow 1974 win over Mitterrand, Mitterrand's revenge in 1981 that brought the left to power for the first time in the Fifth Republic, his 1988 re-election over Chirac, and Chirac's 1995 victory — two decades in which left and right traded the Élysée.
Founding the presidency · 1958–1969
De Gaulle was first chosen by an electoral college of notables in 1958; the 1962 referendum then gave France direct presidential election. The 1965 contest — the first direct vote for a head of state in France since 1848 — forced de Gaulle to a runoff, and 1969 elected his heir Pompidou after his resignation.
Legislative elections
Every election to France's lower chamber, newest first, grouped into seven eras from the Revolution to the Fifth Republic. Click any election for the full result and the story.
The Fifth Republic · 1958–2024
De Gaulle's republic restored single-member seats with two rounds of voting, manufacturing majorities for two generations: Gaullist dominance, the alternances of 1981 and 1986, three cohabitations — until 2022 and 2024 delivered hung parliaments and the return of coalition arithmetic.
NFP 180Ensemble 159RN/UXD 142others 57
LREM 245LFI 131RN 89others 48
LREM 350LR 136PS 45others 21
PS 280UMP 194EELV 17others 74
UMP 313PS 186MoDem 3others 75
UMP 357PS 140others 80
PS 255RPR 139UDF 112others 28
RPR 247UDF 213PS 53others 40
PS 262PCF 27FN 1others 287
UOR 277PS 207PCF 35others 19
PS 269RPR 85UDF 62others 31
RPR 150UDF 121PS 104others 30
UDR 272PS 102PCF 73others 14
UDR 354FGDS 57PCF 34others 9
UDR 240FGDS 118PCF 73others 14
UNR 189SFIO 40PRV 37others 300
Liberation and the Fourth Republic · 1945–1956
Women voted for the first time in the Liberation election of 1945. Proportional representation produced a three-party system of Communists, Socialists and Christian democrats, then the unstable coalitions — and the 1956 chamber that collapsed into the Algiers crisis of 1958.
French Communist Party 147PCF 147Moderates 95
Rally of the French People 107RPF 107French Communist Party 97
French Communist Party 148PCF 148Popular Republican Movement 141
The Third Republic · 1871–1936
Born from defeat in 1871 with a monarchist assembly, the Third Republic confounded expectations for sixty-five years: the Seize Mai crisis of 1877 settled that governments answer to parliament, and elections swung between radical, moderate and socialist combinations down to the Popular Front of 1936.
SFIO 149Republican Left 95PCF 72others 296
PRRRS 320Radical Socialist Party 157French Section of the Workers' International 129
Democratic and Republican Union 182Radical Socialist Party 120PRV 120
Democratic and Republican Union 204URD 204Radical Socialist Party–Republican-Socialist Party 162
Republican Union 201Radical Party 106Conservatives and independents 88
Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party 140PRV 140French Section of the Workers' International 103
Radical Socialists 148PRV 148Republican Union 116
Left Bloc 357Radical-Socialist Party 132Independent Radicals 115
Left Bloc 338Independent Radicals 129Progressive Republicans 127
Progressives 254Independent Radicals 104Radical-Socialists 74others 46
Moderate Republicans 279Radicals 143Conservatives 76
Moderate Republicans 216Independent Radicals 100Monarchists 86others 102
Opportunist Republicans 200Moderates 83Monarchists 73others 228
Republican Union 204Republican Left 168Bonapartists 46
Republican Union 313Bonapartists 104Legitimists 44others 49
Republican Left 193Republican Union 98Bonapartists 76others 166
Republicans 249Orléanists 223Legitimists 185
Second Republic and Second Empire · 1848–1869
The Republic of 1848 introduced universal male suffrage at a stroke — nine million voters where a quarter-million had been. Louis-Napoléon's coup turned elections into managed plebiscites with official candidates, yet by 1869 the opposition's third of the vote signalled the Empire's liberalisation and coming end.
Liberal Bonapartists 120Conservative Bonapartists 92Legitimists 41
Bonapartists 251Republicans 17Legitimists 15
Bonapartists 276Republicans 7
Party of Order 450Democratic Socialists 180Montagnard 180
Moderate Republicans 600Party of Order 200Montagnard 80
The July Monarchy · 1831–1846
Louis Philippe's citizen-kingship doubled the electorate but kept it to the wealthy few. Elections turned on shades of liberalism — Movement against Resistance — while republicans, excluded from the ballot, organised in the streets that would rise in 1848.
Votes 163% 142Seats 64others 90
The Restoration · 1815–1830
Under the restored Bourbons a tiny propertied electorate — never much above 100,000 voters — chose the Chamber of Deputies. Ultra-royalists and liberals traded ascendancy until the liberal victory of 1830 provoked Charles X's ordinances and the July Revolution that ended the dynasty.
Left-wing opposition 199Ministerials 195Right-wing opposition 31others 5
Rightists 411Liberal 17
Liberal Party 37Ministerials 5Ultra-royalist 3others 3
Doctrinaires 136Ultra-royalist 92Republicans–Bonapartists 20
Ultra-royalist 350Opposition 50
Revolution and Empire · 1791–May 1815
From the first Legislative Assembly of 1791 through the Convention that abolished the monarchy, the Directory's managed contests and Napoleon's Hundred Days chamber, French elections were born in upheaval — franchise, method and meaning changing with each regime.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Two turnouts, two stories
Presidential elections still draw quorums above 70%, but legislative turnout collapsed once the Assembly vote became the presidency's echo, from 80% before 2002 to under 48% in 2022, before 2024's snap election snapped it back.
The runoff verdicts, 1965–2022
The winner's second-round share: Giscard's 50.8% squeaker in 1974, Chirac's 82% republican-front landslide against Le Pen in 2002, and Macron's narrowing rematch margin in 2022.
Records & superlatives
Highest legislative turnout
84.5%
1936 legislative election
Lowest legislative turnout
47.5%
2022 legislative election
Biggest runoff win
82.2%
Jacques Chirac, 2002
Closest runoff
50.8%
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 1974
Highest presidential turnout
84.8%
1965 presidential election, first round
Biggest share of the chamber
97.5%
Bonapartists, 1857: 276 of 283 seats
How French elections work
Two rounds, always
Both the presidency and Assembly seats use runoffs: if nobody wins outright, the top candidates meet again two weeks later. Round one is for choosing, round two for eliminating, the system that built the 'republican front'.
President and Assembly
The president is head of state, but governments answer to the Assembly. When the two disagree, 1986, 1993, 1997, France gets cohabitation: a president of one camp, a prime minister of the other.
The five-year alignment
Since 2002 presidential terms match the Assembly's, with legislative elections held weeks after the presidential vote, designed to hand new presidents a majority, which worked every time until 2022.
A history of franchises
France has voted under property qualifications, universal male suffrage (1848, a European first), and full universal suffrage only from 1945, the same country, five republics, and a dozen electoral systems along the way.