All data on the French election
Direction decision in France: State President Macron enforces early parliamentary elections, expected right-wing shift remains absent. What will the majority relations in France look like after the second round? Cards, data, and infographics on the election outcome.
Surprising election result in France: One week after the first round, the power balance in the French National Assembly shifts to the left. In the second round of the early parliamentary elections in France, the recently formed Left Alliance (NFP, also known as "Union de la Gauche" or UG) unexpectedly rises to become the new strongest force, followed by Macron's Center-Right (Ensemble) and Marine Le Pen's Right (RN) on the third place.
According to the preliminary official vote count, the Left Alliance "New Popular Front" (NFP) secured 178 out of the total 577 seats in the Parliament. The right-national "Rassemblement National" (RN) landed in the decisive second round with 125 mandates - contrary to the general expectation after the first round - only in third place behind Macron's Center-Right, which will have 150 representatives in the National Assembly.
[Tip: The infographics of the second round of the 2024 French parliamentary election are being updated continuously.]
The vote count dragged on into the night. The French Interior Ministry published the preliminary official final result around 01:30 AM. At the time, the election outcome was still undecided in a few overseas constituencies. The surprising win of the Greens and Left had already become apparent in the TV networks' projections on the election night.
The Left Alliance NFP is now the strongest force in France, Le Pen's RN remains far from the intended absolute majority. The significant threshold lies at 289 seats. The governing Center-Right camp around Macron's "Ensemble" emerges unexpectedly solidly as the second strongest force from the hastily scheduled new election.
[Tip: This France map shows all constituencies where the winner has already been determined according to the vote count.]
None of the three major blocs have an absolute majority after the election. The question of government formation in France may still keep people engaged. Which coalition will form the future government is still largely open. France's State President Emmanuel Macron will wait and observe the final composition of the National Assembly, the Elysée Palace announced on the election night.
"The question will be whether a coalition with a majority can be formed to reach the 289 deputies," it was stated with regard to the number of deputies required for an absolute majority. Neither the Left Alliance, nor Macron's Ensemble nor Marine Le Pen's Right reached this threshold. Additionally, the government formation may be complicated by the deep divisions in the French party landscape. Macron had ruled out a coalition with the Left in the run-up to the election.
The election sets France in motion: Leading figures from Macron's "Ensemble" acknowledged the new power relations on the election night itself. France's Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced her resignation in light of the unexpected success of the Left Alliance. The Center-Right no longer holds a majority, she stated after the first projections were announced.
But Attal added that he was ready to stay in office in front of the upcoming Olympic Games in France "as long as duty requires it". President Macron is open to accepting Attal's resignation or not. Macron could also keep the cabinet as a caretaker government during the Olympic Games temporarily in power. The sporting and organizational mega-event ends on August 11.
The government camp must cope without an absolute majority in parliament for the time being. The Macron camp was the strongest force in the National Assembly with 250 seats before. The dissolution of the National Assembly was necessary, it was reported from Macron's entourage. This also showed the surprisingly high voter turnout, according to French media sources in the Elysée Palace. "They had declared the Center dead: it's still here, even after seven years in power."
The surprising victory of the Greens and the Far Left was made possible by tactical agreements between the more moderate parties. The left-green NFP alliance and Macron's "Ensemble" had withdrawn their respective candidates in more than 200 electoral districts before the second round to prevent the advance of the right-wing populists. This strategy seemed to have worked.
France must prepare for a time of political instability: The three camps could block each other in the National Assembly, paralyze the government, and plunge the country into political crises. The French Left is hostile to the Macron camp, and the Left Alliance is anything but united internally.
The former leader of the left-populist party "La France Insoumise" (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon made a claim to government formation on election night. "The New People's Front is ready to govern," he said. Premier Attal must go. LFI forms the largest group within the alliance, but Mélenchon is unwelcome among the other involved parties. "We have won," chanted the supporters of the left-green alliance.
In the first round of voting on June 30, Marine Le Pen's right-nationalist movement "Rassemblement National" (RN) made significant gains in many electoral districts. Most observers had assumed that this right-wing shift would be confirmed in the second round.
Measured by percentage points, Le Pen's Right could record significant gains. According to provisional counting results, 32 percent of the cast votes went to the Right-wing Nationals. In the first round, the RN party and its allies together received 35.8 percent of the votes. On the previous Sunday in the first round, the RN itself received 29.3 percent of the votes.
The left-wing alliance "Nouveau Front Populaire" (NFP/UG) came in first place with 27.99 percent in the first round and 25.7 percent in the second. The "Ensemble" camp of the Center around President Emmanuel Macron finished third in the first round with a vote share of 20.04 percent. France's Conservatives under "Les Républicains"-Chief Éric Ciotti (LR) could only muster 6.6 percent of the votes in the first round.
In the first round on June 30, 2024, seats were assigned in 76 of the 577 electoral districts. In these districts, the winners had each received more than 50 percent of local votes in the first round. A large number of these early decided electoral districts fell to the RN (37 seats) and the Left Alliance (32 seats).
The decision in 501 of the 577 electoral districts was still open before the second round on July 7. The number of deputies that each block or alliance could send to the French National Assembly would thus be determined by the outcome of the second round in the mass of these electoral districts.
Who's Running Against Whom? The ntv.de Coalition Calculator
Most of the candidates in the 501 still undecided electoral districts were from the RN (386), despite the fact that the Left Union qualified 412 female and male candidates for the second round. However, UG withdrew a total of 131 candidacies before the second round - for tactical reasons.
The goal of these tactical withdrawals is to prevent the splitting of votes in the anti-RN camp by having only one candidate run against each RN candidate. On Macron's "Ensemble" side, 76 candidates withdrew their candidacy. The RN, on the other hand, convinced only three female candidates to give up their chances in the second round. Such agreements between the first and second rounds are common in French elections.
[Tip: This France map shows the results of the first round in all electoral districts where the winner was determined after the first round.]
A total of 89 candidates were withdrawn in 89 of the 501 still open electoral districts after the first round. This led to a duel between two candidates in 409 electoral districts in the second round. In 89 electoral districts, three female candidates ran against each other, and in two electoral districts, there were even four.
The RN candidate was the winner in the first round in 222 electoral districts. In 37 other electoral districts, a female candidate from the Extreme Right Union was the strongest. The Left Union was the strongest in 124 electoral districts in the first round, and "Ensemble" in 60 electoral districts.
The seat distribution in the first round results was still largely open with only 76 seats definitively assigned. Approximately 49 million eligible voters were called upon to cast their votes for the new composition of the French National Assembly.
In the last polls before the election, the right-populist RN was seen as the favorite. It was also considered possible that France's right would achieve an absolute majority of 289 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly.
The political polarization in France led to an unusually high voter turnout: According to preliminary figures, around 67 percent of eligible voters participated in the second-round election on July 7. This marked the highest voter turnout in decades.
RN leader Jordan Bardella expressed his anger on election night: He criticized the Left and the government camp as a "league of shame" that had deprived the French people of a "policy of progress." The RN was once again "the only alternative."
[Tip: This France map shows the results of the first round on June 30, 2024.]
Marine Le Pen stressed that her party's victory was "only postponed". "I have too much experience to be disappointed with a result where we doubled the number of our deputies", Le Pen, who intends to run again as a presidential candidate, stated. The Conservatives, some of whom had expressed support for the RN, ended up with 57 to 67 seats.
The NFP Alliance - which is listed as a UG (unauthorized group) in the French Interior Ministry's data - celebrates itself as a major election winner. The left-wing populists, Socialists, Communists, and Greens had surprisingly joined forces for this alliance before the first round of parliamentary elections. However, they could not agree on a common candidate for the premiership.
Socialist leader Olivier Faure explicitly ruled out a possible "coalition" with the ruling camp. "The New People's Front must seize this new page in our history", Faure said. He emphasized that the pension reform, which raised the retirement age to 64, should be abolished. "It's time to tax the rich and super profits", he declared. The left-wing politician Raphaël Glucksmann called for dialogue and discussion.
The surveys before the first round of the elections had already hinted at significant shifts in France: The unexpectedly scheduled new elections set the political landscape in turmoil. State President Macron wanted to react to his party's surprising poor result in the European elections. However, the situation could not necessarily be simpler now.
Macron justified his surprising decision on the evening of the European elections by saying, "I cannot, at the end of this day, pretend that nothing has happened." Looking at the results of the European elections and his decision to call for new elections to the National Assembly, he added, "I trust in the ability of the French electorate to make the best choice for themselves and for future generations."
Macron's "Renaissance" Party suffered a heavy defeat in the European elections on June 9. As part of the "Besoin d'Europe" (BE) alliance with Renaissance, the "Ensemble" parties, and the Union of Democrats (UDI, "Union des démocrates et indépendants"), they only managed to get 14.6% of the votes.
577 electoral districts, 577 seats
The French Parliament consists of two chambers: the Senate and the National Assembly, with the ongoing elections only affecting the National Assembly. The legislative body comprises 577 seats. Elections took place in corresponding numbers of electoral districts according to the French majority electoral system.
Candidates who achieved an absolute majority - more than 50% of the votes - in the first round did not have to participate in the second round, provided they obtained more than a quarter of the votes in their constituency.
In constituencies where no candidate exceeded this threshold, the second round took place a week later: The top two candidates from the first round faced off against all constituency candidates who had received more than one eighth of the votes.
In general, parties reach an agreement before the second round of elections and thus usually no more than three candidates per constituency run. The mandate goes to the one who receives the most votes.
- Despite Emmanuel Macron's call for early parliamentary elections, the Left Alliance, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen's Right facing a significant threshold, ended up as the strongest and second strongest forces respectively in the French National Assembly.
- Held in Paris, the 2024 French parliamentary elections saw a surprising shift in power, with the Left Alliance securing 178 seats and Marine Le Pen's Right placing third with 125 seats, contrary to initial expectations.
- In the run-up to the 2024 French parliamentary elections, Emmanuel Macron's Center-Right (Ensemble) and Marine Le Pen's Right (RN) were expected to dominate, but the situation changed dramatically with the Left Alliance unexpectedly becoming the new strongest force in the National Assembly.
