On 30 June, France held early legislative elections. In the first round, 577 seats of the lower parliamentary house, the National Assembly, were contested. A second round of voting took place on 7 July. The newly created coalition of left-wing parties, the New Popular Front (Nouveau Front Populaire, NFP), won 182 seats, followed by the centrist Together (Ensemble) coalition with 168 seats, and the far-right National Rally party with 143 seats. Though the National Rally won the highest vote share in the first round of voting (33.35 per cent of the vote), the second round saw the party fall to third place after other political parties, including those in the New Popular Front and Together coalitions, withdrew 221 candidates to avoid three-way runoffs. Voter turnout was 66.71 per cent in the first round, and 66.63 per cent in the second, significantly higher than the voter turnout in the 2022 legislative elections. In the new legislature, women hold 36 per cent of the seats, compared to 37.3 per cent previously.

Sources: Le Monde (1), Le Monde (2), France Info, Le Figaro, Vie Publique, The New York Times, International IDEA, IPU

On 5 June, Parliament approved legislation requiring individuals, entities or political parties working to promote the interests of a foreign state outside of the EU to report their activities to the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), with some exceptions for diplomatic and consular staff stationed in France. The measures are based on recommendations from an April OECD report suggesting that France implement a scheme to regulate lobbying activities for foreign interests. The HATVP’s register of activities is planned to be established on 1 July 2025. In addition to these efforts to boost transparency, the law also expands intelligence tools to identify potential perpetrators of foreign interference. Another key feature of the law allows intelligence services to use “algorithmic surveillance” (a practice currently only permitted to combat terrorism) to detect cyberattacks or other interference operations on an experimental basis until June 2028. Some left-wing parties have objected, fearing repercussions for individual freedoms, and impacts on certain journalists, foreign NGOs and opposition parties.

Source: Vie Publique (1), Vie Publique (2), Euractiv, Public Senat, OECD, RFERL, Le Monde

On 28 May, the Constitutional Council ruled that undocumented immigrants have the right to access legal aid on the same terms as French citizens, citing the constitutional principle of equality before the law. As a result, undocumented immigrants are now eligible to receive state support to pay for a lawyer, including at the National Court of Asylum. Previously, only French citizens and foreign nationals legally residing in France were eligible (the latter group since 1991), with some exceptions for undocumented minors and defendants in criminal proceedings. 

Sources: Constitutional Council, InfoMigrants, Service Public, FranceInfo 

On 15 May, President Macron declared a state of emergency after violent riots in New Caledonia, an archipelago in the Pacific which became a French overseas territory in 1946 following colonisation by France. The declaration prompted the closure of La Tontouta airport, restrictions on social media access, deployment of French security forces, and a temporary curfew and ban on gatherings in Nouméa, New Caledonia’s capital.  The riots occurred in response to the 14 May vote in the National Assembly, France’s lower parliamentary house, to approve a constitutional amendment to increase the number of French nationals eligible to vote in New Caledonia. Local leaders have voiced concerns that the changes will diminish the vote of the Indigenous Kanak people, who comprise 41 per cent of the population. The law is currently suspended, after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved France’s National Assembly and called for snap legislative elections.

Sources:  French Government, FranceInfo, LCP, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, ConstitutionNet

On 22 May, a new law regulating online activity entered into force, aimed at protecting users online, particularly minors, including by preventing online harassment and tackling fraud. The law, known as SREN (sécuriser et réguler l’espace numérique, Securing and Regulating the Digital Space), was approved by Parliament on 10 April 2024. The law includes the possibility to suspend people convicted of criminal offenses online from social media platforms for six months and to block access to pornographic websites without requiring a court injunction. Additionally, the law cracks down on the publication of deep fake media content online and enables regulatory authority Arcom to order operators to halt the broadcasting of foreign ‘propaganda’ media under EU sanctions within 72 hours. The Constitutional Council annulled certain provisions on 17 May, including the creation of an offense of online contempt, which would criminalise the dissemination of offensive or discriminatory content, for disproportionately infringing on freedom of expression. In 2023, the European Commission issued two separate opinions warning France about the bill’s compliance with EU law. ARTICLE 19, an international rights organisation, has expressed concerns over the bill’s potential to grant the French government power to censor websites with minimal public accountability.

Sources: Vie Publique, Constitutional Council, Euractiv, Legifrance, Le Monde, Sciences Politiques, ARTICLE 19, European Commission

France became one of the first countries in the world to protect the right to abortion in its Constitution. The amendment to Article 34 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom for a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy. The amendment comfortably cleared the three-fifths majority vote in Parliament required for constitutional reform. It was passed by the upper house (the Senate) on 28 February, with 267 votes for and 50 against, and by the lower house (the National Assembly) on 4 March with 780 votes for and 72 against. A 2023 poll shows that 82 per cent of the French population believes abortion should be legal, among the highest levels of support in Europe. The government expressed that the decision to protect the right to abortion in the Constitution followed a rollback of abortion rights across Europe and around the world, including the 2022 decision by the Supreme Court to strip women of the right to abortion in the United States.

Sources: National Assembly, The Senate, Le Monde, IPSOS