France - July 2024
No clear majority following snap legislative elections
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
