French legislative elections 2022 : a flash report

Multidimension desk
Written by: Parshi Barua

Photo: Shutterstock.com

In the legislative elections, the French voters elect 577 representatives to sit in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, for 5 years, which forms the legislative power with the upper house, The Senate. These two control the government and they propose, study et vote bills to make laws.

The first round of legislative elections took place on June 12, 2022. Polling stations were open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (8 p.m. in major cities). The rate of abstention was all time high at 52.49% compared to 51.29% in 2017.

Three parties came out on top:

Ensemble (Together)! the union of parties supporting President Emmanuel Macron obtained 25.75% of the votes and came first.

The NUPES (New Popular Union Ecological and Social), the union of left-wing parties led by Jean Luc Mélenchon ranked second with 25.66% of votes.

The National Rally, the party of Marine Le Pen, came 3rd with 18.88% of votes. These results were used only to calculate the cumulative votes casted in the first round and not for the composition of party wise seats in the National Assembly.

According to an Ipsos Sopra Steria poll, among the 18-25 years age group, 42% voted for the NUPES, 18% voted for the National Rally and 13% for the Ensemble!

Following the first round results, 5 candidates were declared elected, 4 from the NUPES and 1 candidate from the Ensemble, who received more than 50% of the total vote casted in their respective constituencies.

On June 19, 2022, the second round of legislative elections took place. According to figures published by the Ministry of the Interior, the abstention rose to 53.77% from 52.49% recorded in the first round.

In the second round, the Ensemble won 245 seats. The NUPES won 131 seats and the National Rally recorded an unprecedented score bagging 89 seats. The Republicans will be 61 in the National Assembly. As for the Union of Democrats and Independents, they managed to obtain 3 seats. Other parties have 48 seats. But no Reconquest candidate! (the party of Eric Zemmour) was elected.

On June 20, the elected deputies were welcomed to the National Assembly. June 21, 2022 marked the end of the term of the National Assembly elected in 2017 and on Tuesday, June 28, the first session of the elected Assembly will take place as well as the election of the President of the National Assembly.

As the presidential union Ensemble failed to acquire an absolute majority, it will need coalition partners to form the next government. A lot of challenges ahead.