Parliamentary Elections, 30 June and 7 July 2024

The first round of France’s 2024 elections took place on 30 June, and the second round on 7 July. In legislative elections, a candidate wins by gaining an absolute majority in the first round (providing they receive a number of votes equal to at least 25 per cent of registered voters in the constituency) or a simple majority in the second; the run-offs being between all those who received a number of votes equal to at least 12.5 per cent of registered voters in the constituency (IFES n.d.). 

The responsible election management body is the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories. The Ministry works together with mayors in France to organize both local and national elections. Elections in France are supervised by the Constitutional Council, whose members are appointed by the President as well as the presidents of both houses of parliament – the National Assembly and Senate (ACE n.d.a.).

The timing of the election was the decision of right-of-centre President Emmanuel Macron, following the European Parliament elections (July 2024) which had registered increased support for the Rassemblement National (RN), a far-right party led by Marine Le Pen (Macron’s second-round opponent for the presidency in 2017 and 2022). This involved Macron dissolving the National Assembly – something which has not happened since 1997 (Breeden 2024). The 577 MPs are directly elected for five-year terms (whereas senators are indirectly elected and serve nine-year terms, a third of them renewable every three years). Because the president is directly elected by a different schedule and appoints the prime minister, there is scope for mismatch in party/policy affiliation between these post-holders. This made calling the snap election a calculated risk on President Macron’s part (Breeden 2024).     

Citizens who are homebound due to health reasons, imprisoned or residing in a different municipality than where they are registered, have the option to vote by proxy (International IDEA 2020). Citizens residing abroad can vote at polling stations or online (OSCE 2024). Voting in parliamentary elections is voluntary in France (ACE n.d.b)

During the campaign, disinformation was prevalent on social media, with around 100 to 200 posts per week redirecting users to the Russian disinformation site RRN or sites identical to French media. The majority of posts criticized Macron or promoted the RN. Some posed as being from Macron’s party (ABC/AP 2024). Foreign accounts on social media used paid advertisements sought to discredit Macron by, among others, criticizing France’s support to Ukraine (Sam 2024).

AI was used by political parties such as RN and Reconquête Officiel (Reconquest) to spread campaign messages against the EU, migration and migrants (see: e.g., L'Europe Sans Eux 2024; Zemmour 2024; Reconquete 2024).

Several instances of election-related violence occurred during the campaign including verbal (racist, antisemitic and homophobic) and physical attacks. For instance, government spokeswoman and candidate Prisca Thevenot was attacked along with members of her team—one of whom was injured, leading to arrests—while attempting to stop a group of young people defacing posters (Fournier 2024; Kennedy et al, 2024). 30,000 police were deployed across France for public security duties during the election’s second round (Vidalon 2024). 

The winners of the legislative with 188 seats in the National Assembly were the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) alliance, with President Macron’s alliance in second place. The far-right RN and its allies had led in the first round but came third with 142 seats. No party managed to gain an overall majority, (Cokelare and Goury-Laffont 2024) resulting in political impasse over who should be invited to form a government.

The election results showed a decrease in female representation: from 37.5 per cent of MPs in 2022 to 36 per cent in 2024 (IPU 2024).

Voter turnout in the first round was at 66.71 per cent, and in the second round 66.63 per cent. Compared to the parliamentary elections of 2022 (47.51 per cent and 46.23 per cent) there was a very notable increase in participation (International IDEA n.d.). 

The Constitutional Counsil received 81 appeals against the 2024 elections results. Among these, ahead of the election, was an appeal against dissolving the National Assembly and holding surprise elections. The appeals were rejected by the Constitutional Counsil (Vie publique 2024).

The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights expressed high confidence in the integrity of the electoral process. The only criticisms being toward a need for further implementation of the short election calendar, the financing and regulation of the campaign, and media’s role within elections. There was furthermore a recommendation to pay attention to underrepresented groups in the electoral process (OSCE 2024).