1997 French legislative election

A French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline.

1997 French National Assembly

1997 French legislative election

25 May and 1 June 1997
All 577 seats to the French National Assembly 289 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	68.9% (1.0 pp) (1st round) 71.5% (2.6 pp) (2nd round)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Lionel Jospin Alain Juppé François Léotard Party PS RPR UDF Leader's seat Haute-Garonne-7th Gironde-2nd Var-5th Last election 53 seats 242 seats 207 seats Seats won 255 139 112 Seat change 202 103 95 Popular vote 5,977,045 (1st round) 9,722,022 (2nd round) 3,983,257 (1st round) 5,714,354 (2nd round) 3,617,440 (1st round) 5,284,203 (2nd round) Percentage 23.49% (1st round) 38.20% (2nd round) 15.65% (1st round) 22.46% (2nd round) 14.22% (1st round) 20.07% (2nd round)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Robert Hue Dominique Voynet Jean-Marie Le Pen Party PCF LV FN Leader's seat none none Last election 24 seats 0 seats 1 seat Seats won 35 7 1 Seat change 9 7 0 Popular vote 2,523,405 (1st round) 921,716 (2nd round) 1,738,287 (1st round) 414,871 (2nd round) 3,800,785 (1st round) 1,434,854 (2nd round) Percentage 9.92% (1st round) 3.62% (2nd round) 2.80% (1st round) 1.63% (2nd round) 14.94% (1st round) 5.64% (2nd round)
Map of results by constituency
PM before election Alain Juppé RPR Elected PM Lionel Jospin PS

In March 1993, the right won a large victory in the legislative election and a comfortable parliamentary majority. Two years later, the RPR leader Jacques Chirac was elected President of France promising to reduce the "social fracture". However, the programme of welfare reforms ("Plan Juppé") proposed by his Prime Minister Alain Juppé caused a social crisis in November and December 1995. The popularity of the executive duo decreased.

In spring 1997, President Chirac tried to take the left-wing opposition by surprise by dissolving the National Assembly. The first opinion polls indicated a re-election of the right-wing majority. The "Plural Left" coalition, composed of the Socialists, the Communists, the Greens, the Citizens' Movement and the Left Radicals, proposed a program of social reforms to reduce unemployment and legislation to limit the length of the work week to 35 hours. Prime Minister Juppé's unpopularity, as well as the unpopularity of his government's policies, contributed to the left's triumph.

In the first round, the left-wing coalition obtained more votes than the incumbent parliamentary majority. After he was blamed for the situation, Juppé announced he would resign even if the right kept their majority in the runoff vote. For all that, the "Plural left" obtained the majority of the seats. However the Socialist Party needed its allies to form a majority. For the first time, the ecologists were represented in the Parliament. The participation of the National Front's candidates in the second round increased the defeat of the "Presidential majority".

This was the first time since 1877 that a President of France lost a legislative election which he had called. The Socialist leader Lionel Jospin became Prime Minister of the third "cohabitation". It finished with the 2002 French presidential election, which Jospin lost the election in the first round.