1962 French legislative election

Legislative elections were held in France on 18 November and 25 November 1962 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.

1962 French legislative election

18 November 1962 (first round) 25 November 1962 (second round)
All 485 seats in the National Assembly 243 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	68.73% (first round) 72.30% (second round)
Party Leader % Seats UNR–UDT Georges Pompidou 31.94 229 PCF Maurice Thorez 21.84 41 SFIO Guy Mollet 12.54 65 MRP André Colin 9.09 36 PRV Maurice Faure 7.80 42 CNIP Camille Laurens 7.66 28 RI Valéry Giscard d'Estaing 5.94 20 PSU & far-left Édouard Depreux 2.33 2 Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Georges Pompidou UNR Georges Pompidou UNR

Politics of France
Constitutions Fifth Republic Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Executive President (list) Emmanuel Macron (LREM) Prime Minister (list) Élisabeth Borne (LREM) Government Borne
Legislature National Assembly: Membership President: Yaël Braun-Pivet Senate President: Gérard Larcher Congress of the French Parliament
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Related topics Human rights Political scandals
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Since 1959 and the change of Algerian policy (Charles de Gaulle decided in favour of the "self-government" and "Algerian Algeria"), France had faced bomb attacks by the Secret Armed Organization (Organisation armée secrète or OAS) which opposed the independence of Algeria, negotiated by the FLN with the March 1962 Evian agreements and approved by referendum by the French people. This policy was disapproved by some members of the "Presidential Majority".

Simultaneously, when Georges Pompidou replaced Michel Debré as prime minister, the center-right parties (MRP and CNIP) left the majority due to de Gaulle's eurosceptic declaration. Like the Left, they denounced the presidentialization of the regime.

On 22 August de Gaulle escaped from an assassination attempt by the OAS in Le Petit-Clamart. He subsequently announced a controversial referendum in which he proposed the election of the president of the French Republic under universal suffrage. The presidential majority composed of the UNR and the Independent Republicans (RI) (which came from a CNIP split) campaigned for a "yes", while all the other parties formed a "coalition of no" and brought down Pompidou's cabinet by a vote of no confidence (motion de censure).[1]

However, de Gaulle finally won the referendum and dissolved the National Assembly. During the legislative campaign, all the parties, except the UNR and the RI, criticized the "personal power" which they believed distorted France's Republican institutions. In the French political culture and in their mind, Republicanism was inseparable from parliamentary democracy and the reinforcement of the presidential powers was associated with Bonapartism. Contrary to the previous legislative election, the left-wing parties finalized an electoral agreement. The subsequent legislative elections saw advances for the left-wing opposition. However, conservative voters sanctioned the center-right parties, preferring to vote for the Gaullist party. Pompidou became Prime Minister again.