French legislative election, 1962

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French legislative elections took place on November 18 and 25, 1962 to elect the 2nd National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.

Since 1959 and the change of Algerian policy (Charles de Gaulle decided in favour of the "self-government" and "Algerian Algeria"), France 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 August 22, de Gaulle escaped from an assassination attempt by the OAS in Le Petit-Clamart. He subsequently announced a 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 refusing to vote for a confidence motion in the Parliament.

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. Indeed, in the French political culture and in their mind, Republicanism was inseperable 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.

[edit] Results

[discuss] – [edit]

Parties and coalitions		Abbr.	Votes (1st round)	% (1st round)	Seats (2nd round)
	Union for the New Republic/ Democratic Union of Labour (Union pour la nouvelle République/ Union démocratique du travail)	UNR/ UDT	5 855 744	31.9	229
	Popular Republican Movement (Mouvement républicain populaire)	MRP	1 665 695	9.1	36
	National Center of Independent and Peasants (Centre national des indépendants et paysans)	CNIP	1 404 177	7.7	28
	Independent Republicans (Républicains indépendants)	RI	1 089 348	5.9	20
	Total Right ("Presidential Majority", MRP and CNIP)		10 014 964	54.6	313
	French Communist Party (Parti communiste français)	PCF	4 003 553	21.8	41
	French Section of the Workers International (Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière)	SFIO	2 298 729	12.5	65
	Radical Party (Parti radical)	PR	1 429 649	7.8	44
	Unified Socialist Party (Parti socialiste unifié)	PSU	427 467	2.3	2
	Total Left		8 159 398	44.5	152
	Far-Right		159 429	0.9	-
	Total		18 333 791	100	465
Abstention: 31.3% (1st round); 27.9% (2nd round)

[edit] 3^nd National Assembly by Parliamentary Group

Group		Members	Caucusing	Total
	UDR-UDT Group	216	17	233
	Socialist Group	64	2	66
	Democratic Centre Group	51	4	55
	Communist Group	41	0	41
	RD Group	35	4	39
	Independent Republicans Group	32	3	35
	Non-Inscrits	13	0	13
	Total:	452	30	482

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