1973 French legislative election
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All 490 seats in the National Assembly 246 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 81.22% (first round) 81.78% (second round) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Legislative elections were held in France on 4 and 11 March 1973,
In order to end the
In order to respond to the discontent expressed during May 1968, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the left-wing Gaullist who led the cabinet, promoted a programme of reforms for the advent of a "New Society", which advocated social dialogue and political liberalisation. This worried the conservative part of the Presidential Majority and Pompidou himself. Furthermore, Chaban-Delmas was accused, by the presidential circle, to want strengthen his powers to the detriment of Pompidou. In 1972, Chaban-Delmas is replaced by Pierre Messmer, a classical and conservative Gaullist.
After Gaston Defferre's catastrophic result in the 1969 presidential election, the SFIO was replaced by the Socialist Party (PS), formed by the SFIO's merger with an array of political clubs on the democratic left. Two years later, François Mitterrand's Convention of Republican Institutions joined the PS. He took the party's lead during the Epinay Congress, and proposed to form an alliance with the French Communist Party (PCF). In order to prepare the legislative elections, Communists and Socialists signed the Programme commun.
The
The Programme commun was the main issue of the campaign. Its defenders pleaded the necessity to nationalize banks and companies which were in a situation of monopoly. The members of the Presidential Majority denounced a
Whilst the left won an increased number of votes and MPs, the Presidential Majority won the election. The Gaullist UDR lost one third of its parliamentary seats due to the growth of the Left and electoral agreements with its allies, the
Results
Party | First round | Second round | Total seats | |||
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Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Union of Republicans for Progress | 8,242,661 | 34.76 | 10,701,135 | 45.62 | 262 | |
French Communist Party | 5,063,981 | 21.35 | 4,893,876 | 20.86 | 73 | |
Socialist Party–MGRS | 4,899,965 | 20.66 | 5,564,610 | 23.72 | 101 | |
Reformist Movement | 2,967,481 | 12.51 | 1,631,978 | 6.96 | 32 | |
Unified Socialist Party and far-left | 781,976 | 3.30 | 114,540 | 0.49 | 3 | |
Presidential majority | 779,259 | 3.29 | 337,399 | 1.44 | 14 | |
Miscellaneous right | 679,684 | 2.87 | 21,053 | 0.09 | 2 | |
Miscellaneous left | 299,938 | 1.26 | 191,441 | 0.82 | 3 | |
Total | 23,714,945 | 100.00 | 23,456,032 | 100.00 | 490 | |
Valid votes | 23,714,945 | 97.77 | 23,456,032 | 96.68 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 541,877 | 2.23 | 804,390 | 3.32 | ||
Total votes | 24,256,822 | 100.00 | 24,260,422 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 29,865,345 | 81.22 | 29,666,161 | 81.78 | ||
Source: Quid, IPU |