A French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

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. 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 The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...

promising to reduce the "social fracture". However, the programme of welfare reforms ("Plan Juppé") proposed by his Prime Minister

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced major strikes that paralysed the cou ...

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 The Gauche Plurielle (French for ''Plural Left'') was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of the Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), the French Communist Party (''Parti communiste français'' or PCF), the Greens, the Left Rad ...

" coalition, composed of the

Socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the econ ...

, 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 Socialists 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 Events January–March * January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed ''Empress of India'' by the ''Royal Titles Act 1876'', introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . * January 8 – Great ...

that a

lost a legislative election that 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 unexpectedly lost in the first round, causing his retirement from politics.

Results

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" rowspan=2 colspan=3 , Parties and coalitions ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" colspan=2 , 1st round ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" colspan=2 , 2nd round ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" rowspan=2, Total seats , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

, style="text-align:right;" , PS , style="text-align:right;" , 5,977,045 , style="text-align:right;" , 23.49 , style="text-align:right;" , 9,722,022 , style="text-align:right;" , 38.20 , style="text-align:right;" , 255 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European ...

, style="text-align:right;" , PCF , style="text-align:right;" , 2,523,405 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.92 , style="text-align:right;" , 921,716 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.62 , style="text-align:right;" , 35 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , The Greens , style="text-align:right;" , LV , style="text-align:right;" , 1,738,287 , style="text-align:right;" , 6.83 , style="text-align:right;" , 414,871 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.63 , style="text-align:right;" , 7 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Miscellaneous Left , style="text-align:right;" , DVG , style="text-align:right;" , 713,082 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.80 , style="text-align:right;" , 543,789 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.14 , style="text-align:right;" , 4 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Radical-Socialist Party , style="text-align:right;" , PRS , style="text-align:right;" , 389,782 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.53 , style="text-align:right;" , 558,959 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.20 , style="text-align:right;" , 12 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Citizens' Movement , style="text-align:right;" , MDC , style="text-align:right;" , 263,490 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.04 , style="text-align:right;" , ''see DVG'' , style="text-align:right;" , ''see DVG'' , style="text-align:right;" , 7 , - style="background-color:pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total "Plural Left" , , style="text-align:right;" , 11,605,091 , style="text-align:right;" , 45.61 , style="text-align:right;" , 12,161,357 , style="text-align:right;" , 47.79 , style="text-align:right;" , 320 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Rally for the Republic , style="text-align:right;" , RPR , style="text-align:right;" , 3,983,257 , style="text-align:right;" , 15.65 , style="text-align:right;" , 5,714,354 , style="text-align:right;" , 22.46 , style="text-align:right;" , 139 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Union for French Democracy , style="text-align:right;" , UDF , style="text-align:right;" , 3,617,440 , style="text-align:right;" , 14.22 , style="text-align:right;" , 5,284,203 , style="text-align:right;" , 20.07 , style="text-align:right;" , 112 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Miscellaneous Right Miscellaneous right (', ''DVD'') in France refers to right-wing candidates who are not members of any large party. This can include members of small right-wing parties, dissidents expelled from their party for running against their party's can ...

, style="text-align:right;" , DVD , style="text-align:right;" , 1,073,014 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.22 , style="text-align:right;" , 594,862 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.34 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , The Independent Right , style="text-align:right;" , LDI , style="text-align:right;" , 606,355 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.38 , style="text-align:right;" , ''see DVD'' , style="text-align:right;" , ''see DVD'' , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - style="background-color:lightblue" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total " Presidential Majority" (Right) , , style="text-align:right;" , 9,280,066 , style="text-align:right;" , 36.50 , style="text-align:right;" , 11,593,419 , style="text-align:right;" , 46.02 , style="text-align:right;" , 253 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , National Front , style="text-align:right;" , FN , style="text-align:right;" , 3,800,785 , style="text-align:right;" , 14.94 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,434,854 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.64 , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Far-Left , , style="text-align:right;" , 644,051 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.53 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Miscellaneous , , style="text-align:right;" , 354,249 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.39 , style="text-align:right;" , ? , style="text-align:right;" , ? , style="text-align:right;" , 3 , - , style="background-color:;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Others

Far-Right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

, , style="text-align:right;" , 26,759 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.11 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 25,423,790 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 25,189,630 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 577 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=8 , Abstention: 32.09% (1st round); 28.48% (2nd round)

11th Assembly by Parliamentary Group

{{DEFAULTSORT:French Legislative Election, 1997

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1997 elections in France May 1997 events in Europe June 1997 events in Europe