The French legislative elections took place on 9 and 16 June 2002 to elect the 12th

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 rep ...

of the Fifth Republic, in a context of political crisis. The Socialist Prime Minister

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

announced his political retirement after his elimination at the first round of the

2002 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 21 April 2002, with a runoff election between the top two candidates, incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, on 5 May. This presidential ...

. President

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as ...

was easily reelected, all the Republican parties having called to block far-right leader

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated from ...

. Chirac's conservative supporters created the

Union for the Presidential Majority The Union for the Presidential Majority (french: Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle UMP) is the ruling political coalition in Djibouti. The coalition supports the Presidency of Ismaïl Omar Guelleh. The coalition originally formed to conte ...

(''Union pour la majorité présidentielle'' or UMP) to prepare for the legislative elections. The first round of the presidential election was a shock for the two main coalitions. The candidates of the parliamentary right obtained 32% of votes, and the candidates of the "Plural Left" only 27%. In the first polls, for the legislative elections, they were equal. The UMP campaigned against "

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a Romance (love), romantic or Human sexuality, sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such a ...

", which is blamed for causing confusion profitable to the far-right and far-left.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howeve ...

, a relatively low-profile politician who said he would listen to "France at the bottom", was chosen as the party's candidate for Prime Minister. Without a real leader, and staggered by the results of 21 April, the left was in difficulty. The Socialist chairman

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle f ...

tried to revive the "Plural Left" under the name of "United Left"; but the effort was undermined by the fact that it did not have a sufficiently concrete programme. Furthermore, the left-wing parties could not motivate their voters against an unrecognized and apparently uncontroversial politician like Raffarin. In addition part of the left-wing electorate did not want a new "cohabitation". Finally, the polls indicated a growing advantage for the Presidential Majority. The right won the elections and the UMP obtained a large parliamentary majority of 394 seats. For the third time under the Fifth Republic, a party acquired an absolute majority (the "blue surge"). Five months later, it became the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...

. On the left, the Socialist Party achieved a better result than at the winning 1997 elections, but its allies were crushed. The far-left returned towards its usual level. In far-right, the National Front lost the half of its 5 May voters.

Opinion polls

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! colspan="4" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;", Parties and coalitions ! colspan="3", First round ! colspan="3", Second round ! colspan="3", Total , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! width="75", Votes ! width="30", % ! width="30", Seats ! width="75", Votes ! width="30", % ! width="30", Seats ! width="30", Seats ! width="30", % , - , style="background-color:#B9DAFF;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="6", , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

, UMP , 8,408,023 , 33.30 , 48 , 10,026,669 , 47.26 , 309 , 357 , 61.87 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Union for French Democracy The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order ...

, UDF , 1,226,462 , 4.86 , 6 , 832,785 , 3.92 , 23 , 29 , 5.03 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Miscellaneous Right Miscellaneous right (', ''DVD'') in France refers to right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically suppor ...

, DVD , 921,973 , 3.65 , 3 , 274,374 , 1.29 , 5 , 8 , 1.39 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Liberal Democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...

, DL , 104,767 , 0.41 , 1 , – , – , 1 , 2 , 0.35 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;", Rally for France , RPF , 94,222 , 0.37 , 0 , 61,605 , 0.29 , 2 , 2 , 0.35 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Movement for France The Movement for France (french: Mouvement pour la France, MPF; ) was a conservative, soft Eurosceptic and Gaullist French political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It was led by Philippe ...

, MPF , 202,831 , 0.80 , 1 , – , – , 1 , 1 , 0.17 , - style="background-color:#B9DAFF" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4",

Presidential majority In French politics, the presidential majority ( ''French'': ''majorité présidentielle'') designates the political parties and parliamentary groups in the Parliament of France which support the action of the President of France when they are in ...

(right) , 10,958,278 , 43.39 , 59 , 11,195,433 , 52.76 , 340 , 399 , 69.15 , - , style="background-color:#FFC6D5;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="5", , 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 t ...

, PS , 6,086,599 , 24.11 , 1 , 7,482,169 , 35.26 , 139 , 140 , 24.26 , - , 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 Un ...

, PCF , 1,216,178 , 4.82 , 0 , 690,807 , 3.26 , 21 , 21 , 3.64 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Radical Party of the Left The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the S ...

, PRG , 388,891 , 1.54 , 0 , 455,360 , 2.15 , 7 , 7 , 1.21 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Miscellaneous Left Miscellaneous left (', ''DVG'') in France refers to left-wing candidates who are not members of any party or a member of party that has no elected seats. They include either small left-wing parties or dissidents expelled from their parties for ru ...

, DVG , 275,533 , 1.09 , 0 , 268,715 , 1.27 , 6 , 6 , 1.04 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;", The Greens , VEC , 1,138,222 , 4.51 , 0 , 677,933 , 3.19 , 3 , 3 , 0.52 , - style="background-color:#FFC6D5" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Parliamentary left , 9,105,423 , 36.07 , 1 , 9,574,984 , 45.13 , 177 , 178 , 30.85 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Miscellaneous , DIV , 194,946 , 0.77 , 0 , 13,036 , 0.06 , 1 , 1 , 0.17 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", National Front , FN , 2,862,960 , 11.34 , 0 , 393,205 , 1.85 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions The Rurality Movement (, LMR), formerly Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions (french: Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions; ; CPNT, ) is an agrarianist political party in France that aims to defend the traditional values of rural France. Its ...

, CPNT , 422,448 , 1.67 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Revolutionary Communist League , LCR , 320,467 , 1.27 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Workers' Struggle , LO , 301,984 , 1.20 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Republican Pole The Citizen and Republican Movement ( French: ''Mouvement républicain et citoyen'') is a political party in France. The party replaced in 2002 the Citizens' Movement (''Mouvement des citoyens'', MDC) founded by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, who le ...

, PR , 299,897 , 1.19 , 0 , 12,679 , 0.06 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#77ff77;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Ecologists , ECO , 295,899 , 1.17 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

National Republican Movement The National Republican Movement (''Mouvement national républicain'' or MNR) is a French nationalist political party, created by Bruno Mégret with former Club de l'Horloge members Yvan Blot (also a member of GRECE) and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, as a ...

, MNR , 276,376 , 1.09 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#bb0000;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Far-left , EXG , 81,558 , 0.32 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Regionalists and separatists , REG , 66,240 , 0.26 , 0 , 28,689 , 0.14 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#404040;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

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 bein ...

, EXD , 59,549 , 0.24 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - style="font-weight:bold;" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Total , 25,246,045 , 100.00 , 60 , 21,221,026 , 100.00 , 517 , 577 , 100.00 , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="12", Abstention: 35.58% (1st round), 39.68% (2nd round)

12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group

{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 French legislative election

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

2002 elections in France