In 1979 the first direct

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: the centre right

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 to ...

the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the

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 ...

and the

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 ...

. 61.7% of the French population turned out on election day.

Results

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11" , 1979 • 1984 → , - style="text-align:right;" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:400; text-align:left;" colspan="2" , National party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , European party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Main candidate ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" , +/– ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" , +/– , - , style="background-color:#00CCCC;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(UDF) , style="text-align:left;" , LDR , style="text-align:left;" ,

Simone Veil Simone Veil (; ; 13 July 1927 – 30 June 2017) was a French magistrate and politician who served as Health Minister in several governments and was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 5,588,851 , style="text-align:right;" , 27.61 , style="text-align:right;" , — , style="text-align:right;" , 25 , style="text-align:right;" , — , - , style="background-color:#E75480;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(PS) +

Movement of Radicals 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 Soc ...

(MRG) , style="text-align:left;" , SOC , style="text-align:left;" , François Mitterrand , style="text-align:right;" , 4,763,026 , style="text-align:right;" , 23.53 , style="text-align:right;" , — , style="text-align:right;" , 22 , style="text-align:right;" , — , - , style="background-color:#FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

(PCF) , style="text-align:left;" , COM , style="text-align:left;" ,

Georges Marchais Georges René Louis Marchais (7 June 1920 – 16 November 1997) was the head of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981. Early life Born into a Roman Catholic family, he bec ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 4,153,710 , style="text-align:right;" , 20.52 , style="text-align:right;" , — , style="text-align:right;" , 19 , style="text-align:right;" , — , - , style="background-color:#0000C8;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Rally for the Republic (RPR) , style="text-align:left;" , EPD , style="text-align:left;" , Jacques Chirac , style="text-align:right;" , 3,301,980 , style="text-align:right;" , 16.31 , style="text-align:right;" , — , style="text-align:right;" , 15 , style="text-align:right;" , — , - , style="background-color:#2E8B57;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Movement of Political Ecology (MEP) , style="text-align:left;" , TGI , style="text-align:left;" ,

Solange Fernex Solange Fernex (15 April 1934 – 11 September 2006) was a French environmental and pacifist activist and politician. One of the environmental movement's pioneers in Europe, she helped found the French Green Party and was a member of the European ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 888,134 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.39 , style="text-align:right;" , — , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , — , - , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Others , style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:right;" , 7.68 , style="text-align:right;" , — , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , — , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Valid votes , 20,242,347 , 94.78 , colspan="4" rowspan="2" , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Blank and invalid votes , 1,114,613 , 5.22 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Totals , 21,356,960 , 100.00 , — , 81 , — , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="4" , Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout , 35,180,531 , 60.71 , — , colspan="2" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=9 , Source
France-politique.fr
/small> {{French elections

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

1979 elections in France