On 13 June 1999 the fifth direct

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

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 the France. Once again,

abstention Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

was very high for this type of election- only 47% of eligible voters voted. The election was also the first French European election to be won by 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 th ...

(PS). In a major surprise and historical upset for the government, Charles Pasqua's and Philippe de Villiers' list uniting Pasqua's new Gaullist

Rally for France The Rally for France (french: Rassemblement pour la France (RPF); also briefly known in 2003 as Rally for France and European Independence or ) was a political party in France of the right. It was founded in 1999 by the Gaullist and former Interi ...

(RPF) and de Villiers'

eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...

Movement for France (MPF) list surpassed the list of 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 Ma ...

's RPR-

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 diff ...

, led by

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

. The election ended Sarkozy's immediate political future, including a run for the presidency of the Rally for the Republic –

Michèle Alliot-Marie Michèle Yvette Marie-Thérèse Jeanne Honorine Alliot-Marie (; born 10 September 1946), known in France as MAM, is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France. She is a member of the Republicans, part of the Eur ...

, a close supporter of Chirac, succeeded him. However, the alliance between Pasqua and de Villiers proved to be ephemeral. de Villiers broke with Pasqua later 2000 and thus ended the RPF's chance to become a large common party for all eurosceptic

Gaullists Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withd ...

from within the RPR. The New

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 c ...

(''Nouvelle UDF''), led by

François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has presided over the Democratic Movement (MoDem) since he founded it in 2007. A centrist, he was a candidate in the 2002, 2007 and 2012 presidential elections. ...

ran independently of the RPR, contrary to Chirac's wishes, for the first time since 1984. Bayrou won a relatively good result, 9.28%, allowing him to pursue his more independent political strategy (slowly distancing the party from the RPR) within the New UDF. The other winner of the election were The Greens led by Franco-German green politician

Daniel Cohn-Bendit Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (; ; born 4 April 1945) is a French-German politician of Jewish descent. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and was also known during that time as ''Dany le Rouge'' (French for "Danny the Red" ...

, whose list won 9.72%, the party's second-best result after 1989. Minor parties, including the agrarian populist

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. It ...

and the far-left Workers' Struggle obtained very good results and elected 6 and 5

MEP MEP may refer to: Organisations and politics * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, a political party in Sri Lanka * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (1956), a former political alliance in Sri Lanka * Maison européenne de la photographie, a photography centre ...

's respectively. The far-right FN was penalized by

Bruno Megret Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...

's dissident

MNR MNR may stand for: Transportation *Maine Northern Railway *Metro-North Railroad in New York State *Mid-Norfolk Railway, a heritage railway in Norfolk, England *Manx Northern Railway, a railway on the Isle of Man from 1879 to 1905 *Manor Road rail ...

list and obtained a low result. 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 Unit ...

also did poorly.

Results

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" colspan=2 , Parties and coalitions ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Top Candidate ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , EP Group ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats , - , style="background-color:#E75480;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Parti socialiste'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 from ...

, style="text-align:left;" ,

PES Pes (Latin for "foot") or the acronym PES may refer to: Pes * Pes (unit), a Roman unit of length measurement roughly corresponding with a foot * Pes or podatus, a * Pes (rural locality), several rural localities in Russia * Pes (river), a river ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 3,873,901 , style="text-align:right;" , 21.95 , style="text-align:right;" , 22 , - , style="background-color:#000080;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Rassemblement pour la France'')
Movement for France (''Mouvement pour la France'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

Charles Pasqua Charles Victor Pasqua (18 April 192729 June 2015) was a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's ''cohabitation'' government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government o ...

Philippe de Villiers , style="text-align:left;" , UEN , style="text-align:right;" , 2,304,285 , style="text-align:right;" , 13.05 , style="text-align:right;" , 13 , - , style="background-color:#0000C8;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic (french: Rassemblement pour la République ; RPR ), was a Gaullist and conservative political party in France. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR), it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 a ...

(''Rassemblement pour la République'')

(''Démocratie libérale'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

Alain Madelin , style="text-align:left;" , EPP-ED , style="text-align:right;" , 2,263,476 , style="text-align:right;" , 12.82 , style="text-align:right;" , 12 , - , style="background-color:#00c000;" , , style="text-align:left;" , The Greens (''Les Verts'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" , G-EFA , style="text-align:right;" , 1,715,450 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.72 , style="text-align:right;" , 9 , - , style="background-color:#00CCCC;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Union pour la démocratie Française'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" , EPP-ED , style="text-align:right;" , 1,638,680 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.28 , style="text-align:right;" , 9 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Parti communiste français'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

Robert Hue Robert Hue (born 19 October 1946) is a French politician who was National Secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1994 to 2001 and President of the PCF from 2001 to 2002. He served as a Deputy in the National Assembly of France fr ...

, style="text-align:left;" , GUE-NGL , style="text-align:right;" , 1,196,310 , style="text-align:right;" , 6.78 , style="text-align:right;" , 6 , - , style="background-color:#BDB76B;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Chasse, pêche, nature, traditions'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

Jean Saint-Josse Jean Saint-Josse (born 22 March 1944 in Coarraze, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is a French politician and former member of the Rally for the Republic (RPR), he is the leader of the ruralist Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions (CPNT) party. In ...

, style="text-align:left;" ,

EDD Edd, or EDD may refer to: Fictional characters * Dolorous Edd, a character from ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' and its adaptation, ''Game of Thrones'' * Edd (Ed, Edd n Eddy), Edd (''Ed, Edd n Eddy''), a character of the ''Ed, Edd n Eddy'' cartoon * Ed ...

, style="text-align:right;" , 1,195,727 , style="text-align:right;" , 6.77 , style="text-align:right;" , 6 , - , style="background-color:#0D378A;" , , style="text-align:left;" , National Front (''Front national'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 fro ...

, style="text-align:left;" , TGI , style="text-align:right;" , 1,005,225 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.69 , style="text-align:right;" , 5 , - , style="background-color:#960018;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Workers' Struggle (''Lutte ouvrière'') - Revolutionary Communist League (''Ligue communiste révolutionnaire'') , style="text-align:left;" ,

Arlette Laguiller Arlette Yvonne Laguiller (born 18 March 1940) is a French politician. From 1973 to 2008, she was the spokeswoman and the best-known leader and presidential nominee of Lutte Ouvrière (LO), Trotskyist political party. Career Born at Les Lilas, ...

, style="text-align:left;" , GUE-NGL , style="text-align:right;" , 914,680 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.18 , style="text-align:right;" , 5 , - , style="background-color:#80461B;" , , style="text-align:left;" , National Republican Movement (''Mouvement national républicain'') , style="text-align:left;" , Bruno Mégret , style="text-align:left;" , ''None'' , style="text-align:right;" , 578,774 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.28 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Others , , , style="text-align:right;" , 966,176 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.48 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , , style="text-align:right;" , 17,652,684 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 87 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=6 , Abstention: 53.00% (1st round)

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

1999 elections in France {{EU-stub