A Senate election was held for 165 of the 348 seats in the

Senate of France The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' a ...

on 25 September 2011. Senate members were primarily elected by municipal officials, and the number of senators was increased from 343 to 348, due to the growth of France's population since the previous election was held in 2008. 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 other left-of-center parties gained a majority of seats in the upper house for the first time in the Fifth Republic.

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Political Groups ! colspan=2 , 2004 ! colspan=2 ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

! colspan=2 , 2011 , - , style="background-color:#0233D2" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

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

(''Union pour un mouvement populaire'') , UMP , 155 , 7 , 151 , 4 , 132 , 19 , - , style="background-color:#4AAAFF" , , style="text-align:left;" , Centrist Union (''Union centriste'') , UC , 33 , 20 , 29 , 4 , 31 , 2 , - style="background-color:lightblue" , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;" , Presidential Majority , 188 , 27 , 180 , 8 , 163 , 17 , - , style="background-color:#E75480" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Socialist 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 ...

(''Socialiste'') , SOC , 97 , 14 , 116 , 19 , 130 , 14 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000" , , style="text-align:left;" , Communist, Republican and Citizen (''Communiste, Républicain et Citoyen'') , CRC , 23 , 0 , 23 , 0 , 21 , 2 , - , style="background-color:#7D05B1" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

European Democratic and Social Rally The European Democratic and Social Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et social européen, abbreviated RDSE), formerly the Democratic and European Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et européen), is ...

(''Rassemblement démocratique et social européen'') , RDSE , 16 , 3 , 17 , 1 , 17 , 0 , - , style="background-color:#00c000;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Europe Écologie–The Greens Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

(''Europe Écologie – Les Verts'') , EELV , colspan=4 , , 10 , 10 , - style="background-color:pink" , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;" , Union of the Left , 118 , 14 , 139 , 19 , 178 , 22 , - , style="background-color:GRAY" , , style="text-align:left;" , Non-Registered (''Non-Inscrits'') , NI , 7 , 1 , 7 , 1 , 7 , 0 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="text-align:left;" colspan=3, Total ! 331 ! 13 ! 343 ! 12 ! 348 ! 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=9 , Source: Public Senat

Swing to the left

Prior to the 2011 election, the French Senate had been under the majority control of

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

or centre-right parties since the start of the Fifth Republic. Following

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

gains in the senatorial elections of 2004 and

, the 2011 elections saw the Senate coming under the control of left-wing parties such as the

, who gained around 24 new seats.

Senate Presidency

After the election, the incumbent President of the Senate,

Gérard Larcher Gérard Philippe René André Larcher (born 14 September 1949) is a French politician serving as President of the Senate since 2014, previously holding the office from 2008 to 2011. A member of The Republicans, he has been a Senator for the Yveli ...

, stated his intention to run for re-election; he believed that he could win despite the left-wing majority, with the aid of alliances with independents, centrists, and some leftists.

Jean-Pierre Bel Jean-Pierre Bel (born 30 December 1951) is a French retired politician who served as President of the Senate from 2011 to 2014. From the Ariège department, Bel is a member of the Socialist Party; he was elected to the Senate in September 1998 ...

, President of the Socialist Group, was elected as President of the Senate on 1 October 2011, replacing Larcher. He received 179 votes against 134 votes for Larcher; a centrist,

Valerie Letard Valerie may refer to: People *Saint Valerie (disambiguation), a number of saints went by the name Valerie *Valerie (given name), a feminine given name Songs *"Valerie", a 1981 song by Quarterflash, from ''Quarterflash'' *"Valerie", a 1982 son ...

, received 29 votes.

Interpretations and potential consequences

The election was seen in many circles as a referendum on the incumbent French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity had been in decline over the preceding months. François Hollande, a Socialist politician considered to be a leading contender for the 2012 Socialist presidential nomination, pointed out that the defeat meant the Sarkozy's incumbent

party had lost seats in every election since he took office in 2007. UMP politicians described the election results as "a serious warning for heirparty". Socialist control of the French Senate would prevent Sarkozy from passing a balanced budget constitutional amendment, which requires three-fifths of the vote from the combined French Parliament. It would also enable the Socialists to launch commissions of inquiry into, for instance, possible political corruption allegations. The German news magazine '' Der Spiegel'', looking at September 2011 polls and forward to the May 2012 presidential election, observed that "the Socialist Party – still licking its wounds after a sex scandal brought down their great hope

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (; born 25 April 1949), also known as DSK, is a French economist and politician who served as the tenth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was a member of the French Socialist P ...

– would win ... if it were held today." It also opined that Sarkozy's "foreign policy actionism" in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

– including a 15 September visit to

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

with David Cameron – and "proposals for a quick resolution to the Middle East conflict at the United Nations" just prior to the election were not "able to perceptively increase his popularity".Allen, Kristen
"The World from Berlin: 'Sarkozy Has Lost the Heart of France'"
''Der Spiegel'', 27 September 2011. The quote in the headline came from a " nter-left daily '' Süddeutsche Zeitung''" comment on the election. Retrieved 28 September 2011.

References

{{French Senate Senate 2011 September 2011 events in France