Legislative elections took place on 23 and 30 November 1958 to elect the first

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

French Fifth Republic The Fifth Republic (french: Cinquième République) is France's current republican system of government. It was established on 4 October 1958 by Charles de Gaulle under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.. The Fifth Republic emerged from ...

. Since 1954, the

French Fourth Republic The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Re ...

had been mired in the Algerian War. In May 1958,

Pierre Pflimlin Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin (; 5 February 1907 – 27 June 2000) was a French Christian Democrat politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic for a few weeks in 1958, before being replaced by Charles de Gaulle during th ...

, a Christian-Democrat, became Prime Minister. He was known to be in favour of a negotiated settlement with the Algerian nationalists. On 13 May riots broke out in Algiers, with the complicity of the army. A rebel government seized power in Algiers in order to defend "French Algeria". The next day, General Massu demanded the return to power of General Charles de Gaulle. The rebellious generals took control of Corsica threatening to conduct an assault on Paris, involving

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

s and armoured forces based at Rambouillet. In Paris, the political leaders were trying to find a compromise. On 1 June De Gaulle replaced Pflimlin to lead a government of national unity and nominated as Ministers of State (Vice-Prime Ministers) Pierre Pflimlin (

Popular Republican Movement The Popular Republican Movement (french: Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP) was a Christian-democratic political party in France during the Fourth Republic. Its base was the Catholic vote and its leaders included Georges Bidault, Robert Sc ...

, MRP), Guy Mollet ( French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO),

Louis Jacquinot Louis Jacquinot (16 September 1898 – 14 June 1993) was a French lawyer and politician, and chief of Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré's office. Jacquinot was born in Gondrecourt-le-Château (Meuse) in 1898. Entering parliament in 1932, he la ...

(

National Center of Independents and Peasants The National Centre of Independents and Peasants (''Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans'', CNIP) is a right-wing agrarian political party in France, founded in 1951 by the merger of the National Centre of Independents (the heir of the ...

, CNIP) and

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he wo ...

. He obtained the right to develop a new Constitution. Only the Communists and some center-left politicians such as

Pierre Mendès-France Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

and François Mitterrand, opposed this "coup against the Republic". On 28 September the new Constitution was approved in a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

in the

French Union The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the " French Empire" (). It was the formal end of the "indigenous" () status of French subj ...

by 82.6% of all voters, and in metropolitan France by 79.3% of voters. The Fifth Republic was born. The

two-round system The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resu ...

was re-established for the legislative elections. The Gaullists created the

Union for the New Republic The Union for the New Republic (french: L'Union pour la nouvelle République, UNR), was a French political party founded on 1 October 1958 that supported Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle in the 1958 elections. History The UNR won 206 of 579 s ...

which became the largest parliamentary group. Their opponents were crushed. The small number of left-wing MPs elected may be explained by divisions among left-leaning parties between supporters and opponents to the Fifth Republic: the two-round ballot tends to reward parties which are able to form alliances with each other. On 21 December de Gaulle 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 ...

by an electoral college. His Justice Minister

Michel Debré Michel Jean-Pierre Debré (; 15 January 1912 – 2 August 1996) was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 195 ...

became Prime Minister. The pro-Fifth Republic center-left parties (SFIO and Radical Party) left the presidential majority. This established the first gaullist centre-right government.

Results (Metropolitan France)

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" rowspan=2 colspan=3 width=600 , 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:#0000C8", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Union pour la nouvelle République'') and

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 ...

, style="text-align:right;" , UNR , style="text-align:right;" , 3,603,958 , style="text-align:right;" , 17.6 , style="text-align:right;" , 4,769,052 , style="text-align:right;" , 26.4 , style="text-align:right;" , 189 , - , style="background-color:#1E90FF", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Centre national des indépendants et paysans'') and Moderates , style="text-align:right;" , CNIP , style="text-align:right;" , 4,092,600 , style="text-align:right;" , 19.9 , style="text-align:right;" , 4,250,083 , style="text-align:right;" , 23.6 , style="text-align:right;" , 132 , - , style="background-color:#00CCCC", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Mouvement républicain populaire'') and Christian Democrats , style="text-align:right;" , MRP , style="text-align:right;" , 2,387,788 , style="text-align:right;" , 11.6 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,365,064 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.5 , style="text-align:right;" , 57 , - , style="background-color:#E75480", , style="text-align:left;" ,

French Section of the Workers International The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was foun ...

(''Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière'') , style="text-align:right;" , SFIO , style="text-align:right;" , 3,167,354 , style="text-align:right;" , 15.5 , style="text-align:right;" , 2,484,417 , style="text-align:right;" , 13.8 , style="text-align:right;" , 40 , - , style="background-color:#FFBF00", , style="text-align:left;" , Radical Party (''Parti radical''), Dissidents and Republican Center , style="text-align:right;" , Rad , style="text-align:right;" , 2,695,287 , style="text-align:right;" , 12.9 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,398,409 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.7 , style="text-align:right;" , 37 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000", , 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 ...

(''Parti communiste français'') , style="text-align:right;" , PCF , style="text-align:right;" , 3,882,204 , style="text-align:right;" , 18.9 , style="text-align:right;" , 3,741,384 , style="text-align:right;" , 20.7 , style="text-align:right;" , 10 , - , style="background-color:#704214", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Extreme 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;" , 669,518 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.3 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 20,489,709 , style="text-align:right;" , 99.7 , style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:right;" , 99.7 , style="text-align:right;" , 466 , - , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=8 , Abstention: 22.9% (1st round)

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:French Legislative Election, 1958

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

Legislative Election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

November 1958 events in Europe