The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the eighth

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. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...

. Since the 1981 election of François Mitterrand, the Presidential Majority was divided. In March 1983, Prime Minister

Pierre Mauroy Pierre Mauroy (; 5 July 1928 – 7 June 2013) was a French Socialist politician who was Prime Minister of France from 1981 to 1984 under President François Mitterrand. Mauroy also served as Mayor of Lille from 1973 to 2001. At the time of his de ...

renounced the left's radical ''Common Programme'' which had been agreed in the 1970s. Wages and prices were frozen. This change of economic policy was justified by the will to stay in the

European Monetary System The European Monetary System (EMS) was a multilateral adjustable exchange rate agreement in which most of the nations of the European Economic Community (EEC) linked their currencies to prevent large fluctuations in relative value. It was initiate ...

. One year later, the Communist ministers refused to remain in

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Mar ...

' cabinet. In opposition, the two main right-wing parties tried to forget their past quarrels. They were able to win the mid-term elections (1982 departmental elections, 1983 municipal elections, 1984 European Parliament election) and succeeded in forcing the government to abandon its policy of limiting the financing of private schools in 1984. The Rally for the Republic (RPR), led by Jacques Chirac, abandoned the traditional dirigiste and Eurosceptic Gaullist doctrines about the economy and European integration. It was then able to sign an electoral platform with the

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 ...

(UDF). It proposed notably to sell the companies nationalized by President Mitterrand and

. However, France had also witnessed the electoral rise of the National Front (FN). Its 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 fro ...

, made nationalist and xenophobic remarks. He appealed to part of the conservative electorate, notably some RPR voters. The right-wing opposition was divided on the question of an alliance with the FN. In 1985, President Mitterrand's decision to re-establish

at the legislative election caused political outrage. The RPR/UDF opposition accused him of wanting to strengthen the FN in order to weaken the Republican Right, which was favourite to win according to the polls. Proportional representation was the only electoral system which was considered likely to allow the election of FN deputies. While the polls indicated a win by the RPR/UDF coalition, the former UDF Prime minister

Raymond Barre Raymond Octave Joseph Barre (; 12 April 192425 August 2007) was a French centre-right politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three presidents (Rey, ...

argued that the next parliamentary majority should refuse to govern if President Mitterrand did not resign. Advised by Edouard Balladur, Jacques Chirac noted, however, that impeachment did not exist in the

French Constitution The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic , and it replaced the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946 with the exception of the preamble per a Consti ...

. Instead, the next majority would "cohabit" with Mitterrand. The right-wing cabinet would enforce its domestic policy programme and Mitterrand would keep control of foreign and military affairs. Eventually, the RPR/UDF coalition obtained only a two-seat majority. Consequently, for the first time of the history of the Fifth Republic, the parliamentary majority was opposed to the President. Nevertheless, 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 ...

held more seats than the polls had indicated. The FN was able to form a parliamentary group with its 35 elected members. The decline of 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 ...

continued. Mitterrand nominated Chirac as Prime Minister. The first "

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...

" of the Fifth Republic started. The new cabinet abolished proportional representation for the next legislative elections. The "cohabitation" ended with the 1988 legislative election.

Results

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" colspan=2 , Parties and coalitions ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Abbr. ! 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:#4C4CB0", , style="text-align:left;" , Rally for the Republic/

Common lists , style="text-align:right;" , RPR/ UDF , style="text-align:right;" , 6,008,612 , style="text-align:right;" , 21.44 , style="text-align:right;" , 73 RPR 74 UDF , - , style="background-color:#0000C8", , style="text-align:left;" , Rally for the Republic (''Rassemblement pour la République'') , style="text-align:right;" , RPR , style="text-align:right;" , 3,143,224 , style="text-align:right;" , 11.22 , style="text-align:right;" , 76 , - , style="background-color:#00CCCC", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Union pour la démocratie française'') , style="text-align:right;" , UDF , style="text-align:right;" , 2,330,167 , style="text-align:right;" , 8.31 , style="text-align:right;" , 53 , - , style="background-color:#4C4CB0", , style="text-align:left;" , Miscellaneous Right-wing , style="text-align:right;" , DVD , style="text-align:right;" , 1,083,711 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.87 , style="text-align:right;" , 14 , - style="background-color:lightblue" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total " RPR-UDF Union" (Right) , , style="text-align:right;" , 12,565,714 , style="text-align:right;" , 44.84 , style="text-align:right;" , 290 , - , style="background-color:#E75480", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Parti socialiste'') , style="text-align:right;" , PS , style="text-align:right;" , 8,693,939 , style="text-align:right;" , 31.02 , style="text-align:right;" , 206 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Parti communiste français'') , style="text-align:right;" , PCF , style="text-align:right;" , 2,739,225 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.78 , style="text-align:right;" , 35 , - , style="background-color:#DA7B8B", , 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 ...

, style="text-align:right;" , DVG , style="text-align:right;" , 301,063 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.07 , style="text-align:right;" , 5 , - , style="background-color:#FFBF00", , style="text-align:left;" , Movement of Left Radicals (''Mouvement des radicaux de gauche'') , style="text-align:right;" , MRG , style="text-align:right;" , 107,769 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.38 , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , style="background-color:#FFD1DC", , style="text-align:left;" , UNG (Aimé Césaire, Martinique) , style="text-align:right;" , UNG , style="text-align:right;" , 56,044 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.20 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - style="background-color:pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total Left ("Presidential Majority" and PCF) , , style="text-align:right;" , 11,898,040 , style="text-align:right;" , 42.45 , style="text-align:right;" , 248 , - , style="background-color:#0D378A", , style="text-align:left;" , National Front (''Front national'' and ''Rassemblement national'') , style="text-align:right;" , FN , style="text-align:right;" , 2,703,442 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.65 , style="text-align:right;" , 35 , - , style="background-color:#960018", , style="text-align:left;" , Far-Left , style="text-align:right;" , EXG , style="text-align:right;" , 430,352 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.54 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#77ff77", , style="text-align:left;" , Ecologists , style="text-align:right;" , ECO , style="text-align:right;" , 340,109 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.21 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#80461B", , style="text-align:left;" , Far-Right , style="text-align:right;" , EXD , style="text-align:right;" , 57,432 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.20 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#dddd00", , style="text-align:left;" , Regionalists , style="text-align:right;" , REG , style="text-align:right;" , 28,379 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.10 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 28,024,168 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 573 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=6 , Abstention: 22.00%

8th Assembly by Parliamentary Group

{{French elections 1986 elections in France

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...