French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the tenth

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. Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. In an attempt to avoid having to work with the Communists, Prime Minister

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the ''Revenu minimum d'ins ...

tried to gain support from the UDF by appointing four UDF ministers. After the UDF withdrew its support for the government in 1991, Rocard and the UDF ministers resigned. The UDF then became allied with the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR). 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 ...

(PS) was further weakened by scandals (involving illicit financing, contaminated blood and other affairs) and an intense rivalry between François Mitterrand's potential successors (

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

and

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 ...

). In March 1992, the Socialists were punished at the

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

. Prime Minister

Édith Cresson Édith Cresson (; née Campion; born 27 January 1934) is a French politician from the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so. She was the only woman to be prime minister until 2022, whe ...

was replaced by

Pierre Bérégovoy Pierre Eugène Bérégovoy (; 23 December 1925 – 1 May 1993) was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under President François Mitterrand from 2 April 1992 to 29 March 1993. He was a member of the Socialist Party and ...

. The latter promised to fight against

economic recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by variou ...

and corruption, but he was himself suspected to have received a loan from a controversial businessman, Roger-Patrice Pelat. The election was a landslide victory for the RPR-UDF alliance, while the PS and their left-wing allies received their worst result since the 1960s. The PS lost nearly 80% of the seats they had held at the time of the chamber's dissolution. This caused a crisis within the PS; Fabius lost his position as First Secretary in favour of Rocard, who claimed that a political "big bang" was needed. Jospin announced his political retirement after he was defeated in his

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...

constituency. Depressed by the defeat and the accusations about the loan from Pelat,

committed suicide on 1 May. Some traditional PS voters had voted for

the Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

in the first round. These ecologists obtained a total of 10.84%, making this the best total score for French Green parties in legislative elections. However, only two ecologists qualified for the runoff, including

Dominique Voynet Dominique Voynet (born 4 November 1958) is a French politician who is a member of Europe Écologie–The Greens. She is the former mayor of Montreuil and was a French senator for the ''département'' of Seine-Saint-Denis. Life Dominique Voy ...

in her constituency in the

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

''. Both of these candidates were eventually defeated. Lack of major political allies for these ecologists explained this failure to take any seats. The RPR-UDF coalition formed the largest parliamentary majority since 1958, taking a total of 485 seats or 84% of the 577 seats. The RPR leader Jacques Chirac demanded President Mitterrand's resignation and refused to be Prime Minister in a new "cohabitation" government. Finally, he suggested the nomination of his former RPR Finance Minister Edouard Balladur at the head of the government. Balladur promised publicly that he would not run against Chirac for the next presidential election. The second "cohabitation" finished with the 1995 presidential election.

Results

, - ! 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:", , style="text-align:left;" , Rally for the Republic (''Rassemblement pour la République'') , style="text-align:right;" , RPR , style="text-align:right;" , 5,032,496 , style="text-align:right;" , 20.08 , style="text-align:right;" , 5,741,629 , style="text-align:right;" , 28.99 , style="text-align:right;" , 242 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 ...

(''Union pour la démocratie française'') , style="text-align:right;" , UDF , style="text-align:right;" , 4,731,013 , style="text-align:right;" , 18.71 , style="text-align:right;" , 5,178,039 , style="text-align:right;" , 26.14 , style="text-align:right;" , 207 , - , style="background-color:#4C4CB0", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Miscellaneous Right Miscellaneous right (', ''DVD'') in France refers to right-wing candidates who are not members of any large party. This can include members of small right-wing parties, dissidents expelled from their party for running against their party's candi ...

, style="text-align:right;" , DVD , style="text-align:right;" , 1,118,032 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.46 , style="text-align:right;" , 588,455 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.97 , style="text-align:right;" , 36 , - style="background-color:lightblue" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total "

Union for France The Union for France (french: Union pour la France, UPF) was an electoral alliance between the Rally for the Republic and Union for French Democracy formed from 1992 until 1997. The label is used in the 2022 French legislative election by an alli ...

" (Right) , , style="text-align:right;" , 10,881,541 , style="text-align:right;" , 43.25 , style="text-align:right;" , 11,508,123 , style="text-align:right;" , 58.01 , style="text-align:right;" , 485 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Parti socialiste'') , style="text-align:right;" , PS , style="text-align:right;" , 4,415,495 , style="text-align:right;" , 17.61 , style="text-align:right;" , 6,143,179 , style="text-align:right;" , 31.01 , style="text-align:right;" , 53 , - , 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;" , 2,331,339 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.30 , style="text-align:right;" , 951,213 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.80 , style="text-align:right;" , 24 , - , 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 ...

including the Movement of Left Radicals (''Mouvement des radicaux de gauche'') , style="text-align:right;" , DVG-MRG , style="text-align:right;" , 693,945 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.77 , style="text-align:right;" , ''unknown'' , style="text-align:right;" , ''unknown'' , style="text-align:right;" , 14 , - style="background-color:pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total Left ("Presidential Majority" and PCF) , , style="text-align:right;" , 7,440,779 , style="text-align:right;" , 29.68 , style="text-align:right;" , 7,094,392 , style="text-align:right;" , 35.81 , style="text-align:right;" , 91 , - , style="background-color:#00c000", , style="text-align:left;" ,

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

(''Les Verts'') , style="text-align:right;" , VEC , style="text-align:right;" , 1,022,196 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.08 , style="text-align:right;" , 37,491 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.19 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#2E8B57", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Ecology Generation Ecology Generation (french: Génération écologie) is one of the four green parties in France, along with Europe Ecology – The Greens (), the Independent Ecological Movement (), and Cap Écologie. Founded in 1990 by Brice Lalonde, Environmen ...

(''Génération Écologie'') , style="text-align:right;" , GE , style="text-align:right;" , 917,228 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.66 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:limegreen", , style="text-align:left;" , New Ecology (''Nouvelle Écologie'') , style="text-align:right;" , GE , style="text-align:right;" , 635,244 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.53 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#77ff77", , style="text-align:left;" , Ecologists , , style="text-align:right;" , 141,645 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.57 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - style="background-color:lightgreen" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total Ecologists , , style="text-align:right;" , 2,716,313 , style="text-align:right;" , 11.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 37,491 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.19 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , National Front (''Front national'') , style="text-align:right;" , FN , style="text-align:right;" , 3,152,543 , style="text-align:right;" , 12.58 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,168,160 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.90 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - , style="background-color:#C41E3A", , style="text-align:left;" , Far-Left , , style="text-align:right;" , 423,282 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.69 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Miscellaneous , , style="text-align:right;" , 329,275 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.31 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#003366", , style="text-align:left;" , Nationalist right and Eurosceptics , , style="text-align:right;" , 70,920 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.28 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#80461B", , style="text-align:left;" , Far-right , , style="text-align:right;" , 35,411 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.14 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , style="background-color:#dddd00", , style="text-align:left;" , Regionalists , , style="text-align:right;" , 35,411 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.14 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 25,378,158 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 20,616,533 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 577 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=6 , Abstention: 31.08% (1st round); 32.44% (2nd round)

Assembly by Parliamentary Group

{{French elections

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1993 elections in France