The French legislative elections took place on 9 and 16 June 2002 to elect the 12th

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, in a context of political crisis. The Socialist Prime Minister

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 ...

announced his political retirement after his elimination at the first round of the

2002 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 21 April 2002, with a runoff election between the top two candidates, incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, on 5 May. This presidential ...

. President Jacques Chirac was easily reelected, all the Republican parties having called to block far-right 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 ...

. Chirac's conservative supporters created the Union for the Presidential Majority (''Union pour la majorité présidentielle'' or UMP) to prepare for the legislative elections. The first round of the presidential election was a shock for the two main coalitions. The candidates of the parliamentary right obtained 32% of votes, and the candidates of the "Plural Left" only 27%. In the first polls, for the legislative elections, they were equal. The UMP campaigned against "

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 ...

", which is blamed for causing confusion profitable to the far-right and far-left.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howeve ...

, a relatively low-profile politician who said he would listen to "France at the bottom", was chosen as the party's candidate for Prime Minister. Without a real leader, and staggered by the results of 21 April, the left was in difficulty. The Socialist chairman François Hollande tried to revive the "Plural Left" under the name of "United Left"; but the effort was undermined by the fact that it did not have a sufficiently concrete programme. Furthermore, the left-wing parties could not motivate their voters against an unrecognized and apparently uncontroversial politician like Raffarin. In addition part of the left-wing electorate did not want a new "cohabitation". Finally, the polls indicated a growing advantage for the Presidential Majority. The right won the elections and the UMP obtained a large parliamentary majority of 394 seats. For the third time under the Fifth Republic, a party acquired an absolute majority (the "blue surge"). Five months later, it became the

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 ...

. On the left, the Socialist Party achieved a better result than at the winning 1997 elections, but its allies were crushed. The far-left returned towards its usual level. In far-right, the National Front lost the half of its 5 May voters.

Opinion polls

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! colspan="4" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;", Parties and coalitions ! colspan="3", First round ! colspan="3", Second round ! colspan="3", Total , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! width="75", Votes ! width="30", % ! width="30", Seats ! width="75", Votes ! width="30", % ! width="30", Seats ! width="30", Seats ! width="30", % , - , style="background-color:#B9DAFF;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="6", , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

, UMP , 8,408,023 , 33.30 , 48 , 10,026,669 , 47.26 , 309 , 357 , 61.87 , - , 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 ...

, UDF , 1,226,462 , 4.86 , 6 , 832,785 , 3.92 , 23 , 29 , 5.03 , - , style="background-color:", , 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 ...

, DVD , 921,973 , 3.65 , 3 , 274,374 , 1.29 , 5 , 8 , 1.39 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, DL , 104,767 , 0.41 , 1 , – , – , 1 , 2 , 0.35 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

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 , 94,222 , 0.37 , 0 , 61,605 , 0.29 , 2 , 2 , 0.35 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Movement for France The Movement for France (french: Mouvement pour la France, MPF; ) was a conservative, soft Eurosceptic and Gaullist French political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It was led by Philippe de ...

, MPF , 202,831 , 0.80 , 1 , – , – , 1 , 1 , 0.17 , - style="background-color:#B9DAFF" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Presidential majority (right) , 10,958,278 , 43.39 , 59 , 11,195,433 , 52.76 , 340 , 399 , 69.15 , - , style="background-color:#FFC6D5;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="5", , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

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 , 6,086,599 , 24.11 , 1 , 7,482,169 , 35.26 , 139 , 140 , 24.26 , - , style="background-color:", , 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 ...

, PCF , 1,216,178 , 4.82 , 0 , 690,807 , 3.26 , 21 , 21 , 3.64 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;",

Radical Party of the Left The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Soc ...

, PRG , 388,891 , 1.54 , 0 , 455,360 , 2.15 , 7 , 7 , 1.21 , - , style="background-color:", , 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 ...

, DVG , 275,533 , 1.09 , 0 , 268,715 , 1.27 , 6 , 6 , 1.04 , - , style="background-color:", , 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 ...

, VEC , 1,138,222 , 4.51 , 0 , 677,933 , 3.19 , 3 , 3 , 0.52 , - style="background-color:#FFC6D5" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Parliamentary left , 9,105,423 , 36.07 , 1 , 9,574,984 , 45.13 , 177 , 178 , 30.85 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Miscellaneous , DIV , 194,946 , 0.77 , 0 , 13,036 , 0.06 , 1 , 1 , 0.17 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", National Front , FN , 2,862,960 , 11.34 , 0 , 393,205 , 1.85 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

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 ...

, CPNT , 422,448 , 1.67 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Revolutionary Communist League , LCR , 320,467 , 1.27 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Workers' Struggle , LO , 301,984 , 1.20 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

Republican Pole The Citizen and Republican Movement ( French: ''Mouvement républicain et citoyen'') is a political party in France. The party replaced in 2002 the Citizens' Movement (''Mouvement des citoyens'', MDC) founded by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, who l ...

, PR , 299,897 , 1.19 , 0 , 12,679 , 0.06 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#77ff77;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Ecologists , ECO , 295,899 , 1.17 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2",

National Republican Movement The National Republican Movement (''Mouvement national républicain'' or MNR) is a French nationalist political party, created by Bruno Mégret with former Club de l'Horloge members Yvan Blot (also a member of GRECE) and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, as a ...

, MNR , 276,376 , 1.09 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#bb0000;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Far-left , EXG , 81,558 , 0.32 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Regionalists and separatists , REG , 66,240 , 0.26 , 0 , 28,689 , 0.14 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , style="background-color:#404040;", , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Far-right , EXD , 59,549 , 0.24 , 0 , – , – , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - style="font-weight:bold;" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Total , 25,246,045 , 100.00 , 60 , 21,221,026 , 100.00 , 517 , 577 , 100.00 , - , colspan="12" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="12", Abstention: 35.58% (1st round), 39.68% (2nd round)

12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group

{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 French legislative election 2002 2002 elections in France