French legislative elections took place on 18 November and 25 November 1962 to elect the second

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 1959 and the change of Algerian policy ( Charles de Gaulle decided in favour of the "self-government" and " Algerian Algeria"), France had faced bomb attacks by the Secret Armed Organization (''

Organisation armée secrète The ''Organisation Armée Secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Armed Organisation") was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an atte ...

'' or OAS) which opposed the independence of Algeria, negotiated by the FLN with the March 1962 Evian agreements and approved by referendum by the French people. This policy was disapproved by some members of the "Presidential Majority". Simultaneously, when

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 19 ...

replaced

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 1 ...

as prime minister, the center-right parties ( MRP and CNIP) left the majority due to de Gaulle's

eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

declaration. Like the Left, they denounced the presidentialization of the regime. On 22 August de Gaulle escaped from an assassination attempt by the OAS in Le Petit-Clamart. He subsequently announced a controversial referendum in which he proposed the election of the president of the French Republic under

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...

. The presidential majority composed of the UNR and the

Independent Republicans The Independent Republicans (french: Républicains Indépendants, RI) were a liberal-conservative political group in France founded in 1962, which became a political party in 1966 known as the National Federation of the Independent Republicans ...

(RI) (which came from a CNIP split) campaigned for a "yes", while all the other parties formed a "coalition of no" and brought down Pompidou's cabinet by a

vote of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

(''motion de censure'').Proceedings of the National Assembly
4 October 1962
second sitting; vote tally on p. 3268. p. 38 in the PDF file However, de Gaulle finally won the referendum and dissolved the National Assembly. During the legislative campaign, all the parties, except the UNR and the RI, criticized the "personal power" which they believed distorted France's Republican institutions. In the French political culture and in their mind, Republicanism was inseparable from parliamentary democracy and the reinforcement of the presidential powers was associated with

Bonapartism Bonapartism (french: Bonapartisme) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In thi ...

. Contrary to the previous legislative election, the left-wing parties finalized an electoral agreement. The subsequent legislative elections saw advances for the left-wing opposition. However, conservative voters sanctioned the center-right parties, preferring to vote for the

Gaullist 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 wi ...

party. Pompidou became Prime Minister again.

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:#0000C8", , style="text-align:left;" , Union for the New Republic-Democratic Union of Labour (''Union pour la nouvelle République-Union démocratique du travail'') , style="text-align:right;" , UNR-UDT , style="text-align:right;" , 5,855,744 , style="text-align:right;" , 31.94 , style="text-align:right;" , 6,169,890 , style="text-align:right;" , 40.36 , style="text-align:right;" , 233 , - , style="background-color:#00CCCC", , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 ...

(''Mouvement républicain populaire'') , style="text-align:right;" , MRP , style="text-align:right;" , 1,665,695 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.08 , style="text-align:right;" , 821,635 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.45 , style="text-align:right;" , 36 , - , style="background-color:#1E90FF", , style="text-align:left;" ,

National Centre 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 ...

(''Centre national des indépendants et paysans'') , style="text-align:right;" , CNIP , style="text-align:right;" , 1,404,177 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.66 , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , - , style="text-align:right;" , 28 , - , style="background-color:#1560BD", , style="text-align:left;" ,

(''Républicains indépendants'') , style="text-align:right;" , RI , style="text-align:right;" , 1,089,348 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.94 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,444,666 , style="text-align:right;" , 9.46 , style="text-align:right;" , 27 , - style="background-color:lightblue" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total Right ("Presidential Majority", MRP and CNIP) , , style="text-align:right;" , 10,014,964 , style="text-align:right;" , 54.62 , style="text-align:right;" , 8,436,191 , style="text-align:right;" , 55.27 , style="text-align:right;" , 324 , - , 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;" , 4,003,553 , style="text-align:right;" , 21.84 , style="text-align:right;" , 3,195,763 , style="text-align:right;" , 20.94 , style="text-align:right;" , 41 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , French Section of the Workers International (''Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière'') , style="text-align:right;" , SFIO , style="text-align:right;" , 2,298,729 , style="text-align:right;" , 12.54 , style="text-align:right;" , 2,264,011 , style="text-align:right;" , 14.83 , style="text-align:right;" , 65 , - , style="background-color:#FFBF00", , style="text-align:left;" , Radical Party (''Parti radical'') , style="text-align:right;" , PR , style="text-align:right;" , 1,429,649 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.79 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,172,711 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.68 , style="text-align:right;" , 44 , - , style="background-color:#DE3163", , style="text-align:left;" , Unified Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste unifié'') , style="text-align:right;" , PSU , style="text-align:right;" , 427,467 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.33 , style="text-align:right;" , 138,131 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.90 , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - style="background-color:pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total Left , , style="text-align:right;" , 8,159,398 , style="text-align:right;" , 44.50 , style="text-align:right;" , 6,770,616 , style="text-align:right;" , 44.34 , style="text-align:right;" , 152 , - , style="background-color:#704214", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Far-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 bein ...

, , style="text-align:right;" , 159,429 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.87 , style="text-align:right;" , 52,245 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.34 , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 18,333,791 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 15,208,101 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 476 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=8 , Abstention: 31.28% (1st round); 27.90% (2nd round)

National Assembly by Parliamentary Group

References

{{French elections

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wo ...

Legislative election French legislative election