French legislative elections took place on 4 and 11 March 1973 to elect the fifth National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. In order to end the May 1968 crisis, President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and his party, the Gaullist Party Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR), obtained the absolute majority of the seats. Nevertheless, the failure of his 1969 referendum caused his resignation. His former Prime minister Georges Pompidou 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 is ...

. In order to respond to the discontent expressed during May 1968, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the left-wing Gaullist who led the cabinet, promoted a programme of reforms for the advent of a "New Society", which advocated social dialogue and political liberalisation. This worried the conservative part of the Presidential Majority and Pompidou himself. Furthermore, Chaban-Delmas was accused, by the presidential circle, to want strengthen his powers to the detriment of Pompidou. In 1972, Chaban-Delmas is replaced by

Pierre Messmer Pierre Joseph Auguste Messmer (; 20 March 191629 August 2007) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Minister of Armies under Charles de Gaulle from 1960 to 1969 – the longest serving since Étienne François, duc de Choiseul under Lo ...

, a classical and conservative Gaullist. After Gaston Defferre's catastrophic result in the 1969 presidential election, the SFIO was replaced by the Socialist Party (PS), formed by the SFIO's merger with an array of political clubs on the democratic left. Two years later,

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, ...

's Convention of Republican Institutions joined the PS. He took the party's lead during the Epinay Congress, and proposed to form an alliance with the French Communist Party (PCF). In order to prepare the legislative elections, Communists and Socialists signed the ''

Programme commun The Programme commun (or 'Common Programme') was a reform programme, signed 27 June 1972 by the Socialist Party, the French Communist Party and the centrist Radical Movement of the Left, which provided a great upheaval in the economic, political ...

''. The Radical Party split over the question of the ''Programme commun''. The left-wing minority joined the "Union of Left" and founded the Movement of the Radical-Socialist Left (MGRS). The majority created the Reforming Movement with a part of the center-right. This new group claimed its independence towards the "Union of Left" and the Presidential Majority. The ''Programme commun'' was the main issue of the campaign. Its defenders pleaded the necessity to nationalize banks and companies which were in a situation of monopoly. The members of the Presidential Majority denounced a collectivist project and warned against the participation of Communists in the government if the Left won. The Reforming Movement tried to express a third way rejecting the

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialec ...

of the Left and the Euroscepticism of the Gaullists, but it was obliged to link with the Right to obtain parliamentary seats. Whilst the left won an increased number of votes and MPs, the Presidential Majority won the election. The Gaullist UDR lost one third of its parliamentary seats due to the growth of the Left and electoral agreements with its allies, the Independent Republicans and

Centre, Democracy and Progress Centre Democracy and Progress (french: Centre démocratie et progrès, CDP) was a centrist and Christian democratic political party in France. The party was founded in 1969 by centrists from the Democratic Centre (CD) who supported Gaullist Geor ...

. Messmer was confirmed as Prime Minister.

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 of Republicans for Progress (''Union des républicains de progrès'') * Union of Democrats for the Republic (''Union des démocrates pour la République'') * Independent Republicans (''Républicains indépendants'') *

(''Centre, démocratie et progrès'') , style="text-align:right;" , URP , style="text-align:right;" , 8,242,661 , style="text-align:right;" , 34.68 , style="text-align:right;" , 10,701,135 , style="text-align:right;" , 45.62 , style="text-align:right;" , 272 *183 *55 *34 , - , style="background-color:#7FFFD4", , style="text-align:left;" , Reforming Movement (''Mouvement réformateur'') , style="text-align:right;" , MR , style="text-align:right;" , 2,979,781 , style="text-align:right;" , 12.54 , style="text-align:right;" , 1,631,978 , style="text-align:right;" , 6.96 , style="text-align:right;" , 30 , - , style="background-color:#4C4CB0", , style="text-align:left;" , Presidential Majority (''Majorité présidentielle'') , style="text-align:right;" , MAJ , style="text-align:right;" , 784,735 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.30 , style="text-align:right;" , 337,399 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.44 , style="text-align:right;" , 12 , - , style="background-color:#4C4CB0", , style="text-align:left;" , Miscellaneous Right , style="text-align:right;" , DVD , style="text-align:right;" , 671,505 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.83 , style="text-align:right;" , 21,053 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.09 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - style="background-color:lightblue" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total Right ("Presidential Majority" and MR) , , style="text-align:right;" , 12,678,682 , style="text-align:right;" , 53.34 , style="text-align:right;" , 12,691,565 , style="text-align:right;" , 54.11 , style="text-align:right;" , 314 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000", , style="text-align:left;" , French Communist Party (''Parti communiste français'') , style="text-align:right;" , PCF , style="text-align:right;" , 5,085,108 , style="text-align:right;" , 21.39 , style="text-align:right;" , 4,893,876 , style="text-align:right;" , 20.86 , style="text-align:right;" , 73 , - , style="background-color:#E75480", , style="text-align:left;" , Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'') – Movement of the Radical-Socialist Left (''Mouvement de la gauche radicale-socialiste'') , style="text-align:right;" , PS-MRG , style="text-align:right;" , 4,559,241 , style="text-align:right;" , 19.18 , style="text-align:right;" , 5,564,610 , style="text-align:right;" , 23.72 , style="text-align:right;" , 102 , - , style="background-color:#DE3163", , style="text-align:left;" , Unified Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste unifié'') , style="text-align:right;" , PSU , style="text-align:right;" , 778,195 , style="text-align:right;" , 3.27 , style="text-align:right;" , 114,540 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.49 , style="text-align:right;" , 1 , - , style="background-color:#DA7B8B", , style="text-align:left;" , Miscellaneous Left , style="text-align:right;" , DVG , style="text-align:right;" , 668,100 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.81 , style="text-align:right;" , 191,441 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.82 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , - style="background-color:pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2, Total "Union of Left" , , style="text-align:right;" , 11,090,644 , style="text-align:right;" , 46.66 , style="text-align:right;" , 10,764,467 , style="text-align:right;" , 45.89 , style="text-align:right;" , 176 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Total , , style="text-align:right;" , 23,769,326 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 23,456,032 , style="text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="text-align:right;" , 490 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=8 , Abstention: 18.76% (1st round); 18.11% (2nd round)

National Assembly by Parliamentary Group

*In July 1974, the Centrist Union group merged with the RDS group to form the ''Reformers, Centrists and Social Democrats Group'' (RCDS). *The UDR group evolved into the RPR group in 1976. {{French elections 1973 1973 elections in France March 1973 events in Europe