1958 French legislative election

Last updated

1958 French legislative election
Flag of France.svg
←  1956 23 November 1958 (first round)
30 November 1958 (second round)		 1962  →
All 576 seats in the National Assembly
290 seats needed for a majority
PartyLeader%Seats
CNIP & moderates Roger Duchet 19.97132
PCF Maurice Thorez 18.9410
UNR & Gaullists Charles de Gaulle 17.58189
SFIO Guy Mollet 15.4540
PR, CR & dissidents Félix Gaillard 13.1537
MRP Pierre Pflimlin 11.6557
Far-right –3.271
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister beforePrime Minister after
Charles de Gaulle
UNR 		Michel Debré
UNR

Legislative elections were held in France on 23 and 30 November 1958 to elect the first National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic. [1]

Contents

Since 1954, the French Fourth Republic had been mired in the Algerian War. [2] In May 1958, Pierre Pflimlin, a Christian-Democrat, became Prime Minister. [3] He was known to be in favour of a negotiated settlement with the Algerian nationalists. [4]

On 13 May, riots broke out in Algiers, with the complicity of the army in what is known as the May 1958 crisis in France. [5] A rebel government seized power in Algiers in order to defend "French Algeria". The next day, General Massu demanded the return to power of General Charles de Gaulle. [6]

The rebellious generals took control of Corsica threatening to conduct an assault on Paris, involving paratroopers and armoured forces based at Rambouillet. [6] In Paris, the political leaders were trying to find a compromise. [7] On 1 June, returning from his 12 years out of power since his abrupt resignation as Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in 1946, De Gaulle replaced Pflimlin to lead a government of national unity and nominated as Ministers of State (Vice-Prime Ministers) Pierre Pflimlin (Popular Republican Movement, MRP), Guy Mollet (French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), Louis Jacquinot (National Center of Independents and Peasants, CNIP) and Félix Houphouët-Boigny. [8] He obtained the right to develop a new Constitution. [9] Only the Communists and some center-left politicians such as Pierre Mendès-France and François Mitterrand, opposed this "coup against the Republic". [7] [10] This opposition came to a head the day De Gaulle took office with a 200,000 strong demonstration taking place in Paris to oppose the unprecedented power given to De Gaulle. However, these oppositions were then met with counter demonstrations with a series of car honking stand off from Parisians occurring at the Avenue des Champs Elysées that very same night. Further demonstrations between both partisans occurred in other cities including Toulouse and Bordeaux.

On 28 September the new constitution was approved in a referendum in the French Union by 83% of all voters, and in metropolitan France by 79% of voters. The Fifth Republic was born. The two-round system was re-established for the legislative elections. [11] The Gaullists created the Union for the New Republic which became the largest parliamentary group. Their opponents received vastly less seats with in particular the PCF losing 137 seats compared to 1956. The small number of left-wing deputies elected may be explained by divisions among left-leaning parties between supporters and opponents to the Fifth Republic: the two-round ballot tends to reward parties which are able to form alliances with each other. [12] As such, De Gaulle's new party formed a coalition with the CNIP to form a new government.

On 21 December de Gaulle was elected President of France by an electoral college. [13] His Justice Minister Michel Debré became Prime Minister. [14] The pro-Fifth Republic center-left parties (SFIO and Radical Party) left the presidential majority. [15] [1] This established the first Gaullist centre-right government.

Results (Metropolitan France)

PartyFirst roundSecond roundTotal
seats
Votes%Votes%
National Centre of Independents and Peasants and Moderates4,092,60019.974,250,08323.60132
French Communist Party 3,882,20418.943,741,38420.7810
Union for the New Republic and Gaullists3,603,95817.584,769,05226.48189
French Section of the Workers International 3,167,35415.452,484,41713.8040
Radical Party, Dissidents and Republican Centre 2,695,28713.151,398,4097.7737
Popular Republican Movement and Christian Democrats2,387,78811.651,365,0647.5857
Far-right669,5183.271
Total20,498,709100.0018,008,409100.00466
Source: Macridis & Brown [16]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 253–266.
  2. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 26–44.
  3. ↑ Laponce 1961, pp. 1–2.
  4. ↑ Laponce 1961, pp. 9–10; Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 60–61.
  5. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, p. 62.
  6. 1 2 Watson 2003, pp. 123–129; Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 81–91.
  7. 1 2 Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 92–97.
  8. ↑ Laponce 1961, pp. 12–13; Macridis & Brown 1960, p. 154.
  9. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, p. 117.
  10. ↑ Mitterrand 1964.
  11. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 210–236, 335–358.
  12. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 249–266.
  13. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, p. 182, 270.
  14. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, p. 152, 273.
  15. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, pp. 242–246.
  16. ↑ Macridis & Brown 1960, p. 258, N.B.: Unofficial and partly reconstructed

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Fifth Republic</span> Current system of government of France (1958–present)

The Fifth Republic is France's current republican system of government. It was established on 4 October 1958 by Charles de Gaulle under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaullism</span> French political stance

Gaullism 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 withdrew French forces from the NATO Command Structure, forced the removal of Allied bases from France, as well as initiated France's own independent nuclear deterrent programme. His actions were predicated on the view that France would not be subordinate to other nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Mendès France</span> French politician (1907–1982)

Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès France was a French politician who served as prime minister of France for eight months from 1954 to 1955. As a member of the Radical Party, he headed a government supported by a coalition of Gaullists (RPF), moderate socialists (UDSR), Christian democrats (MRP) and liberal-conservatives (CNIP). His main priority was ending the Indochina War, which had already cost 92,000 lives, with 114,000 wounded and 28,000 captured on the French side. Public opinion polls showed that, in February 1954, only 7% of the French people wanted to continue the fight to regain Indochina out of the hands of the Communists, led by Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh movement. At the 1954 Geneva Conference, Mendès France negotiated a deal that gave the Viet Minh control of Vietnam north of the seventeenth parallel, and allowed him to pull out all French forces. He is considered one of the most prominent statesmen of the French Fourth Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radical Party (France)</span> Political party in France

The Radical Party, officially the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, is a liberal and social-liberal political party in France. Since 1971, to prevent confusion with the Radical Party of the Left (PRG), it has also been referred to as Parti radical valoisien, after its headquarters on the rue de Valois. The party's name has been variously abbreviated to PRRRS, Rad, PR and PRV. Founded in 1901, the PR is the oldest active political party in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Marcellin</span> French politician (1914–2004)

Raymond Marcellin was a French politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popular Republican Movement</span> Defunct political party in France

The Popular Republican Movement 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 Schuman, Paul Coste-Floret, Pierre-Henri Teitgen and Pierre Pflimlin. It played a major role in forming governing coalitions, in emphasizing compromise and the middle ground, and in protecting against a return to extremism and political violence. It played an even more central role in foreign policy, having charge of the Foreign Office for ten years and launching plans for the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, which grew into the European Union. Its voter base gradually dwindled in the 1950s and it had little power by 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unified Socialist Party (France)</span> Political party in France

The Unified Socialist Party was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1965 French presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in France on 5 December 1965, with a second round on 19 December. They were the first direct presidential elections in the Fifth Republic and the first since the Second Republic in 1848. It had been widely expected that incumbent president Charles de Gaulle would be re-elected, but the election was notable for the unexpectedly strong performance of his left-wing challenger François Mitterrand.

The SAC, officially created in January 1960, was a Gaullist militia founded by Jacques Foccart, Charles de Gaulle's chief adviser for African matters, and Pierre Debizet, a former Resistant and official director of the group. Important members included Charles Pasqua, part of the Gaullist movement and known as Jacques Chirac's mentor, Etienne Léandri, a friend of Pasqua, Robert Pandraud or Christian Fouchet. The predecessor of the SAC was the service of order of the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF) Gaullist party. The SAC was dissolved in 1982 under François Mitterrand's government, after a particularly gruesome multiple murder triggered by internal rivalries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1973 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 4 and 11 March 1973, to elect the fifth National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1962 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 18 November and 25 November 1962 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.

Alain Savary was a French Socialist politician, deputy to the National Assembly of France during the Fourth and Fifth Republic, chairman of the Socialist Party (PS) and a government minister in the 1950s and in 1981–1984, when he was appointed by President François Mitterrand as Minister of National Education.

The Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance was a French political party founded after the liberation of France from German occupation, mainly active during the Fourth Republic (1947–58). It was a loosely organised "cadre party" without mass membership. Its ideology was vague, including a broad diversity of different political convictions, and it was variously described as left-wing, centrist, and even conservative. It was decidedly anti-communist and linked with the Paix et Liberté movement. The UDSR was a founding member of the Liberal International in 1947.

The May 1958 crisis, also known as the Algiers putsch or the coup of 13 May, was a political crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) which led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic and its replacement by the Fifth Republic led by Charles de Gaulle who returned to power after a twelve-year absence. It started as a political uprising in Algiers on 13 May 1958 and then became a military coup d'état led by a coalition headed by Algiers deputy and reserve airborne officer Pierre Lagaillarde, French Generals Raoul Salan, Edmond Jouhaud, Jean Gracieux, and Jacques Massu, and by Admiral Philippe Auboyneau, commander of the Mediterranean fleet. The coup was supported by former Algerian Governor General Jacques Soustelle and his activist allies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union for the New Republic</span> Political party in France

The Union for the New Republic, was a French political party founded on 1 October 1958 that supported Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle in the 1958 elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Centre of Independents and Peasants</span> Political party in France

The National Centre of Independents and Peasants is a right-wing agrarian political party in France, founded in 1951 by the merger of the National Centre of Independents with the Peasant Party and the Republican Party of Liberty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Mollet</span> French politician

Guy Alcide Mollet was a French politician. He led the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) from 1946 to 1969 and was the French Prime Minister from 1956 to 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Party (France)</span> French political party (1969–present)

The Socialist Party is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major political parties in the French Fifth Republic, along with The Republicans. It replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers' International in 1969 and is currently led by First Secretary Olivier Faure. The PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the French Communist Party</span>

The French Communist Party has been a part of the political scene in France since 1920, peaking in strength around the end of World War II. It originated when a majority of members resigned from the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party to set up the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC). The SFIO had been divided over support for French participation in World War I and over whether to join the Communist International (Comintern). The new SFIC defined itself as revolutionary and democratic centralist. Ludovic-Oscar Frossard was its first secretary-general, and Ho Chi Minh was also among the founders. Frossard himself resigned in 1923, and the 1920s saw a number of splits within the party over relations with other left-wing parties and over adherence to the Communist International's dictates. The party gained representation in the French parliament in successive elections, but also promoted strike action and opposed colonialism. Pierre Semard, leader from 1924 to 1928, sought party unity and alliances with other parties; but leaders including Maurice Thorez imposed a Stalinist line from the late 1920s, leading to loss of membership through splits and expulsions, and reduced electoral success. With the rise of Fascism this policy shifted after 1934, and the PCF supported the Popular Front, which came to power under Léon Blum in 1936. The party helped to secure French support for the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and opposed the 1938 Munich Agreement with Hitler. During this period the PCF adopted a more patriotic image, and favoured an equal but distinct role for women in the communist movement.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.