Following the
2017 legislative elections the incumbent president
Emmanuel Macron's party,
La République En Marche! (LREM), and its allies held a majority in the
National Assembly (577 seats). The
LREM group had 308 deputies, the
Democratic Movement and affiliated democrats group had 42 deputies, and
Agir ensemble, which was created in November 2017, had 9 deputies. Although a proposal to have part of the
French Parliament elected with a
proportional representation system was included in Macron's platform in 2017, this election promise was not fulfilled. A similar promise was made by
François Hollande during the
2012 presidential election. Macron, from the
centrist LREM, had defeated
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right
National Rally, 66–34% in the
2017 French presidential election. The
2022 French presidential election was held on 10 and 24 April. As no candidate won a
majority in the first round, a
runoff was held, in which Macron defeated Le Pen 58–41% and was reelected as
President of France. In the first round, Macron took the lead with 27.9% of votes, while
Valérie Pécresse, the candidate for
the Republicans, took under 5% of the vote in the first round, the worst result in the history of the party or its
Gaullist predecessors.
Anne Hidalgo, the
mayor of Paris, received 1.75% of the vote, the worst in the history of the
Socialist Party (PS). With more than 30% of the vote,
Jean-Luc Mélenchon of
La France Insoumise (LFI) came third in the first round with 21.95% of the vote and 1.2% behind second-placed Le Pen, also coming first in the 18–24 and 25–34 age groups, as well in
Île-de-France, the most populous region of France. In the context of the legislative election common participation, as the largest
French Left force in the presidential election, LFI sought to unite the main left-leaning parties around the banner of the
New Ecological and Social People's Union, or NUPES. Discussions were held with
Europe Ecology – The Greens, including the
Ecologist Pole, as well as the
French Communist Party, which joined the coalition on 2–3 May 2022, respectively; the PS reached an agreement to join the coalition on 4 May, which was confirmed by a National Council party vote on 5 May. This resulted in the first wide left-wing alliance since the
Plural Left in the
1997 French legislative election. went unanswered; the FGR then formed alliances with the
Radical Party of the Left, which internally rejected integration into NUPES, and the dissident minority in the PS, among the
miscellaneous left. Their candidates presented themselves as part of the "secular and republican" left between Macron and Mélenchon. The
New Anticapitalist Party announced it would not enter the coalition due to what they called insurmountable ideological differences with the PS, while
Lutte Ouvrière announced that the party would run its own slate separate from NUPES, which they believe to be
reformist. On 5 May 2022, LREM changed its name to Renaissance, introducing its
big tent coalition for the legislative election made up of the presidential majority parties called
Ensemble Citoyens (Ensemble). On 16 May, Macron appointed
Élisabeth Borne as Prime Minister, replacing
Jean Castex. Borne, a member of Renaissance and formerly of the PS, was serving as Macron's
Minister of Labour, Employment and Economic Inclusion prior to her appointment as prime minister. She is only the second woman to hold the office. == Electoral system ==