2024 French general election
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All 577 seats of the Chamber of Deputies (C) 120 elective seats of the Senate (S) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2024 French general election will take place on April 28, 2024, in order to determine the composition of the National Assembly of France and to elect who will be the next prime minister.
With a record high voter turnout, the 2019 election led to French Action (AF) becoming the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for the first time in its history, which created a coalition government with the Christian Democratic Party (PCD). All of the other parties, except The Republicans, formed a unified opposition with the goal of removing AF and PCD deputies from office in the next election.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, Prime Minister Oscar de Saint-Just's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and perceived alienation of France's allies during the Group of Eight summit created scandals and lost support from some of the party's voters. However, after he deployed forces to the French West Indies during the 2021–23 Caribbean diplomatic crisis, ordered the National Guard to restore order to cities after the Nahel Merzouk riots, and withdrew French troops from Syria, support for French Action approached its 2019 election levels by the late summer of 2023.
Background
Electoral system
All 577 Deputies in the lower house of the National Assembly are elected in single-member constituencies. To win outright a candidate needs an absolute majority of the votes, otherwise there will be a runoff a week later, on April 28. Candidates for the Chamber of Deputies must run in a single-member district, with the vast majority of districts being in metropolitan France (539), while 27 represent overseas territories, and 11 represent French citizens living abroad on different continents.
Senate seats include 360 elective seats and 10 seats that are appointed by the King, the latter consisting of bishops of the Catholic Church in France. Senators are elected in a different way from Deputies, on the basis of each province and inhabited overseas territory, with each province or territory electing three senators. All 360 senators are divided into three classes of 120 (classes I, II, and III), with an alternating class being elected in each general election.
