European Parliament election, 1999 (France)

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13 June 1999

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87 seats to the European Parliament

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	François Hollande	Charles Pasqua	Nicolas Sarkozy
Party	PS	RPF	RPR
Last election	15 seats	13 seats	28 seats
Seats won	22	13	12
Seat change	+7	±0	-16
Popular vote	3,873,901	2,304,285	2,263,476
Percentage	21.95%	13.05%	12.82%
Swing	+7.46	+0.71	-12.76

On 13 June 1999 the fifth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Once again, abstention was very high for this type of election- only 47% of eligible voters voted. The election was also the first French European election to be won by the Socialist Party (PS).

In a major surprise and historical upset for the government, Charles Pasqua's and Philippe de Villiers' list unting Pasqua's new Gaullist Rally for France (RPF) and de Villiers' eurosceptic Movement for France (MPF) list surpassed the list of President Jacques Chirac's RPR-Liberal Democracy, led by Nicolas Sarkozy. The election ended Sarkozy's immediate political future, including a run for the presidency of the Rally for the Republic – Michèle Alliot-Marie, a close supporter of Chirac, succeeded him. However, the alliance between Pasqua and de Villiers proved to be ephemeral. Indeed, de Villiers broke with Pasqua later 2000 and thus ended the RPF's chance to become a large common party for all eurosceptic Gaullists from within the RPR.

The New Union for French Democracy (Nouvelle UDF), led by François Bayrou ran independently of the RPR, contrary to Chirac's wishes, for the first time since 1984. Bayrou won a relatively good result, 9.28%, allowing him to pursue his more independent political strategy (slowly distancing the party from the RPR) within the New UDF.

The other winner of the election were The Greens led by Franco-German green politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit, whose list won 9.72%, the party's second-best result after 1989.

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