French legislative election, 1936

← 1932

26 April and 3 May 1936

1945 →

All 610 seats to the Chamber of Deputies
306 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Léon Blum	Édouard Daladier	Louis Marin
Party	SFIO	PRRRS	FR and RIAS
Leader's seat	Narbonne	Rhône	Meurthe-et-Moselle
Last election	132 seats	160 seats	59 seats
Seats won	149	110	100
Seat change	17	50	41
Popular vote	1,955,306	1,422,611	1,475,793
Percentage	19.86%	14.45%	15.2%
Swing	0.65%	4.73%	2.89%

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Leader	Pierre-Étienne Flandin (AD)	Maurice Thorez
Party	AD-RI	PCF
Leader's seat	Yonne	Seine
Last election	121 seats	10 seats
Seats won	82	72
Seat change	39	62
Popular vote	2,089,166	1,502,404
Percentage	21.33%	15.26%
Swing	1.89%	6.94%

Government before election

Albert Sarraut II
PRRRS (Republican coalition)

Elected Government

Léon Blum I
SFIO (Popular Front)

Albert Sarraut II
PRRRS (Republican coalition)

Léon Blum I
SFIO (Popular Front)

French legislative elections to elect the 16th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 26 April and 3 May 1936. This was the last legislature of the Third Republic and the last election before World War II. The number of candidates set a record, with 4,807 people vying for 618 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In the Seine Department alone, there were 1,402 candidates.

The Popular Front, composed of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), the Radical-Socialists, the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC), and miscellaneous leftists, won power from the broad Republican coalitions that had governed since the 6 February 1934 crisis. Léon Blum became President of the Council. Broad Republican coalitions had governed since the 6 February 1934 crisis: Government Gaston Doumergue II (Union Nationale, 272 days), Government Flandin I (204 days), Government Bouisson (3 days) and Government Laval IV (229 days).

For the first time, the Radical-Socialists were eclipsed on the left by the SFIO, while still keeping a considerable role in French politics.

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Wikipedia