French legislative election, 1962

← 1958

18 November and 25 November 1962

1967 →

All 491 seats to the French National Assembly
246 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Georges Pompidou	Guy Mollet	Maurice Faure
Party	UNR	SFIO	PR
Leader's seat	Cantal-2nd	Pas-de-Calais-1st	Lot
Last election	233 seats	47 seats	37 seats
Seats won	206	65	44
Seat change	27	18	7
Popular vote	5,855,744 (1st round) 6,169,890 (2nd round)	2,298,729 (1st round) 2,264,011 (2nd round)	1,429,649 (1st round) 1,172,711 (2nd round)
Percentage	31.94% (1st round) 40.36% (2nd round)	12.54% (1st round) 14.83% (2nd round)	7.79% (1st round) 7.68% (2nd round)

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Maurice Thorez	André Colin	Camille Laurens
Party	PCF	MRP	CNIP
Leader's seat	Seine	Finistère (Senator)
Last election	10 seats	57 seats	132 seats
Seats won	41	36	28
Seat change	31	21	104
Popular vote	4,003,553 (1st round) 3,195,763 (2nd round)	1,665,695 (1st round) 821,635 (2nd round)	1,404,177 (1st round) - (2nd round)
Percentage	21.84% (1st round) 20.94% (2nd round)	9.08% (1st round) 5.45% (2nd round)	7.66% (1st round) - (2nd round)

	Seventh party

Leader	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Party	Independent Republicans
Leader's seat	Puy-de-Dôme
Last election	N/A (split from CNIP)
Seats won	27
Seat change	N/A
Popular vote	1,089,348 (1st round) 1,444,666 (2nd round)
Percentage	5.94% (1st round) 9.46% (2nd round)

PM before election

Georges Pompidou
UNR

Elected PM

Georges Pompidou
UNR

French legislative elections took place on 18 November and 25 November 1962 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.

Since 1959 and the change of Algerian policy (Charles de Gaulle decided in favour of the "self-government" and "Algerian Algeria"), France had faced bomb attacks by the Secret Armed Organization (Organisation armée secrète or OAS) which opposed the independence of Algeria, negotiated by the FLN with the March 1962 Evian agreements and approved by referendum by the French people. This policy was disapproved by some members of the "Presidential Majority".

Simultaneously, when Georges Pompidou replaced Michel Debré as Prime minister, the center-right parties (MRP and CNIP) left the majority due to de Gaulle's eurosceptic declaration. Like the Left, they denounced the presidentialization of the regime.

On 22 August de Gaulle escaped from an assassination attempt by the OAS in Le Petit-Clamart. He subsequently announced a controversial referendum in which he proposed the election of the president of the French Republic under universal suffrage. The presidential majority composed of the UNR and the Independent Republicans (RI) (which came from a CNIP split) campaigned for a "yes", while all the other parties formed a "coalition of no" and brought down Pompidou's cabinet by a vote of no confidence (motion de censure).

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