French legislative election, 1968

← 1967

23 June and 30 June 1968

1973 →

All 487 seats to the French National Assembly
244 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Georges Pompidou	François Mitterrand
Party	UDR	FGDS
Leader's seat	Cantal-2nd	Nièvre-3rd
Last election	243 seats	117 seats
Seats won	354^*	57
Seat change	111	60
Popular vote	9,667,532 (1st round) 6,762,170 (2nd round)	3,660,250 (1st round) 2,935,775 (2nd round)
Percentage	43.65% (1st round) 46.39% (2nd round)	16.53% (1st round) 20.14% (2nd round)

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Waldeck Rochet	Camille Laurens (NCIP), Jean Lecanuet (CD, above)
Party	PCF	Progress and Modern Democracy
Leader's seat	Seine-Saint-Denis	Seine-Maritime (Lecanuet, as Senator)
Last election	73 seats	41 seats (CD)
Seats won	34	33
Seat change	39	11
Popular vote	4,434,832 (1st round) 2,935,775 (2nd round)	2,289,849 (1st round) 1,141,305 (2nd round)
Percentage	20.02% (1st round) 20.14% (2nd round)	10.34% (1st round) 7.83% (2nd round)

^* Including Independent Republicans.

PM before election

Georges Pompidou
UDR

Elected PM

Maurice Couve de Murville
UDR

Georges Pompidou
UDR

Maurice Couve de Murville
UDR

French legislative elections took place on 23 and 30 June 1968 to elect the fourth French National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. They were held in the aftermath of the events of May 1968. On 30 May 1968, in a radio speech, President Charles de Gaulle, who had been out of the public eye for three days (he was in Baden-Baden, Germany), announced the dissolution of the National Assembly, and a new legislative election, by way of restoring order.

While the workers went back to their jobs, Prime Minister Georges Pompidou campaigned for the "defence of the Republic" in the face of the "communist threat" and called for the "silent majority" to make themselves heard. The Left was divided. The Communists reproached the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS) leader François Mitterrand for not having consulted it before he announced his candidacy in the next presidential election, and for the formation of a provisional government led by Pierre Mendès-France. The Far-Left and the Unified Socialist Party protested against the passivity of the left-wing parties. The Gaullist Union for the Defence of the Republic became the first party in the French Republic's history to obtain an absolute parliamentary majority. The FGDS disintegrated.

However, the relation between the two heads of the executive power had deteriorated during the crisis. One month later, Georges Pompidou resigned and was replaced by Maurice Couve de Murville.

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Wikipedia