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POLITICS

IN NUMBERS: France’s legislative elections

Mainland France goes to the polls on Sunday to vote in the first round of its legislative election. As the country prepares to decide on its future, we have broken down some of the key figures surrounding the contest.

We have broken down some of the key figures ahead of France's legislative elections.
We have broken down some of the key figures ahead of France's legislative elections. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

The imminent parliamentary elections in France will see the country elect MPs to the Assemblée nationale – which is the lower house of the legislature (the equivalent to the House of Representatives in the US or the House of Commons in the UK). 

These elections are important. MPs vote whether or not to approve laws proposed by the government. They can also propose laws of their own, amend legislation and set up investigative committees. 

If Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party doesn’t win a majority of seats, the French President will struggle to push forward his legislative agenda of reforming pensions, cutting taxes and transforming the European Union. 

Here are some of the key numbers you should know around the legislative elections: 

577 MPs 

Over the two rounds of voting, held on June 12th and June 19th, France will elect a total of 577 MPs to sit in the Assemblée nationale. A party needs to win 289 seats to hold a parliamentary majority. 

Each MP represents a geographical constituency – or circonscription in French. 539 of these are in mainland France, 27 are in overseas territories and 11 are for French people living in non-French territories (French people living in the UK for example would vote for an MP to represent them as part of the ‘northern Europe constituency’ which also encompasses Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland).  

Each constituency covers around 125,000 people in total. 

6293 candidates 

There are 6293 candidates running this year.

Among them are Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Damien Abad, the Disabilities Minister. 

READ MORE Ministers, maids and ‘Wolverine’ – Who’s standing in France’s parliamentary elections

Last month the Presidency announced that any government minister who failed to win a seat would have to resign. 

44 percent 

Only 44 percent of the candidates are women. The law in France says that political parties are required to field gender-balanced lists of candidates – or face financial penalties. 

Although the proportion of female candidates is higher than ever before, it is still insufficient. 

In total, parties have been denied €2.25m in public funding this time around for failing to push forward equal numbers of men and women. 

€37,400

Political parties receive €37,400 per year in public financing for every MP they get elected to the Assemblée nationale. This means that there is both a political and economic incentive for political parties to win as many seats as possible. 

Over the course of the five years in between parliamentary elections, a party with 20 MPs can rake in €3.74 million. 

Even parties that don’t eventually win seats still receive some public financing – €1.64 per vote – as long as they managed to win at least 1 percent of the vote in at least 50 constituencies. 

As the largest party in the current Assemblée nationale, La République en Marche (renamed Renaissance) has received close to €20million in public funding every year. 

4 

In a bid to overturn Macron’s majority, four left-wing parties have combined into a coalition known as Nupes – La Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale

It is made up of the France Unbowed Party, the Europe Ecology – the Greens Party, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party. 

€7239.91

Compared to other parliamentarians around the world, French MPs are paid a staggering amount. 

The basic salary of a French MP is €7239.91 per month, pre-tax. 

On top of this, they are paid an advance of €5,373 to cover parliamentary expenses over five years; a €1,200 subsidy to cover accommodation costs when they come to Paris; more than €10,500 to pay assistants; and an annual payment of more than €20,000 to cover IT costs and taxi journeys. 

When an MP is eventually voted out of office, they receive monthly payments of €3,191 (pre-tax) for six months to help them readjust to normal life. After six months, these payments begin to gradually decrease. 

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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