1999 European Parliament election in France

European Parliament elections were held in France on 13 June 1999. 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).

1999 European Parliament election in France
France
13 June 1999

All 87 French seats in the European Parliament
Turnout46.76
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
PSMDCPRG François Hollande 21.95 22 -6
RPFMPF Charles Pasqua 13.06 13 0
RPRDL Nicolas Sarkozy 12.82 12 -2
LV Daniel Cohn-Bendit 9.72 9 +9
UDF François Bayrou 9.29 9 -5
PCF Robert Hue 6.78 6 -1
CPNT Jean Saint-Josse 6.78 6 +6
FN Jean-Marie Le Pen 5.70 5 -6
LOLCR Arlette Laguiller
Alain Krivine
5.18 5 +5

In a major surprise and historical upset for the government, Charles Pasqua's and Philippe de Villiers' list uniting 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. 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.

Minor parties, including the agrarian populist Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions and the far-left Workers' Struggle obtained very good results and elected 6 and 5 MEP's respectively.

The far-right FN was penalized by Bruno Megret's dissident MNR list and obtained a low result. The French Communist Party also did poorly.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
PSMDCPRG3,874,23121.9522–6
Rally for FranceMovement for France2,304,54413.06130
Rally for the RepublicLiberal Democracy2,263,20112.8212–2
The Greens1,715,7299.729+9
Union for French Democracy1,638,9999.299–5
French Communist Party1,196,4916.786–1
Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions1,195,8636.786+6
National Front1,005,2855.705–6
Lutte OuvrièreRevolutionary Communist League914,8115.185+5
National Republican Movement578,8373.280New
Less Taxes Now!312,4501.770New
Independent Ecological Movement268,0381.520New
Fight for Jobs178,0641.010New
Living Energy–France124,5610.710New
Natural Law Party71,4090.4000
Humanist Party1,9950.010New
Martiniquean Liberal Movement1,7070.010New
Nationalist League6830.000New
Life Policy for Europe2740.0000
Federalist Party00.000New
Total17,647,172100.00870
Valid votes17,647,17294.04
Invalid/blank votes1,118,9835.96
Total votes18,766,155100.00
Registered voters/turnout40,132,51746.76
Source: France Politique


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