2024 French legislative election

Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 (and one day earlier for some voters outside of metropolitan France) to elect all 577 members of the 17th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic. The election followed the dissolution of the National Assembly by President Emmanuel Macron, triggering a snap election after the National Rally (RN) made substantial gains and Macron's Besoin d'Europe electoral list lost a significant number of seats in the 2024 European Parliament election. In the first round of the election, the National Rally and candidates jointly backed by Éric Ciotti of The Republicans (LR) led with 33.21% of the vote, followed by the parties of the New Popular Front (NFP) with 28.14%, the pro-Macron alliance Ensemble with 21.28%, and LR candidates with 6.57%, with an overall turnout of 66.71%, the highest since 1997. On the basis of these results, a record 306 constituencies were headed to three-way runoffs and 5 to four-way runoffs, but 134 NFP and 82 Ensemble candidates withdrew despite qualifying for the run-off in order to reduce the RN's chances of winning an absolute majority of seats. In the second round, based on the Interior Ministry's candidate labeling, NFP candidates won 180 seats, with the Ensemble coalition winning 159, National Rally-supported candidates being elected to 142, and LR candidates taking 39 seats. Since no party reached the requisite 289 seats needed for a majority, the second round resulted in a hung parliament. Unofficial media classifications of candidates' affiliations may differ slightly from those used by the Ministry of Interior: according to Le Monde's analysis, 182 NFP-affiliated candidates were elected, compared with 168 for Ensemble, 143 for the RN, and 45 for LR. The voter turnout for the second round, 66.63%, likewise set the record for being the highest since 1997. Macron initially refused Gabriel Attal's resignation on 8 July, but accepted the resignation of the government on 16 July, allowing ministers to vote for the president of the National Assembly while remaining in place as a caretaker government. NFP leaders called for the appointment of a prime minister from the left, but Ensemble and LR figures advocated for an alliance and threatened that any NFP-led government including ministers from La France Insoumise (LFI) would face an immediate vote of no confidence. Post-election negotiations between NFP alliance partners exposed renewed tensions, with party leaders taking until 23 July to agree upon a name for prime minister – the 37-year-old director of finance and purchasing for the city of Paris, Lucie Castets. Macron announced a truce for making political negotiations during the 2024 Summer Olympics on 26 July to 11 August. After the truce, Macron still did not signal any intent to appoint her and called party leaders meeting in Élysée on 23 August, he finally refused to do so on 27 August, leading the NFP to announce they would not take part in further talks with Macron unless it was "to discuss forming a government". On 5 September, Macron appointed Michel Barnier as prime minister. He presented his government on 19 September and announced on 22 September. On 1 October, Barnier presented his first speech in the National Assembly. Analysts noted that the failure of any bloc to attain support from an absolute majority of deputies could lead to institutional deadlock because any government must be able to survive motions of no confidence against them. Although Macron can call a second snap election, he is unable to do so until at least a year after the 2024 election, as stipulated by the constitution. On 9 October, Barnier survived a motion of no confidence led by 193 members of the NFP and 4 members of LIOT members support. Another motion of no confidence, led by the National Rally and the leftist coalition on 4 December, successfully ousted Barnier with 331 votes in favor.