1958 French legislative election

1958 French legislative election

23 and 30 November 1958
All 576 seats to the French National Assembly 289 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	77.1% ( 5.7 pp) (1st round)
Majority party Minority party Third party   CNIP Leader Charles de Gaulle none Pierre Pflimlin Party UNR CNIP MRP Leader's seat Bas-Rhin-8th Last election 22 seats 95 seats 71 seats Seats won 189 132 57 Seat change 167 37 14 Popular vote 3,603,958 (1st round) 4,769,052 (2nd round) 4,092,600 (1st round) 4,250,083 (2nd round) 2,387,788 (1st round) 1,365,064 (2nd round) Percentage 17.6% (1st round) 26.4% (2nd round) 19.9% (1st round) 23.6% (2nd round) 11.6% (1st round) 7.5% (2nd round)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Guy Mollet Félix Gaillard Maurice Thorez Party SFIO PRV PCF Leader's seat Pas-de-Calais-1st Charente-2nd Seine-50th Last election 95 seats 77 seats 150 seats Seats won 40 37 10 Seat change 55 40 140 Popular vote 3,167,354 (1st round) 2,484,417 (2nd round) 2,695,287 (1st round) 1,398,409 (2nd round) 3,882,204 (1st round) 3,741,384 (2nd round) Percentage 15.5% (1st round) 13.8% (2nd round) 12.9% (1st round) 7.7% (2nd round) 18.9% (1st round) 20.7% (2nd round)
Prime Minister before election Charles de Gaulle UNR Elected Prime Minister Michel Debré UNR

Legislative elections were held in France on 23 and 30 November 1958 to elect the first National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic.

Since 1954, the French Fourth Republic had been mired in the Algerian War. In May 1958, Pierre Pflimlin, a Christian-Democrat, became prime minister. He was known to be in favour of a negotiated settlement with the Algerian nationalists.

On 13 May, riots broke out in Algiers, with the complicity of the army in what is known as the May 1958 crisis in France. A rebel government seized power in Algiers in order to defend "French Algeria". The next day, General Massu demanded the return to power of General Charles de Gaulle.

The rebellious generals took control of Corsica threatening to conduct an assault on Paris, involving paratroopers and armoured forces based at Rambouillet. In Paris, the political leaders were trying to find a compromise. On 1 June, returning from his 12 years out of power since his abrupt resignation as Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in 1946, De Gaulle replaced Pflimlin to lead a government of national unity and nominated as Ministers of State (Vice-Prime Ministers) Pierre Pflimlin (Popular Republican Movement, MRP), Guy Mollet (French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), Louis Jacquinot (National Center of Independents and Peasants, CNIP) and Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He obtained the right to develop a new Constitution. Only the Communists and some center-left politicians such as Pierre Mendès-France and François Mitterrand, opposed this "coup against the Republic". This opposition came to a head the day De Gaulle took office with a 200,000 strong demonstration taking place in Paris to oppose the unprecedented power given to De Gaulle. However, these oppositions were then met with counter demonstrations with a series of car honking stand off from Parisians occurring at the Avenue des Champs Elysées that very same night. Further demonstrations between both partisans occurred in other cities including Toulouse and Bordeaux.

On 28 September the new constitution was approved in a referendum in the French Union by 83% of all voters, and in metropolitan France by 79% of voters. The Fifth Republic was born. The two-round system was re-established for the legislative elections. The Gaullists created the Union for the New Republic which became the largest parliamentary group. Their opponents received vastly less seats with in particular the PCF losing 137 seats compared to 1956. The small number of left-wing deputies elected may be explained by divisions among left-leaning parties between supporters and opponents to the Fifth Republic: the two-round ballot tends to reward parties which are able to form alliances with each other. As such, De Gaulle's new party formed a coalition with the CNIP to form a new government.

On 21 December de Gaulle was elected President of France by an electoral college. His Justice Minister Michel Debré became prime minister. The pro-Fifth Republic center-left parties (SFIO and Radical Party) left the presidential majority. This established the first Gaullist centre-right government.

Results (Metropolitan France)

Party		First round		Second round		Total seats
		Votes	%	Votes	%
	National Centre of Independents and Peasants and Moderates	4,092,600	19.97	4,250,083	23.60	132
	French Communist Party	3,882,204	18.94	3,741,384	20.78	10
	Union for the New Republic and Gaullists	3,603,958	17.58	4,769,052	26.48	189
	French Section of the Workers International	3,167,354	15.45	2,484,417	13.80	40
	Radical Party, Dissidents and Republican Centre	2,695,287	13.15	1,398,409	7.77	37
	Popular Republican Movement and Christian Democrats	2,387,788	11.65	1,365,064	7.58	57
	Far-right	669,518	3.27			1
Total		20,498,709	100.00	18,008,409	100.00	466
Source: Macridis & Brown

References

• Macridis, Roy C; Brown, Bernard Edward (1960). Long, Norton E. (ed.). The De Gaulle Republic: Quest For Unity. The Dorsey Series in Political Science (1st ed.). Homewood: The Dorsey Press. LCCN 60-14048. OCLC 408387. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
• Laponce, J. A. (1961). The government of the Fifth Republic: French Political Parties and the Constitution. Berkeley, Los Angeles; London: University of California; Cambridge University. LCCN 60-14656. OCLC 501634. Retrieved 11 November 2014 – via Internet Archive.
• Watson, William E. (2003). Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World. Perspectives on the twentieth century (10th ed.). Westport: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-97470-7. ISSN 1538-9626. LCCN 2002030336. OCLC 50322732. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
• Mitterrand, François (1964). Le Coup d'Etat permanent (in French). Paris: Plon.
• "Les évènements amenant de Gaulle au pouvoir | INA". Institut National de l'audiovisuel (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2024.