With 133 deputies elected, the Nupes therefore failed to win a majority in the National Assembly. The rallying of the other 20 elected leftists, who were not part of the Nupes agreement, will not be enough either. The burst of participation hoped for by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his allies did not happen. But thanks to their alliance, La France insoumise, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party still managed to more than double their number of deputies compared to 2017.
>> Legislative: follow our live the day after the second round
The left makes its comeback in the Assembly
This is the main consequence of the union of the left. Five years after being almost expelled from the Hemicycle, the left is returning in numbers to the National Assembly. Together, the “rebellious”, the socialists, the ecologists and the communists win 133 elected *. That is 75 more seats than in 2017.
The Nupes can claim the title of main opposition force. But once placed in the long term, these results still remain below the scores that the left achieved in the early 2000s. The number of seats obtained by Sunday evening is notably lower than those that the left had acquired in 2002 and in 2007, two polls where she did not come out on top.
The left wins more often
In reality, the union of the left mainly benefits from its non-aggression pact. Only one left-wing candidate was officially invested by Nupes in 545 constituencies distributed in metropolitan France and among French people living abroad. The overseas territories and Corsica were exceptions, for lack of a national agreement with the parties in these territories. Result, despite a national score slightly lower than 2017 in the 1st round, La France insoumise, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party managed to qualify 231 candidates more than five years ago in the second round. . And they end up with more than twice as many elected as in 2017.
Insubordinate France strengthens its position
Insubordinate France is the main winner of this agreement, with 72 deputies. The party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon thus consolidates its status as the leading force on the left acquired at the end of the first round of the presidential election. The Socialist Party manages to maintain itself with a number of elected officials almost equivalent to 2017. The environmentalists meanwhile sign their return to the Hemicycle.
Each of these formations will be able to form its own parliamentary group in the National Assembly. The Communists, on the other hand, did not manage to obtain the 15 deputies necessary for the constitution of a group. Fabien Roussel and his comrades will have to join forces with elected officials from other lists than their own if they wish to have their own group in the Assembly.
The left fills up in Ile-de-France
The geographical distribution of the constituencies won shows that Nupes is full in Ile-de-France, where 43 of its candidates were elected. More generally, the left alliance manages to settle in the big cities. On the other hand, it is almost absent in the northeast of France. While they were 50 on the starting line in the first round, only 24 candidates from Nupes managed to qualify in the second round in Hauts-de-France. In the end, the left has only 8 deputies in this region which has long been won over to it.
The left delights eastern Paris with the majority
The results of the legislative elections in the capital are the symbol of the shift that has taken place in the big cities in favor of the Nupes. In 2017, almost all of the constituencies of Paris had been won by La République en Marche. Five years later, the capital is divided in two: in the west, the constituencies remain acquired by the presidential majority and on the right, but the east of Paris passes to the left, with 9 deputies from Nupes, including Sophia Chikirou, Sarah Legrain and Danièle Obono, all elected in the first round.
The left loses in half of its duels against the National Rally
The analysis of 362 duels contested by Nupes candidates in the second round shows that the left alliance lost a little more than one face-to-face out of two against the National Rally. In some regions, the proportion of defeats against Marine Le Pen’s party is even higher. In Hauts-de-France, for example, Nupes was beaten in 9 out of 13 constituencies against the far-right party. Similarly, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the Nupes lost in 6 out of 8 duels.
The left has failed to remobilize its electorate
La Nupes failed to mobilize those who had not voted in the first round. Turnout fell in nearly 90% of metropolitan constituencies where a left-wing alliance candidate was still in the running. Particularly penalized by the abstention in the first round, the Nupes had multiplied the calls for mobilization. In vain. Abstention thus reached 71% among 18-24 year olds in the second round, two points more than in the first round, according to sociological surveys carried out by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and the parliamentary channels.
* Franceinfo carried out various checks and decided to integrate into the ranks of the Nupes two candidates labeled various left by the Ministry of the Interior. Contrary to the figures of the ministry, the projections in seats of the Nupes therefore count, in this hemicycle, the deputies Joël Aviragnet and Hervé Saulignac. All our explanations can be found in this article.