Jun Posted by glhermine. The European Parliament elections were held in France on May 25, Its results, with the victory of the far-right National Front FN , made headlines across the EU and became one of the top media stories out of the EP elections. In practice, however, because of the low magnitude of a lot of the constituencies, the effective thresholds can be significantly higher.
The new electoral system was adopted by the centre-right government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin in , with the stated aim of fighting decreasing turnout and increasing ties between citizens and local MEPs. Smaller parties, which have been the losers of the new system, have supported the re-creation a single national constituency. However, in , when the PS was in opposition, its senators had supported a bill to create a national constituency.
There has been a near-consistent decline in turnout in EP elections in France, like in most European countries, since the first elections in In , turnout reached a record low of Like in other EU countries, EP elections in France have usually been seen as midterm elections fought around national political issues, often with the aim of punishing an incumbent government.
In European elections, the system of proportional representation since , the EP elections are the only French national elections fought under a pure PR system and the low stakes of the election have led many of those who did vote to vote for smaller parties or protest parties rather than their traditional parties.
In , Charles Pasqua a former leader of the hard-right and Eurosceptic wing of the RPR, who broke with Chirac in failed to win the signatures necessary to run for President his alliance with de Villiers having already fallen apart, two years earlier.
