1914 French legislative election

Legislative elections were held in France on 26 April and 10 May 1914, three months before the outbreak of World War I. The Radical Party, a radical and increasingly centre-right party, emerged as the largest party, though, with the outbreak of the First World War, many in the Chamber, ranging from Catholics to socialists, united to form the Union sacrée.

1914 French legislative election

← 1910 26 April and 10 May 1914 1919 →

All 592 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
297 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Joseph Caillaux Jean Jaurès
Party PRV SFIO
Seats won 140 103
Seat change Decrease 8 Increase 28
Popular vote 1,530,188 1,413,044
Percentage 18.15% 16.76%
Swing Decrease 2.30pp Increase 3.61pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Party UR RI
Seats won 96 96
Seat change Decrease 20 Increase 36
Popular vote 1,588,075 1,399,830
Percentage 18.84% 16.60%
Swing Decrease 1.41pp Decrease 5.16pp

Prime Minister before election

Gaston Doumergue
RI

Elected Prime Minister

René Viviani
PRS

The elections saw 192 new members elected.[1]

Alexandre Ribot, a member of the Republican Democratic Party, negotiated a government on 9 June 1914, but its perceived overly-centrist leanings lead much of the left-wing of the Radical Party to rebel against it, bringing it down on the day it was presented to the chamber. Ribot was quickly succeeded by René Viviani of the Republican-Socialist Party, who formed a centre-left government on 13 June, only four days later.

Results edit

PartyVotes%Seats
Republican Union1,588,07518.8496
Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party1,530,18818.15140
French Section of the Workers' International1,413,04416.76103
Independent Radicals1,399,83016.6096
ALPPN–Reactionaries1,297,72215.3973
Republican Left819,1849.7257
Republican-Socialist Party326,9273.8827
Others56,0860.670
Total8,431,056100.00592
Valid votes8,431,05697.62
Invalid/blank votes205,5112.38
Total votes8,636,567100.00
Registered voters/turnout11,185,07877.22
Source: Mackie & Rose,[2] Nohlen & Stöver[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Le Matin 12 May 1914
  2. ^ Thomas T. Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan, pp128–130
  3. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p691 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

Sources edit

External links edit