France European Parliament election 2019 — Results

The election in brief

The 2019 European Parliament election in France was held on 26 May 2019, choosing France's delegation to the European Parliament. It was the first nationwide test of Emmanuel Macron's presidency since 2017 and was framed by his camp as a duel between pro-Europeans and nationalists. In the event Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National narrowly topped the poll, repeating its 2014 first place, while Macron's list came a close second and the Greens surged into a strong third.

The electoral system

France elects its members of the European Parliament by closed-list proportional representation. From 2019 the country reverted to a single national constituency (replacing the eight regional constituencies used from 2004 to 2014), with seats allocated proportionally among lists that clear a 5% threshold. France was allocated 74 seats for the 2019–2024 term, rising to 79 once the United Kingdom completed its withdrawal from the EU, with the five additional seats filled after Brexit took effect in 2020.

The campaign

European elections in France have traditionally drawn lower turnout and served as a mid-term verdict on the president. In 2019 the campaign was dominated by the aftermath of the Gilets jaunes movement, climate change and the question of Europe itself. Macron's La République En Marche, running under the Renaissance banner with Nathalie Loiseau as lead candidate, sought to make the vote a referendum on his pro-European project, directly against Marine Le Pen's Eurosceptic Rassemblement National, led by the young Jordan Bardella in his first national campaign.

The results in detail

The Rassemblement National finished first with 23.34% and 23 seats, narrowly ahead of Renaissance on 22.42%, also 23 seats. The major surprise was Europe Écologie Les Verts, which surged to 13.48% and 13 seats on the strength of climate concern among younger, urban voters. Les Républicains collapsed to 8.48% (8 seats), their worst-ever European result, while La France Insoumise (6.31%, 6 seats) and the Socialist–Place Publique list led by Raphaël Glucksmann (6.19%, 6 seats) trailed. Turnout rose sharply to 50.12%, the highest in a French European election in a quarter-century.

What happened next

The result entrenched the Macron-versus-Le Pen polarity that had structured the 2017 presidential election and would define 2022. The Greens' breakthrough foreshadowed their strong showing in the 2020 municipal elections, when they captured several major cities. The continued marginalisation of Les Républicains and the Socialists confirmed that the realignment of French politics into a centrist, a national-populist and a fragmented-left pole extended to the European arena.

How the regions voted

The Rassemblement National led across most of France, dominating the de-industrialised north-east and the Mediterranean rim and reaching into much of the rural interior. Macron's Renaissance led in the regions where his support was strongest — Île-de-France, Brittany, the wider west and parts of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes — and in most large cities, where the Green vote was also concentrated. The map underlines the urban–peripheral divide that runs through contemporary French electoral geography.

Source

Official results from the French Ministry of the Interior — interieur.gouv.fr. The map shows the leading list by region, built from the ministry's results-by-region files; click a region for the full breakdown.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.