Turnout: 51.85%
About this election
The 2024 European Parliament election in France, held on 9 June 2024, delivered a sweeping victory for the Rassemblement National and triggered one of the most dramatic decisions of Emmanuel Macron's presidency. Marine Le Pen's party, fronted by Jordan Bardella, won more than 31% of the vote — more than double the score of Macron's list — and within hours of the result the president dissolved the National Assembly and called snap legislative elections, gambling his parliamentary position on a high-stakes confrontation with the far right.
France elects its MEPs by closed-list proportional representation in a single national constituency, with a 5% threshold for representation. For the 2024–2029 term France held 81 seats, the largest national delegation in the Parliament alongside Germany. As a second-order, proportional election with no government at stake, the European vote typically allows protest and the smaller parties more room than the majoritarian presidential and legislative contests.
The campaign was widely read as a mid-term referendum on Macron, who was struggling with the fallout of the 2023 pension reform and a hung parliament. Jordan Bardella, the popular young president of the Rassemblement National, led a disciplined, polished campaign focused on immigration, the cost of living and farmers' grievances. Macron's Besoin d'Europe list, headed by Valérie Hayer, never gained traction, while on the left Raphaël Glucksmann's Socialist–Place Publique list revived the centre-left and La France Insoumise mobilised its base.
The Rassemblement National won 31.37% and 30 of France's 81 seats — a crushing first place. Macron's Besoin d'Europe came a distant second on 14.60% (13 seats), barely ahead of the Glucksmann-led Socialist–Place Publique list on 13.83% (13 seats). La France Insoumise took 9.89% (9 seats), Les Républicains 7.25% (6), the Greens 5.50% (5) and Reconquête, led by Marion Maréchal, 5.47% (5). Turnout was 51.85%. The combined far-right vote — RN plus Reconquête — approached 37%.
Macron's response stunned the country: on the evening of the result he dissolved the National Assembly, calling legislative elections for 30 June and 7 July 2024. The dissolution transformed a second-order European vote into the trigger for a national crisis, leading to the hung parliament and governmental instability that followed. The 2024 European election thus stands out as the rare second-order election that directly reshaped national politics.
The Rassemblement National's victory was geographically overwhelming: its list finished first in every one of France's thirteen metropolitan regions, a feat no party had achieved in a competitive nationwide vote in modern times. Macron's and Glucksmann's lists ran strongest in the big cities and the wealthier western and central areas, but nowhere displaced the RN at regional level. The uniformity of the map captured the breadth of the far right's advance and helps explain why Macron judged the result so grave.
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 by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.