The result of the legislative election was never really in doubt once François Hollande had won the presidential election. There was very likely to be a majority for the left. The interesting element of the result is that, together, the Socialist Party (PS), its official partners, the Left-Radicals (PRG), and the miscellaneous left who are part of the presidential majority won an overall majority. Even so, the PS will govern in coalition with the Greens (EELV). There is no need for the coalition to be enlarged to include the Left Front (FDG), which was a possibility at one point of the campaign.

On the right, the election was marked by the return of three extreme-right deputies, though the National Front leader and presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, was not elected.

One factoid is that only one of the candidates who stood at the presidential election will be sitting in the next legislature. He is the anti-European right-wing candidate, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. Cécile Duflot, the leader of EELV, was elected, but she is a minister and therefore does not take her seat. The leader of the centrists, François Bayrou, and the candidate for the FDG both lost.

Anyway, while the socialist prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, formally tendered his resignation as is the rule, he was duly reappointed. It is worth bearing in mind that this is only the third time since 1959 that the left has had a majority in the Assembly and on one of those occasions it faced a period of cohabitation. So, this election is not normal in French politics terms. In fact, the situation is unique, because the Senate also has a left majority, though it is more fragmented and less stable. Even under Mitterrand, the Senate was controlled by the right.

Adam Carr’s website presents the results very nicely.