1994 European Parliament election in France

European Parliament elections were held in France on 12 June 1994. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre-right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party, the Left Radical Party, the French Communist Party, the National Front and Philippe de Villiers' eurosceptic right-wing dissident UDF list, which formed the Majorité pour l'autre Europe. 53.5% of the French population turned out on election day, actually an improvement on the last election in 1989. The Greens, who were weakened by an Ecology Generation list led by Brice Lalonde (winning 2.01%) and also suffering from internal divisions between the party's left (who wanted an electoral alliance with the Soécialists and the left) and the right (rejecting all alliances), lost all 9 seats won in 1989. Arlette Laguiller's Trotskyst Workers' Struggle (2.27%), Jean-Pierre Chevènement's left-wing eurosceptic Citizens' Movement (2.54%), the L'Europe commence à Sarajevo List (1.57%) and the agrarian populist Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions (3.96%) were among the notable lists which did not pass the 5% threshold.

With 14.49%, the Socialists, the party of President François Mitterrand, whose list was led by Michel Rocard suffered its worst result ever in a European election, losing votes mainly to the Radical list led by wealthy businessman and a protégé of Mitterrand, Bernard Tapie. Most analysts agreed that Mitterrand supported Tapie's list behind the scenes, since Rocard was a personal rival of Mitterrand and he wished to destroy Rocard's chances in the 1995 presidential election. In fact, Rocard resigned as First Secretary of the PS shortly thereafter and did not run in 1995 – Lionel Jospin was the Socialist candidate.

The other surprise was Philippe de Villiers success. Villiers, the President of the General Council of Vendée, was a eurosceptic member of the liberal component (PR) of the pro-European UDF. He won a surprisingly strong 12.34%, and his thirteen MEPs formed the nucleus of the Europe of Nations group. However, his success did not lead him to immediate political successes – he polled barely 4% in the 1995 presidential election.

Results


Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Union for France	4,985,574	25.58	28	New
	Socialist Party	2,824,173	14.49	15	–5
	Majority for Another Europe	2,404,105	12.34	13	New
	Movement of Radicals of the Left	2,344,457	12.03	13	+11
	National Front	2,050,086	10.52	11	+1
	French Communist Party	1,342,222	6.89	7	0
	Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions	771,061	3.96	0	0
	The Greens	574,806	2.95	0	–9
	Citizens' Movement	494,986	2.54	0	New
	Lutte Ouvrière	442,723	2.27	0	0
	Ecology Generation	392,291	2.01	0	New
	Europe Begins at Sarajevo	305,633	1.57	0	New
	Jobs First!	125,340	0.64	0	New
	Natural Law Party	103,261	0.53	0	New
	Workers' Party	84,513	0.43	0	New
	Regionalist and Federalist List	76,436	0.39	0	New
	Democrats for a United States of Europe	71,814	0.37	0	New
	Life Policy for Europe	56,658	0.29	0	New
	PPDG–PPM–PCR–PSG	37,041	0.19	0	New
	Europe for All	290	0.00	0	New
Total		19,487,470	100.00	87	+6

Valid votes		19,487,470	94.67
Invalid/blank votes		1,097,510	5.33
Total votes		20,584,980	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		39,019,797	52.76
Source: France Politique

Members elected

UDF – RPR

PS

UDF dissidents

PRG

FN

PCF

References

^ Élections européennes 1994

[1] Élections européennes 1994

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