French legislative election, 1871

French legislative election, 1871
French Third Republic
8 February 1871

All 675 seats to the National Assembly
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Albert de Broglie Henri d'Artois[1] Jules Favre
Party Orleanist Legitimist Moderate
Leader's seat Eure None Rhône
Seats won 214 182 112
Seat change new party new party
Percentage 31.70% 26.96% 16.59%

Composition of the National Assembly

Prime Minister before election

Charles Cousin-Montauban
Independent

Elected Prime Minister

Jules Armand Dufaure
Independent

Legislative elections were held in France on 8 February 1871 to elect the first legislature of the French Third Republic, the unicameral National Assembly. The elections were held during an explosive situation in the country, as following the Franco-Prussian War, 43 departments were occupied. As a result, all public meetings were outlawed and Paris was the only city where an election campaign took place.

The electoral law allowed candidates to run in more than one seat at a time. As a result, several candidates were elected in more than one seat, with Adolphe Thiers elected in 86 constituencies. A series of by-elections were subsequently held on 2 July to elect the 114 vacant seats.

This election saw the victory of monarchists (Legitimists, Orleanists) favourable to peace with the German Empire win a large majority.

Results

Affiliation Party Seats
Republicans  Radical Republicans38
  Moderate Republicans112
Right
  Liberals72
  Orléanists214
  Bonapartists20
  Legitimists182
Total675[2]

References

  1. The Count of Chambord, he was also the Legitimist claimant to the French throne.
  2. The Assembly was to have 768 seats, including 15 for the French Colonial Empire and 30 for Alsace-Lorraine which was later annexed by the German Empire. A number of seats were not filled due to multiple elections.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.