French legislative election, 1956
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French legislative election took place on 2 January 1956 to elect the 3rd National Assembly of the Fourth Republic by the party-list proportional representation.
The previous legislative election, in 1951, was won by the Third Force, a coalition of center-left and center-right parties. But little by little, faced with the colonial problem, the governments moved towards the right. A part of the Gaullist party RPF joined the majority against the instruction of Charles De Gaulle, who retired.
In May 1954, the Dien Bien Phu rout caused a political crisis. The Radical Pierre Mendès-France took the lead of the cabinet and finished the Indochina War. Besides, he started the process of independence for Marocco and Tunisia. Nevertheless, from November 1954, France was confronted with the Algerian War. In February 1955, Edgar Faure replaced Mendès-France and chosen a more repressive policy in Algeria.
In the same time, the far-right re-appeared behind the demagogue trade-unionist Pierre Poujade. This one criticized the "fiscalism" and took the head of a shoopkeepers and craftsmen movement. He had a large success in the rural areas in decline. A great number of voters seemed wearied by the political system and the numerous ministerial crisis.
When Faure is defeated by the National Assembly, an anticipated legislative election took place. If the Poujadist UFF fit in the Parliament, the Republican Front, a center-left coalition led by Mendès-France, obtained a relative majority in order to finish the Algerian War. However, this was the Socialist leader Guy Mollet, who led the cabinet.
At the beginning, he was also supported by the Communists. Nevertheless, the pressure of the French community in Algeria incited him to lead a very repressive policy against the Algerian nationalists. It was criticized by Vice-Prime Minister Mendès-France and others members of the cabinet, who resigned. The Republican Front split. Until May 1958, Mollet and his successors floundered in the conflict.
[edit] Results
| Parties and coalitions | Abbr. | Votes | % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| French Section of the Workers International
(Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière) |
SFIO | 3 247 431 | 15.1 | 94 | |
| Radical Party (Parti radical)/
Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (Union démocratique et socialiste de la Résistance) |
PR/UDSR | 2 389 163 | 11.3 | 77 | |
| National Center of Social Republicans
(Centre national des républicains sociaux) |
CNRS | 585 764 | 2.7 | 21 | |
| Total "Republican Front" | 6 222 358 | 28.9 | 192 | ||
| French Communist Party
(Parti communiste français) |
PCF | 5 514 403 | 25.6 | 150 | |
| National Center of Independents and Peasants
(Centre national des indépendants et paysans) |
CNIP | 3 259 782 | 15.2 | 95 | |
| Union and French Fraternity
(Union et fraternité française) |
UFF | 2 483 813 | 11.6 | 52 | |
| Popular Republican Movement
(Mouvement républicain populaire) |
MRP | 2 366 321 | 11.0 | 83 | |
| Miscellaneous | 993 773 | 4.6 | 9 | ||
| Rally of the Republican Lefts
(Rassemblement des gauches républicaines) |
RGR | 660 340 | 3.1 | 14 | |
| Total | 21 500 790 | 100 | 595 | ||
| Abstention: 17.2% | |||||
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French legislative elections
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