1981 French legislative election

1981 French legislative election

← 1978 14 June and 21 June 1981 1986 →
All 491 seats to the French National Assembly 246 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	70.3% ( 12.5 pp) (1st round) 74.5% ( 4.2 pp) (2nd round)
Majority party Minority party   Leader Pierre Mauroy Jacques Chirac Party PS RPR Leader's seat Nord Corrèze Last election 103 seats 148 seats Seats won 269 85 Seat change 166 63 Popular vote 9,432,362 (1st round) 9,198,332 (2nd round) 5,231,269 (1st round) 4,174,302 (2nd round) Percentage 37.52% (1st round) 49.25% (2nd round) 20.81% (1st round) 22.35% (2nd round)   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jean Lecanuet Georges Marchais Party UDF PCF Leader's seat Seine-Maritime (Senator) none Last election 121 seats 86 seats Seats won 62 44 Seat change 59 42 Popular vote 4,827,437 (1st round) 3,489,363 (2nd round) 4,065,540 (1st round) 1,303,587 (2nd round) Percentage 19.20% (1st round) 18.68% (2nd round) 16.17% (1st round) 6.98% (2nd round)
Prime Minister before election Raymond Barre UDF Elected Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy PS

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Legislative elections were held in France on 14 and 21 June 1981,^[1] to elect the seventh National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.

The Socialist Party (PS) achieved the biggest electoral success of their history. This result marked the triumph of Mitterrand's strategy. Like the Gaullist Union of Democrats for the Republic in 1968, the PS obtained an absolute parliamentary majority. The French Communist Party (PCF) obtained its poorest result since 1936 and lost the half of its MPs, most of them to the PS. However, four Communists became members of Pierre Mauroy's government. This was the first PCF governmental participation since 1947. The two main right-wing parliamentary parties, the Rally for the Republic (RPR) and Union for French Democracy (UDF), lost the half of their seats too. This result earned the nickname "the pink wave" from the press.