2009 European Parliament election in France

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All 72 French seats in theEuropean Parliament
Turnout	40.63%
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– UMP–NC–GM Xavier Bertrand 27.88 29 +12 PS Martine Aubry 16.48 14 −17 EELV Daniel Cohn-Bendit 16.28 14 +8 MoDem François Bayrou 8.46 6 New FG–AOM Marie-George Buffet 6.48 5 +2 FN Jean-Marie Le Pen 6.34 3 −4 Libertas Jérôme Rivière 4.80 1 −2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

European Parliament elections were held in France on Sunday 7 June 2009 to elect the 72 FrenchMembers of the European Parliament.

Due to the entry ofRomania andBulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats. France now represents only 9.8% of all European MEPs compared to 12.5% in 2004 and 19.8% in 1979, following thefirst European election.

The turnout in European elections in France has almost always declined, with the sole exception of an increase in 1994, falling from 60.7% turnout in the 1979 election to 43.1% in the latest election in 2004.

Nicolas Sarkozy's governingUnion for a Popular Movement (UMP) won a pleasing result, the first time the presidential party had won since the first European elections in 1979. Compared to the party's disastrous 2004 result, it gained 12 seats and over 11% in the popular vote. However, many have said that the UMP is the only governing party in France, making its position very weak compared to the combined opposition.

Led since the tumultuousReims Congress byMartine Aubry, the main opposition party, theSocialists, won a very bad result: only 16.48% and suffering a loss of 17 seats. Prominent Socialist MEPs, including defeated leadership candidateBenoît Hamon, lost their seats. The Socialists lost most votes in middle-class urban areas, while holding their ground better in their rural strongholds.

TheEurope Ecology was the surprise of these elections, with a remarkable 16.28% and the same number of MEPs as the Socialist Party. The green coalition's result was the best result ever for any French Green party, beating out the previous record set byAntoine Waechter in the 1989 European elections – 10.59%. The gains made by the Greens also came from the centristMoDem led byFrançois Bayrou. The MoDem won only 8.45%, a surprisingly low result for the centrist party, thought to be France's third party.

The far-rightFN suffered loses, being reduced to only 3 MEPs. The conservative nationalistLibertas coalition formed aroundPhilippe de Villiers'sMovement for France, but also including the smaller agrarianHunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition, suffered losses compared to the two parties' combined 8% showing in 2004. De Villiers was re-elected, becoming the onlyLibertas.eu MEP elected in the European Union.

On the left of the PS, the newLeft Front formed around theFrench Communist Party and the smallerLeft Party surpassedOlivier Besancenot'sNew Anticapitalist Party. The Left Front and an ally overseas won 6.47% and 5 seats, while Besancenot's NPA won only 4.88% and no seats (despite polling better on aggregate than Libertas, which did win a seat).

• Bureau d’Information pour la France du Parlement européen: Élections européennes 7 Juin 2009

• 2009 European Parliament election
• European Parliament elections in France
• 2009 elections in France
• June 2009 in France

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