8th constituency for French residents overseas
Constituency of the National Assembly of France
Deputy	Caroline Yadan RE
Department	none (overseas residents)
Cantons	none
Registered voters	148,948
Politics of France Political parties Elections Previous Next

TheEighth French legislative constituency for citizens abroad (huitième circonscription des Français établis hors de France) is one ofeleven constituencies each electing one representative ofFrench people living outside France to the FrenchNational Assembly.

This constituency elected its first ever representative at the2012 French legislative election.

It covers all French citizens living in the following seven countries inSouthern Europe:Cyprus,Greece, theHoly See (Vatican),Italy,Malta,San Marino andTurkey and two countries inMiddle East:Israel andPalestine. As of New Year's Day 2011, it contained 144,505 registered French citizens - of which 78,748 in Israel and Palestine, 46,554 in Italy, and just 17 in the Holy See.^[1][2][3]

Although France did not recognise theState of Palestine until 2025, French residents inGaza and theWest Bank were nonetheless entitled to vote, but they were counted as residents of Israel at the time. There were 229 registered French citizens in Gaza or the West Bank at the creation of the constituency, and a polling station was opened inRamallah.^[4]

The 2022 election was annulled by the Constitutional Council, with the first round of the by-election taking place on 2 April and the second round scheduled for 16 April.

^[5]

The first round of the by-election was held on 26 May, and the second round was held on 9 June. Citizens wishing to cast their ballot over the Internet for the first round were able to do so from 15 to 21 May.^[6]

There were twenty candidates:^[7]

• Marie-Rose Koro, a resident of Turkey,^[8] for the Socialist Party
• Valérie Hoffenberg once more for the UMP
• Michèle Parravicini once more for the Left Front
• Athanase Contargyris, a Franco-Greek businessman living in Athens,^[9] for Europe Écologie-The Greens
• Meyer Habib, the deputy leader of theRepresentative Council of French Jewish Institutions,^[10] for the centre-rightUnion of Democrats and Independents
• Alix Guillard for the Pirate Party
• Jonathan-Simon Sellem for theclassical liberalLiberal Democratic Party; a resident of Israel, he expressed the intention of defending Israeli interests in the French Parliament^[11]
• Julien Lemaitre once more for Solidarity and Progress
• Twelve independent candidates. Among them, Alexandre Bezardin, a dissident from the UMP. He had been Hoffenberg'ssuppléant the previous year, but now stood against her.^[12]

Turnout in the first round was very low: 10.37%, with a "high" point of 14.56% in Greece and a low point of 7.03% in Israel. In a notable departure from the result of the previous year, the Socialist candidate was eliminated in the first round, leaving the UMP and UDI candidates to advance to the run-off. UMP dissident Alexandre Bezardin, standing as an independent, finished fourth, mostly attracting votes in Italy (where he came third, well ahead of Habib).^[13]

The list of candidates was officially finalised on 14 May. There were ten candidates:^[14][15]

TheUnion for a Popular Movement chose Valérie Hoffenberg, a former president of the American Jewish Committee in France, as its candidate. Alexandre Bezardin was her deputy (suppléant).^[16]

TheSocialist Party choseDaphna Poznanski-Benhamou, alegal consultant and resident ofTel Aviv. Her deputy (suppléant) was Philippe Hébrard, a resident ofRome.^[17]

TheLeft Front chose Michèle Parravicini, a teacher of Italian origin. A resident of Greece, she had also lived in Italy and lived and worked in Turkey. Her deputy (suppléant) was Guillaume Mariel.^[18]

Europe Écologie–The Greens chose Pierre Jestin, a resident ofMilan, with Mélanie Lacide as his deputy (suppléante).^[19][20]

TheNational Front did not present a candidate of its own, but endorsed Huguette Livernault-Lévy, of the small, new far-right party Sovereignty, Independence and Freedoms, which was allied to the National Front as part of the "Marine blue gathering" (rassemblement bleu Marine). Florian Dufait was her deputy.^[15]

TheRadical Party of the Left chose Corinne Rouffi. Of dual French and Israeli citizenship, she pledged to support the interests of French residents "on both sides of the wall", in Israel and Palestine. She also promised to support theaccession of Turkey to the European Union, "with the recognition of theKurdish people and their autonomous status".^[21] Adnan Kaya was her deputy.

Solidarity and Progress, the French branch of theLaRouche movement, was represented by Julien Lemaître, with Éric Sauze as her deputy.^[15]

Philippe Karsenty was a candidate of themiscellaneous right, endorsed by theLiberal Democratic Party and theChristian Democratic Party, although he was a member of neither. Éric Veron was his deputy.^[22]

Gil Taïeb, who defined himself as a "militantZionist", stood as an "independent humanist centrist", focusing solely on the French community in Israel. Avi Zana was his deputy.^[23]

Guy Fitoussi was an independent candidate, with Arié Bengenou as his deputy.^[15]

As in other constituencies, turnout in the first round was low. It was at its lowest inIsrael (7.6%), and highest inTurkey (just 24%). Socialist candidate Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou finished first, ahead of a divided right with strong dissident candidates. Pierre Jestin also obtained a good result for the Greens (10.5% overall; 15.9% in Italy). Poznanski-Benhamou finished first in every country, except in Israel, where independent candidates Philippe Karsenty and Gil Taïeb came first and second respectively, and inMalta where she came second to Valérie Hoffenberg (UMP) by just five votes.^[24][25]

The results in Israel (with an extremely low turnout) were notably different from the rest of the constituency. Gil Taïeb was standing as an independent right-wing candidate with an exclusive focus on Israel, promising to defend its interests along right-wing lines, while Philippe Karsenty, also an independent right-wing candidate, was already known for his campaign to support Israel's image abroad.^[26][27] Karsenty finished first in Israel with 30.40% of the vote, while Taïeb obtained 26.36%, and Poznanski-Benhamou 19.66%. Hoffenberg was relegated to fourth place with 19.26%. In Italy, however, Karsenty finished fifth, and obtained fairly few votes in other countries. Taïeb, finishing eighth in Italy, obtained only a handful of votes outside Israel. (In Turkey, Taïeb obtained only 10 votes (1.00%), just 3 votes in Cyprus (1.46%), and just 1 vote in Malta (1.14%).)^[24]

In February 2013, the election ofDaphna Poznanski-Benhamou was annulled by theConstitutional Council, due to irregularities in the funding of her electoral campaign. She was barred from standing for public office for a period of one year. Defeated candidates Gil Taïeb andPhilippe Karsenty were also barred from standing for public office for a year, for the same reason.^[28]

• Constituencies for French residents overseas

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