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June 1946 French legislative election

← 1945 2 June 1946 November 1946 →
All 586 seats in theFrench National Assembly 294 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	81.85% ( 2.02pp)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Georges Bidault Maurice Thorez Guy Mollet Party MRP PCF SFIO Seats won 160 146 115 Popular vote 5,589,059 5,199,111 4,187,818 Percentage 28.11% 26.15% 21.06%   Fourth party Fifth party   PRRRS Leader Michel Clemenceau Jean-Paul David Party PRL PRRRS Seats won 62 39 Popular vote 2,539,845 2,295,119 Percentage 12.78 11.54%
Results by department
Prime Minister before election Félix Gouin SFIO ElectedPrime Minister Georges Bidault MRP

Legislative elections were held in France on 2 June 1946 to elect the second post-warConstituent Assembly designated to prepare a newconstitution. The ballot system used wasproportional representation.

After theliberation of France in the Second World War, three parties dominated the political scene due to their participation in theResistance to theGerman occupation: theFrench Communist Party (PCF), theFrench Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party) and thePopular Republican Movement (MRP)Christian democratic party. They formed aprovisional government led byGeneralCharles de Gaulle.

General de Gaulle advocated a strongpresidential government. He felt that the "regime of the parties" under theFrench Third Republic's system ofparliamentary government (characterised by its political instability and ever-changing coalitions) was a cause of the 1940 collapse. However, the three main parties considered parliamentary democracy to be inseparable from the ideology of Frenchrepublicanism. To them, de Gaulle's project appeared to be a rebirth ofBonapartism. In January 1946 de Gaulle resigned from thecabinet.

The socialistFélix Gouin succeeded him. A first constitutional draft was approved by the National Assembly. It was supported by the Communists and the Socialists. It concentrated power in aunicameral Assembly and abolished theSenate of France. The Christian-Democrats campaigned for the "No" with de Gaulle and the opponents to a constitutional change (the classical Right and theRally of the Republican Lefts dominated by theRadical Party).

The "No" coalition warned the voters against the danger of a "dictatorship" of an Assembly dominated by theMarxists, which could question the existence ofprivate property. In the "Yes" coalition, the SFIO refused the communist proposition of a common campaign. Finally, the "No"s won by 53% of the votes in aMay 1946 referendum.

Consequently, a new National Assembly was elected in order to elaborate a new constitutional draft. The MRP, which led the "No" coalition, became the largest party with more votes and seats than the PCF. The Communists and the Socialists no longer formed a majority, so the MRP was a necessary partner for the writing of a constitutional text. Its leaderGeorges Bidault took the lead role in the provisional government.

• Legislative elections in France
• 1946 elections in France

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