Legislative constituencies for French people domiciled outside France (French: Circonscriptions législatives des Français établis hors de France) are eleven constituencies, returning one member each to the French National Assembly, elected by French people living outside France. As of 2024, the constituencies represent almost 1.7 million French voters in total.
They were created by the 2010 redistricting of French legislative constituencies, the aim of which was to enable expatriates to be represented as such, rather than vote remotely for a constituency on French territory, as was the case previously. Their creation does not increase the overall number of seats in the Assembly, which remains stable at 577, since it is compensated for by a redrawing of boundaries which reduces the number of seats in France itself to 566. These measures were implemented for the 2012 legislative election. There have also been senators representing overseas citizens since 1982; they are elected indirectly, by the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad."Elections 2012 - Votez à l’étranger", French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs"La représentation des Français établis hors de France", French Senate"Redécoupage électoral - 11 députés pour les Français de l'étranger" , Le Petit Journal, 22 October 2009"Députés de l'étranger: comment ça marche?", L'Express, 15 October 2009
History Creation The 2010 creation of these constituencies created some controversy, when Le Monde estimated that they would be far more favourable to the main centre-right party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), then in power, than to the main centre-left party, the Socialist Party (PS). The newspaper pointed out that, in nine of these constituencies, a majority of voters appeared to favour the right, based on the figures from the 2007 presidential election. The constituency of Central and Eastern Europe and that of Northwest Africa were the only ones to appear left-leaning."La couleur politique des nouvelles circonscriptions des Français à l'étranger", Le Monde, 26 September 2009 While Le Monde provided the figures without comment, left-wing politicians such as Jean-Jacques Urvoas, a Socialist member of the National Assembly, suggested that the government was attempting to provide itself with extra seats; Jean-Paul Lecoq, a Communist member of the National Assembly, suggested overseas citizens should continue to vote solely in French constituencies."Redécoupage électoral - 11 députés pour les Français de l'étranger" , Le Petit Journal, 22 October 2009
2012 legislative election Contrary to expectations, candidates supported by the Socialist Party won seven of the eleven constituencies in the 2012 election, with their parliamentary allies in Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV) winning one and the UMP winning three. Two of the winning Socialist candidates were later disqualified by the Constitutional Council due to campaign finance irregularities. They were replaced in by-elections by a candidate from the UMP and a candidate from the centre-right Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), leaving the overseas constituencies with five MPs from the Socialist Party, four from the UMP (which in 2015 changed its name to The Republicans), one from EELV and one from the UDI.
2017 legislative election In the 2017 election, Emmanuel Macron's party La République En Marche! (REM) won a majority of seats in the National Assembly nationwide and also was the most successful party in the overseas constituencies, winning 8 of the 11 seats. Another constituency went to a candidate from the Democratic Movement (MoDem), which is allied with REM in the legislature. One UDI candidate retained his seat; one seat was won by an Independent candidate.
2022 legislative election
In the 2022 election, En Marche retained a majority of overseas constituencies, but did lose the 9th constituency to Génération.s.
Geography
The Americas are divided into two constituencies, North and South (1 and 2); Europe into six (3 to 8), with the eighth constituency also incorporating Israel; Africa is divided into two (9 and 10), with the tenth constituency also incorporating the Arabian peninsula as well as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The eleventh constituency, the largest, includes every other country in Asia, as well as the entirety of Oceania, along with Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.
Overseas departments and territories of France are not included, as they are de jure part of France, and already have their own electoral constituencies. In addition, North Korea, which is not diplomatically recognised by France, is not part of any constituency. The same is true of Bhutan. Kosovo, which is recognised by France, is part of the seventh constituency. Taiwan is incorporated into the eleventh constituency as part of China, as France recognises the One China policy. Western Sahara is not part of any constituency – being neither recognised as part of Morocco, nor included in the ninth constituency in its own right. The status of the Palestinian territories is not explicitly defined, but French residents there were able to vote, as part of the same constituency as Israel. Other self-proclaimed and de facto but non-recognised independent countries, such as Somaliland or Abkhazia, are incorporated as part of the country which claims sovereignty over them."Les élections en 2012 à l’étranger: Votre circonscription pour l’élection des députés", French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs"Les législatives françaises dans la 8e circonscription de l'étranger - Reportage en Israël", Radio France Internationale, 1 June 2012
List of constituencies
ConstituencyRegionNumber of countriesRegistered voters (2024)https://www.resultats-elections.interieur.gouv.fr/legislatives2024/ensemble_geographique/ZZ/ZZ05/index.htmlMemberPortraitPartyElection First Canada and the United States 2 265,898 Roland Lescure RE 2017 Second Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America 33 81,786 Éléonore Caroit RE 2022 Third British Isles, Northern Europe, Greenland and Baltic States 10 160,627 Vincent Caure RE 2024 Fourth The Benelux 3 158,035 Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade RE 2017 Fifth Andorra, Monaco, Portugal and Spain 4 115,497 vacant Sixth Liechtenstein and Switzerland 2 159,733 Marie-Ange Rousselot RE 2024 Seventh Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe 16 130,815 Frédéric Petit MoDem 2017 Eighth Southern Europe, Israel, the Palestinian territories 8 148,948 Caroline Yadan RE 2024 Ninth Maghreb 16 130,380 Karim Ben Cheïkh Génération.s 2022 Tenth Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, much of the Middle East 48 113,835 Amal Amélia Lakrafi RE 2017 Eleventh Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Oceania, most of Asia 49 137,852 Anne Genetet RE 2017
Electoral results 2012 The 2012 legislative election resulted in the election of the very first National Assembly members representing French residents overseas.
Voting occurred over a week, from 23 to 29 May or on 2 or 3 June for the first round, well in advance of voting in metropolitan France (10 June) or certain French overseas territories and departments (9 June). Second round voting occurred from 6 to 12 June or on 16 or 17 June (as opposed to 17 June alone in metropolitan France). Unlike their compatriots in France itself, expatriates could vote by postal ballot or over the Internet, though they could of course vote in person in their local consulate. The date depends on voters' location and the method by which they cast their ballot. If an expatriate voted via the Internet, he or she had a week to do so from 23 to 26 May. A postal ballot could be cast, if received by 31 May in the Americas or by 1 June in the rest of the world. Those who preferred to vote in person in their local consulate had to do so on 2 June in the Americas or 3 June in the rest of the world.Elections législatives. Dates et modalités , French Ministry of Foreign AffairsAlexandre Léchenet and Maxime Le Roux, “Les Français de l'étranger peuvent voter par Internet”, Le Monde, 23 May 2012
In April 2011, the ruling Union for a Popular Movement chose several prominent members to stand as candidates overseas. Frédéric Lefebvre, Secretary of State for Commerce, was chosen as the UMP candidate for the first constituency; Éric Besson, Minister of Industry, for the fifth; Thierry Mariani, Secretary of State for Transport, for the eleventh."Législatives : l'UMP a désigné ses candidats pour l'étranger", Le Figaro, 13 April 2011 By contrast, the Socialist Party preferred to select long-term residents of their respective constituencies, who are active in their local community but generally unknown in national French politics."Elections législatives 2012 : nos candidates et candidats" , Parti Socialiste - Fédération des Français à l'Etranger Numerous other parties presented candidates, in particular the Democratic Movement (MoDem) and the Left Front (FG). Many independent candidates were also present in all consistencies.
In the first round, the Socialist Party finished first in six constituencies, while a Socialist-endorsed Green candidate finished first in the second constituency (Central America, Caribbean and South America). The Union for a Popular Movement finished first in the other three (the fifth, tenth and eleventh). The second round, in every constituency except the second, was a run-off between the Socialist Party and the UMP.Official results for the first round of the 2012 legislative election, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs The second round confirmed this trend, with the left taking eight seats, and the UMP only three. This was a significant surprise; early indications had been that most of the seats would go to the right. Indeed, the UMP government had been accused of having created these constituencies so as to establish right-wing safe seats."La gauche l'emporte chez les Français de l'étranger", Le Monde, 18 June 2012"La gauche rafle 8 des 11 circonscriptions des Français de l’étranger", France 24, 18 June 2012 The left's victory in North America was described as "incredible", and explained, by commentators in , as being due to Socialist candidate Corinne Narassiguin's strong and active campaign, and local voters' rejection of UMP candidate Frédéric Lefebvre, perceived as knowing little about North America and as barely speaking English."La vague socialiste emporte même l'Amérique!" , Libération, 17 June 2012
Turnout was particularly low in every constituency (from 13 to 28%). A number of expatriates, living far from any polling station, said they had been unable to vote online, because they had not received the necessary login codes, or because of errors when they attempted to log in and cast their vote. Others said they had abstained deliberately, considering that they should not be voting in an election when the results would primarily affect residents of France. Others considered that the candidates were necessarily ill-suited to represent the interests of expatriates scattered over often vast and diverse territories."Législatives : les Français de l'étranger abstentionnistes expliquent leur non-vote", Le Monde, 8 June 2012 Based on projections from the 2007 presidential election results, the carving of constituencies should have resulted in a 9-to-2 division of the seats between the UMP and the Socialists, however French expatriates ended up electing seven Socialists, one Green (Europe Écologie - Les Verts) and three UMP deputies. The results were likely impacted by low turnout and support for Francois Hollande following his presidential election.