The Eighth French legislative constituency for citizens abroad (huitième circonscription des Français établis hors de France) is one of eleven constituencies each electing one representative of French people living outside France to the French National Assembly.
This constituency elected its first ever representative at the 2012 French legislative election.
Area It covers all French citizens living in the following seven countries in Southern Europe: Cyprus, Greece, the Holy See (Vatican), Italy, Malta, San Marino and Turkey and two countries in Middle East: Israel and Palestine. 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."Les élections en 2012 à l’étranger: Votre circonscription pour l’élection des députés" , French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs"Décret n° 2011-367 du 4 avril 2011 authentifiant la population des Français établis hors de France au 1er janvier 2011", Légifrance"Français inscrits au registre mondial au 31/12/2010" , French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
Although France did not recognise the State of Palestine until 2025, French residents in Gaza and the West 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 in Ramallah.
Deputies ElectionMemberParty 2012 Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou PS 2013 by-election Meyer Habib UDI 201720222023LR-UDI2024Caroline YadanRE
Election results
2024 CandidatePartyAllianceFirst roundSecond roundVotes%Votes%Meyer HabibLRUDC11,55735.5816,42847.30Caroline YadanREEnsemble7,85524.1818,30252.70Yaël LererLFINFP7,51623.14Guillaume BensoussanREC2,0446.29Aurelie AssoulineLR diss.1,3294.09Gilles NeffatiDVC1,0253.16Valérie ChartrainVolt4571.41Nicolas SpitalasDIV2990.92Philippe Hababou SolomonDVD1970.61David BizetDIV1880.58Benjamin SigouraDIV150.05Valid votes32,482100.0036,222100.00Blank votes5031.521,4313.95Null votes850.26610.17Turnout33,07022.2036,22224.32Abstentions115,88777.80112,72675.68Registered voters148,957148,948Source: ResultRE GAIN FROM LR
2023 by-election 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.
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2022
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2017 CandidateLabelFirst roundSecond roundVotes%Votes%Florence DroryREM36.7342.14Meyer HabibUDI35.5157.86Hélène PanoussisFI7.38Daphna Poznanski-BenhamouDIV5.90Nil DelahayeECO4.98Nathalie Jorge LaickFN2.80Benjamin DjianePS2.13Raphaël DestremauDVD1.23Anne SabourinPCF0.79David AcunzoDIV0.77Jean-Yves Metayer-RobbesECO0.44Barbara PascarelDIV0.40Christophe CesettiDIV0.34Mathilde CameiraoDIV0.24Jacques NenoDIV0.19Frédéric ChaouatDIV0.11Denis BensimonDVD0.07Votes100.00100.00Valid votes99.0197.34Blank votes0.362.03Null votes0.630.63Turnout9.4011.70Abstentions90.6088.30Registered votersSource: Ministry of the Interior
2013 by-election 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."LEGISLATIVES PARTIELLES – Les Français de l’étranger votent ce week-end", Le petit Journal, 25 May 2013
Candidates There were twenty candidates:"Retrouvez les candidatures aux élections législatives de la 8ème circonscription des Français de l'étranger", Le Petit Journal Marie-Rose Koro, a resident of Turkey,"LEGISLATIVES PARTIELLES – "Je me bats pour des valeurs", Marie-Rose Koro", Le Petit Journal, 30 April 2013 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,"LEGISLATIVES PARTIELLES – Athanase Contargyris : "Une autre politique économique est possible"", Le Petit Journal, 29 April 2013 for Europe Écologie-The Greens Meyer Habib, the deputy leader of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions,"The vice-président du CRIF Meyer Habib candidat?", Le Petit Journal, 6 January 2013 for the centre-right Union of Democrats and Independents Alix Guillard for the Pirate Party Jonathan-Simon Sellem for the classical liberal Liberal Democratic Party; a resident of Israel, he expressed the intention of defending Israeli interests in the French Parliament"For Franco-Israelis, a chance to elect their own ‘congressman’", Times of Israel, 22 May 2013 Julien Lemaitre once more for Solidarity and Progress Twelve independent candidates. Among them, Alexandre Bezardin, a dissident from the UMP. He had been Hoffenberg's suppléant the previous year, but now stood against her."Français de l’étranger : double revanche", Radio France International, 24 May 2013
Results 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).Official 2013 by-election results, French government website
2012
Candidates The list of candidates was officially finalised on 14 May. There were ten candidates:"Arrêté du 14 mai 2012 fixant la liste des candidats au premier tour de l'élection des députés élus par les Français établis hors de France ", Journal Officiel de la République Française, 15 May 2012"8ème circonscription : Europe du Sud", Le Petit Journal
The Union 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)."Législatives : l'UMP a désigné ses candidats pour l'étranger", Le Figaro, April 13, 2011
The Socialist Party chose Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou, a legal consultant and resident of Tel Aviv. Her deputy (suppléant) was Philippe Hébrard, a resident of Rome."Elections législatives 2012 : nos candidates et candidats", Parti Socialiste - Fédération des Français à l'Etranger
The Left 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."Présentation de Michèle Parravicini", Le Petit Journal
Europe Écologie–The Greens chose Pierre Jestin, a resident of Milan, with Mélanie Lacide as his deputy (suppléante)., Europe Écologie–The Greens"Les 11 candidat-e-s EELV sur les circonscriptions législatives hors de France" , EELV, 12 November 2011
The National 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.
The Radical 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 the accession of Turkey to the European Union, "with the recognition of the Kurdish people and their autonomous status"."Présentation de Corinne Rouffi", Le Petit Journal Adnan Kaya was her deputy.
Solidarity and Progress, the French branch of the LaRouche movement, was represented by Julien Lemaître, with Éric Sauze as her deputy.
Philippe Karsenty was a candidate of the miscellaneous right, endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Party, although he was a member of neither. Éric Veron was his deputy."Combat sans merci à droite pour le vote des Français d'Israël", Rue 89, June 23, 2011
Gil Taïeb, who defined himself as a "militant Zionist", stood as an "independent humanist centrist", focusing solely on the French community in Israel. Avi Zana was his deputy."GIL TAIEB : 5 questions pour une élection" , Le Post, June 3, 2011
Guy Fitoussi was an independent candidate, with Arié Bengenou as his deputy.
Results As in other constituencies, turnout in the first round was low. It was at its lowest in Israel (7.6%), and highest in Turkey (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 in Malta where she came second to Valérie Hoffenberg (UMP) by just five votes.Official results of the first round, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs"Législatives : tous les résultats des Français de l'étranger", Le Nouvel Observateur, 4 June 2012
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."Gil Taieb, 8e circonscription dernière ligne droite" , Le Petit Hebdo, 30 May 2012"Au meeting du candidat de droite Karsenty, militant d’Israël" , Rue89, 16 March 2012 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%).)
Subsequent annulment In February 2013, the election of Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou was annulled by the Constitutional 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 and Philippe Karsenty were also barred from standing for public office for a year, for the same reason."Le Conseil constitutionnel annule l'élection de deux députées PS des Français de l'étranger", Le Monde, 15 February 2013
References