Several tens of millions of French people are being called to the polls this Sunday, June 30, for the first round of early legislative elections. The French will thus elect 577 deputies who will make up the National Assembly for the next five years.
Initially scheduled for 2027, the legislative elections take place after the dissolution pronounced by Emmanuel Macronon June 9, a few hours after the results of the European elections which were won by Jordan Bardella and the National Rally. The decision of the head of state, taken without any consultation with Gabriel Attal, his Prime Minister, has aroused anger and concern in the presidential majority.
To best prepare yourself for voting, RTL gives you the details on everything you need to know about these elections.
What are the polling station hours?
In France, the start of these legislative elections will be given at 8 a.m.Most polling stations will close at 6 p.m., but in major cities (Paris, Lyon, Lille, Montpellier, Cannes, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Grenoble or Nantes) or in the departments of the Paris region, they remain open until 8 p.m.
To check where your polling station is located and when it closes, you can go to the service-public.fr website indicating your voting municipality and your marital status.
While most voters will vote this Sunday, some have already been able to express their choice. This is the case for voters from overseas departments as well as French people residing on the American continentwho voted a day earlier, on Saturday June 29, for this first round.
What documents should I bring?
To vote, you must have: an identity document with a photo and, if possible, the electoral card, even if the latter is not obligatory for voting. You should know that the voter card has no expiry date and is valid for all elections.
Many forms of identification are acceptedfrom passports to driving licenses, including invalidity cards and Vitale cards with photos. The full list of supporting documents is available here. However, you must present the original: “A photograph or a download on a smartphone or a photocopy are not accepted,” explains the public service.
Pour municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants, ID is not required eitherbut you should know that “in case of doubt, the president of the polling station may ask you to prove your identity by any means”, specifies the public service.
Comment voter ?
Before entering the voting booth, it is advisable to take several ballots in order to preserve the confidentiality of the vote. But there is no formal rule in the electoral code: you can take only two, grab all the bulletins or use the bulletins you received by post.
If you wish vote blank, you must either put nothing in the envelope or put a blank sheet inside the ballot. In the event that a ballot is torn, drawn on or different from those distributed by the polling station: the vote will be considered invalid. Once the vote is over, you leave the voting booth, you vote, and you will be called the traditional “Voted!”.
If you accidentally slip twice the same ballot in the envelope, your vote will be taken into account.
I have a power of attorney, how does this work?
These legislative elections interest the French: there are more than two million to have given a power of attorneyaccording to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. This is almost six times more than in the previous legislative elections.
So there are as many French people who have been given a proxy, a person can only accept one. If you are responsible for voting in place of another voter, the process is very simple. You just need to show up at your polling station with your ID. “You do not need any other documents,” specifies the public service.
If you have made a proxy request but are ultimately able to vote yourself, you do not need to terminate the application. You just need to show up at your polling station, provided you do so before the person holding your proxy.
An election over one or two rounds
If all French people are called to the polls this Sunday, June 30, this may not be the case on July 7. Because this election can be played in one or two rounds.
To be elected in the first round of voting, “you must obtain an absolute majority of votes cast and a number of votes equal to a quarter of the registered voters“, explains the Vie publique site. “In the second round, the relative majority is enough. In the event of a tie, the oldest candidate is elected.”
On the other hand, for a candidate to qualify for the second round, they must have obtained a number of votes at least equal to 12.5% of the number of registered voters in the constituency. An exception is made when only one candidate meets this condition: the one having obtained the greatest number of votes after him can remain in the second round. “In the event that no candidate meets this condition, only the two candidates who come first can remain in the second round,” continues Vie publique.
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