The 2024 French legislative elections were called by President Macron following the severe defeat of his coalition in the 2024 European elections. Held on 30 June and 7 July after a 3-week campaign, these snap elections were part of an unexpected electoral sequence. The first round confirmed the rise of the radical right Rassemblement National in the European contest: for the first time in the first round of legislative elections, a radical right coalition was the largest pre-election coalition by vote. However, the second round reaffirmed the radical right was still rejected by the majority of French people, finishing third in terms of seats, behind both the left-wing coalition and the presidential coalition. A centre-right minority government was ultimately formed with four parties (Les Républicains, Renaissance, Mouvement Démocrate and Horizons) and the parliamentary tolerance of the Rassemblement national. From the realignment perspective, the legislative elections were maintaining elections, confirming the tripartition of the votes, the tripolarisation of party competition and the end of majority governments – three key features of the new electoral order that emerged after the 2019 European elections.

Ce chapitre propose de distinguer les concepts de tripartition et de tripolarisation en les adossant à des arènes différentes, l’arène électorale pour le premier, l’arène parlementaire pour le second. Sur cette base, il montre que les deux concepts sont pertinents pour décrire la vie politique française issue des scrutins de 2022 : il y a tripartition de l’arène électorale et tripolarisation de l’arène parlementaire, une configuration inédite sous la Cinquième République. Ces résultats permettent de mieux caractériser le nouvel ordre électoral qui s’est cristallisé à l’issue des élections européennes de 2019 (Gougou, 2022) : tripartition et tripolarisation pourraient en être les traits distinctifs.