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Proportional: François Mitterrand's maneuver to counter the right in 1986

2020-08-05T18:19:19.344Z


With the reform, the former president tried to save the left, in the aftermath of cantons lost by the Socialist Party.


The use of the proportional voting system is not new under the Fifth Republic. In 1986, it was the Socialist President François Mitterrand who experienced it for the first time since the Fourth Republic. This idea was among the 101 proposals of his campaign program in 1981. More than the application of an electoral promise, the reform must then also allow him to save the left after the cantons lost by the Socialist Party (PS) in 1985. As the legislative elections of 1986 approach, the polls are bad for the PS, and a new blue wave threatens. "The right was going to win, and the proportional was a ballot made to slow down and prevent the right from having an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly," explained Lionel Jospin later.

Read also: Legislative: the executive explores the track of full proportional

Indeed, the use of full proportional representation with a 5% threshold, accompanied by an increase in the number of deputies from 491 to 577, allows the left to hope to mitigate an almost assured electoral defeat,

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Source: lefigaro

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