French presidential election, 1969

Infobox Election
election_name = French presidential election, 1969
country = France
type = presidential
ongoing = no
previous_election = French presidential election, 1965
previous_year = 1965
next_election = French presidential election, 1974
next_year = 1974
election_date = 1 June and 15 June 1969


candidate2 = Alain Poher
party2 = Democratic Centre (France)
popular_vote2 = 7,943,118
percentage2 = 41.78%


candidate1 = Georges Pompidou
party1 = Union of Democrats for the Republic
popular_vote1 = 11,064,371
percentage1 = 58.21%

map_

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map_size = 250px
map_caption = Results of the second round: the candidate with the plurality of votes in each administrative division. Georges Pompidou: blue; Alain Poher: sky-blue

title = President
before_election = Charles de Gaulle
before_party = Union of Democrats for the Republic
after_election = Georges Pompidou
after_party = Union of Democrats for the Republic

The 1969 French presidential election took place on 1 June and 15 June 1969. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. Indeed, De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by referendum about regionalisation and the reform of the Senate, and he had announced he would resign if it resulted in a "no" vote. In 27 April, 53,5% of the voters had voted "no".

In the presidential race, the Gaullist Party (UDR) was represented by former Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. He was very popular in the conservative electorate in due to the economic growth when he led the cabinet (from 1962 to 1968) and his role in the settlement of the May 68 crisis and the winning the June 1968 legislative campaign. In his presidential campaign, he obtained the support of the Independent Republicans and their leader Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voted "no" in the referendum.

The French Communist Party (PCF) proposed to the SFIO Socialist Party to present a candidate with a common program, but the SFIO refused. The Left was severely divided in this election. The PCF candidate was Jacques Duclos, one of the historical leaders of the party. The mayor of Marseille, Gaston Defferre, was the SFIO candidate and campaigned with Pierre Mendès France, would have become Prime Minister had Defferre been elected to the Presidency. This candidacy was the first - and so far, only - dual "ticket" in a French Presidential election. But Defferre's campaign was weakened by the decision of centrist interim President Alain Poher to run. As Chairman of the Senate, Poher had led the "no" campaign in the referendum. The success of the "no" campaign gave him the legitimacy to run for the Presidency and he rallied a large swathe of centre-right and centre-left voters.

Michel Rocard and Alain Krivine stood as candidates expressing the ideas of the May 68 movements, though the Trotskyist Krivine took a far more radical stance.

First round

The second round saw Pompidou facing Poher. None of the left-wing candidates reached the second round, in spite of the good campaign and result of Duclos, who scored the best ever result for a Communist in a presidential election. The Socialists supported reluctantly the centerist Chairman of the Senate. The Communists refused to choose and used a slogan which was equivalent to the phrase "It's six of one and half a dozen of the other" ("c'est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet").

econd round

Georges Pompidou was elected President of France with a comfortable majority.