The new Prime Minister François Bayrou, a notorious and fervent defender of proportional representation for legislative elections, put the question of the voting method in France back on the table during his general policy speech on Tuesday January 14 to deputies. “We need a change for our democracy so that pluralism is finally respected within our public life and within Parliament,” already argued when he joined Emmanuel Macron, in 2017, the mayor of Pau. I do not accept that two thirds of French people have no representation”. “My opinion is that the voting method must be rooted in the territories and several categories of citizens with different rights must not be created,” he reiterated Tuesday before a National Assembly lacking an absolute majority since 2022, and fragmented into three blocks since the early legislative elections last July.
A great resistance, France is the only European nation to have completely excluded proportional representation from its legislative voting method: it is the single-member majority vote in two rounds which has shaped the hemicycle since the start of the Fifth Republic, considered more stable . In each of the 577 constituencies, a single candidate becomes the representative of the population at the Palais Bourbon.
However, proportional representation is largely in the majority in Europe. Used to elect members of the European Parliament, it is also the voting method in 26 of the 27 lower houses (House of Representatives) of the Union. Even if four of them (Germany, Italy, Hungary and Lithuania) use a mixed system, that is to say that part of the deputies is elected by single-member majority, while the The other party is elected proportionally.
The principle: the number of seats or representatives allocated to each party or list of candidates is proportional to the number of votes they receive, which allows a more faithful representation of the different political forces within the legislative assembly. This system only concerns elections for which there are lists of candidates and most often takes place in a single round. But in truth there are as many types of proportional as there are nations involved, because the method of calculation varies. Overview of the countries that could inspire François Bayrou.
In Spain, a vote that favors big parties and small territories
In Spain, the legislative elections for the Congress of Deputies take place according to a proportional system with blocked lists, that is to say that the order of the candidates on the list is predefined by the party and cannot be modified by the voter . But Spain’s proportional system has specific features that favor large parties and less populated regions.
Seats are distributed according to the d’Hondt method, which favors parties having obtained a greater number of votes, while respecting a certain proportionality. Furthermore, each of the 52 constituencies (corresponding to the provinces) has a fixed number of seats, with a guaranteed minimum of two seats per province (except Ceuta and Melilla, which each have one seat). This implies that less populated provinces have a proportionally greater weight, favoring strong parties in rural areas. A party must obtain at least 3% of the votes cast in a constituency to enter the distribution of seats, which tends to exclude very small parties.
The Netherlands, the most proportional in Europe?
The Netherlands are a special case. It is the only EU member state in which the national constituency is unique, indicates the “All Europe” information site. In other words, there is only one constituency at the national level for the 150 seats to be filled in the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer). Which makes it an extremely proportional electoral system where the proportion of votes translates almost perfectly into the number of seats. With this operation and the absence of an electoral threshold, small parties can thus be represented, even with a single deputy.
Poland, simple proportional by constituency
In Poland, the National Assembly, the “Diet”, applies multi-member proportional voting in 41 constituencies. Concretely, voters vote for several candidates in their constituency, each of whom can be a member of different parties. Then, each constituency is allocated a number of seats proportional to its population among the 460 seats. The only condition: that these parties have crossed the national threshold of 5% of valid votes (8% if the parties have formed a coalition).
If this is the case, each obtains at least seven seats per constituency (according to the new electoral code adopted in 2011), a number which varies according to the size of the latter and the share of votes obtained. This system, rather common in Europe (Portugal, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, etc.), favors parties that are well established nationally and ensures geographical representation through multi-member constituencies, while leaving a margin for national minorities. It is a system which limits parliamentary fragmentation while maintaining a certain proportionality.
The Swedish compensation system
Sweden has a more complex method of proportional voting, designed to ensure proportional representation of parties while promoting some political stability. Unicameral, the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) does not differentiate between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each constituency has a fixed number of seats, determined based on its population. But out of 349 seats voted for by single-member proportional representation, only 310 seats are allocated to deputies elected by constituency, in proportion to the number of votes collected.
The remaining 39 seats are called “adjustment seats”. They are used to correct any discrepancies and ensure that the distribution of seats at the national level reflects the total percentage of votes obtained by each party. This ensures overall proportionality, even if distortions may appear at the regional level. To have their candidates elected, parties must obtain at least 4% of the national vote or 12% in a constituency. This “compensation” system exists in other forms in several Member States, such as Denmark or Greece.