It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline.

Two years later, the RPR leader Jacques Chirac was elected President of France promising to reduce the "social fracture".

The "Plural Left" coalition, composed of the Socialists, the Communists, the Greens, the Citizens' Movement, and the Left Radicals, proposed a program of social reforms to reduce unemployment and legislation to limit the length of the work week to 35 hours.

The participation of the National Front's candidates in the second round increased the defeat of the presidential majority.

It finished with the 2002 French presidential election, which Jospin unexpectedly lost in the first round, causing his retirement from politics.