French Directory election, 1795

The French elections of 1795 were held from 12 to 4 November 1795 (20 Vendémiaire to 13 Brumaire Year IV) Constitution of the Year III. The elections elected the fifth member of French Directory, new collective government of France, and renewed 150 deputies (one-third) of the French Council of Five Hundred. The rest of the Corps législatif ("Legislative Body") remained unelected, as express by Constitution. There was a census suffrage, so only 30,000 citizens expressed their votes.

The election, that assigned to the Thermidorians the directorial and parliamentary majority, was anyway an alarm signal for the Republic, like the monarchists obtained totally 161 seats inside the Legislative Body, as well a sympathizer Director: General Lazare Carnot, formerly Jacobin and revolutionary chief. The threat of a return to Monarchy, and possibly to the Ancien Régime, finally led to the republican Coup of 18 Fructidor in 1797, who expelled the monarchist opposition from the Legislative Body and banned the royalist circles.