1848 French presidential election

Presidential elections were held for the first time in France on 10 and 11 December 1848, electing the first and only president of the Second Republic. This election marked the birth of the Second Republic and the dramatic end of the July Monarchy, a transformation born of the February Revolution's fervour.

The election ended in a landslide victory for Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, who won 74% of the popular vote. His appeal to peasants, conservatives, and those nostalgic for Napoleonic glory gave him a decisive edge. This was the only direct presidential election until the 1965 French presidential election under the Fifth Republic.

The six candidates in the election, in order of most votes received, are Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte of the Bonapartists, Louis Eugène Cavaignac of the moderate Republicans, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin of the Montagnards, François-Vincent Raspail of the Socialists, Alphonse de Lamartine of the Liberals, and Nicolas Changarnier of the Monarchists. Their campaigns reflected the deep ideological divisions of the time, though none could match Bonaparte’s popularity.