The far-right National Rally (RN) party and its allies won a record 14 seats in the right-wing dominated Senate in the election, quadrupling their numbers in the 348-seat chamber just months before the presidential vote.
The RN presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, described the results as a “historic victory” after their announcement on Sunday. “The results exceeded our expectations,” she said.
It was the first time that the party crossed the threshold of 10 seats to be able to form a senatorial caucus.
Local elected officials elect new senators for half of the upper house every three years, each for a six-year term.
The far-right party first entered the Senate with two seats in 2014, when it was known as the National Front, and won three seats in 2023.
Le Pen sees her best chance of coming to power in elections scheduled for a first round in April next year, when centrist President Emmanuel Macron steps down.
“It’s a historic victory, and a major milestone with the formation of a group in the Senate for the first time,” she said on X.
Nine RN senators were elected on Sunday, according to an AFP count, in addition to the three senators who won seats in 2023.
Two others were elected within the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), ally of the RN, Eric Ciotti.
RN president Jordan Bardella said the party’s senators would form a group with UDR allies.
Ciotti left the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party in 2024 after calling for an alliance with the far right.
LR President of the Upper House for more than a decade, Gérard Larcher, 77, should be re-elected next week.
According to initial results, the right, center and left socialists are expected to remain the three main forces in the upper house.
The far-left France Insoumise party won a seat for the first time.
Le Pen’s anti-immigration party became the largest party in the National Assembly after Macron called early elections in 2024, although it fell far short of a majority.
With Reuters
Gn world
