France’s nationalist right continues to expand its power: the National Rally (RN), led by Marine Le Pen, scored a major victory in Sunday’s Senate elections, winning enough seats for the first time in its history to form an independent parliamentary group in the upper house.
1+The party emerged from the elections with 12 senators, after nine new candidates won seats and joined three already serving. Together with three representatives from Eric Ciotti’s UDR party, the RN’s ally, the joint group is expected to number 15 members.
For Le Pen’s camp, this is an achievement that goes beyond the seat count itself. For years her party struggled to establish meaningful power in the Senate, which has been controlled by the ‘traditional right’, and now it’s succeeding for the first time in establishing an independent and more significant presence there. The traditional right maintained its majority in the upper house, but the RN emerged from the elections strengthened.
1+The result comes at a particularly significant time for Le Pen’s party, ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election. These are the last major national elections before the presidential race, and the RN is seeking to present the achievement as part of the expansion of its power in the French political system.
Le Pen congratulated supporters on the results and called them “a great victory.” For her party, the Senate achievement joins gains it has made in other political arenas and gives it a much more significant foothold in an institution where it remained on the margins for years.