National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has hailed what she called a “historic victory” months before France gets to decide the successor to Emmanuel Macron.
Her far-right party and its ally won a record 14 seats in Sunday’s elections for France’s Senate, the upper house of its parliament.
About half of the Senate’s 348 seats were up for grabs, voted for by the country’s 172,600 local elected officials in a system designed to give greater voice to regional and rural areas.
What were the results?
With only a few overseas seats left to decide, National Rally had won nine seats to add to the three that were not up for renewal. Two more came from RN ally Eric Ciotti’s Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR).
Le Pen said on social media it was “a historic victory and a major milestone”.
Holding more than 10 seats means that, for the first time, her party can form an official bloc in the Senate along with UDR.
French Far-right leader Marine Le Pen met fans ahead of a papal mass in Paris on Saturday (Photo: AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)“The results go beyond what we could have hoped for; the breakthrough is widespread, confirming the acceleration of the establishment of the National Rally across the whole land,” Le Pen said.
However the right, centre and left-wing Socialists remained the major parties in the chamber.
France Unbowed, the far-left party led by Jean-Luc Melenchon who may be Le Pen’s challenger in next year’s presidential election, won its first ever Senate seat.
What is the French Senate?
The upper chamber of France’s parliament, based in Luxembourg Palace south of the Seine, is supposed to draw its seats roughly in proportion to the populations of the country’s 101 departments, and give local authorities more influence on national laws.
However, Le Monde reported, the electoral map is based on census data from 1999 and is considered to disproportionately benefit right-wing parties which are stronger in rural areas. Smaller towns get proportionally more senators than bigger ones.
The Senate has the power to review any law passed by the lower house, though the National Assembly has the power to push a law through despite a Senate vote blocking it. The Senate can also launch investigations into the government and question ministers.
What does it mean for the presidential vote?
France’s constitution precludes a third consecutive term for Macron, and the competition to replace him in April is wide open.
According to recent polls, Le Pen is nowhere near a majority required to win the presidency in the first round of voting. However she is almost certain to get the most votes. Her opponent in the head-to-head second round is less certain: but far-left stalwart Jean-Luc Melenchon, 75, may have the edge.
Macron’s approval rating, at just 16 per cent, leaves his political successor a mountain to climb. The expected centrist candidates, former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe, have been engaged in a months-long squabble over who will run, and either would likely struggle to do well in the first round of voting.
Politico’s latest poll showed Melenchon tied with Philippe and well ahead of Attal. His early momentum comes from his popularity with young voters, and his policy to “freeze” billions of euros worth of sovereign debt – an idea that has conventional economists aghast.
French electors from different mainstream parties usually band together against the National Rally (formerly the National Front) in the second round of presidential elections to block its candidate, in a tradition known as the “front republicain”.
Melenchon has been a reluctant player in this, and in 2022 urged his supporters to vote “against RN” rather than for Macron. It may not be enough to persuade centrists to return the favour, should he find himself up against Le Pen – most polls have her comfortably beating him in a run-off.
Melenchon’s politics are starkly different to Le Pen’s, but both are against France’s membership of Nato and the European Union, so it may be difficult for centrists to pick which candidate they dislike least.
Polls have the result much closer if Attal, or especially Philippe, makes it to the second round.
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