The far-right “National Rally” party has won enough seats to form a parliamentary group in the French Senate for the first time in its history. The party won 14 out of 348 seats in the elections for the upper house held on September 27.
According to “France 24”, the result means that the party has for the first time passed the threshold of 10 senators required to form a group. The media outlet described the result as obtaining “enough seats in the Senate to form a parliamentary group in the upper house”.
The leader of the “National Rally” party Jordan Bardella said he would form a joint group with the "Union of the Right for the Republic", which won two seats. The two parties would thus have a total of 16 senators if the unification plan is implemented.
Former party leader Marine Le Pen described the result as a "historic victory". This is the first presence of the "National Unity" in the Senate on a scale that allows it to participate independently or through an alliance in the parliamentary organization of the upper house.
The left also wins a historic seat
For the first time, the left "France Unconquered" also gets a seat in the French Senate. Despite the new presences, preliminary results show that the right, the centrists and the socialists will remain the three main political forces in the upper house.
Before the elections, the conservative “Republicans“ were the largest group with 131 seats. President Emmanuel Macron“Renaissance“ has 19 senators, and “National Unity“ has three seats.
The vote was indirect
The elections renewed 178 of the total 348 seats in the Senate. Senators are not elected by a nationwide vote, but by a college of more than 93,000 representatives, mostly municipal councilors.
The vote was held in 58 departments of mainland France, two departments of Corsica, French Guiana and four overseas territories. Six representatives of French people living abroad were also elected.
The Senate is renewed by half every three years, and senators serve six years. The vote on September 27 is the last national election in France before the presidential election in the spring of 2027.
Sources: Ukrainska Pravda, France 24