2024 senatorial elections: the RN forms a historic group, LFI enters the Senate

Less than seven months before the presidential election, elections took place this Sunday in France but only the electors voted. And during this election for the senatorial elections, beyond the maintenance of the right-wing majority, it is above all the result of the National Rally which is noteworthy. The party already had three senators and was looking for ten to form a group. A threshold exceeded.

The breakthrough of the RN, the first LFI senator, personalities defeated or elected... Here is what to remember from the senatorial elections.

The RN now has a group

This was the main suspense: the RN will be able to form with its ally the UDR, Eric Ciotti's party, a group of at least 15 senators. A first under the Fifth Republic, described by presidential candidate Marine Le Pen as a “historic victory” and a “major step”. “The results go beyond what we could have hoped for, the breakthrough is general,” she said.

Thanks to its local presence, in particular in the last municipal elections, the RN can claim new elected officials in Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Gard, Vaucluse, Hérault, as well as in Seine-Maritime and Gironde, won by MP Edwige Diaz. “Today there is no longer any glass ceiling that holds, even in an indirect election,” reacted the latter, expected to take the lead of the group.

Taking “note” of the upcoming creation of a far-right alliance group, the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, LR candidate for re-election, affirmed that his role would be to “allow each group to fully exercise their rights”, including in the bodies of the High Assembly.

Entrance of LFI to the Luxembourg Palace

With the surprise election of the rebellious deputy Gabriel Amard in the Rhône, La France insoumise makes its entry into the upper house. After winning three towns in the department in the municipal elections, the Insoumis managed to transform the attempt. The Mélenchonist party also claimed victory in Haute-Garonne for the various leftist Marc Péré, at the head of an LFI-EELV-Générations list.

LFI, on the other hand, did not have the same luck among French people abroad where its candidate missed the march by 3 votes, leading to a skirmish between LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard and the Ecologists. The two camps which had failed to find an electoral agreement passed the responsibility on to each other through X.

Stability of the first three groups

The right, the center and the Socialist Party remain the three main forces in the Senate, despite an erosion of the LR group linked in particular to the breakthrough of the extreme right in the Mediterranean crown.

According to a partial count, LR (131 seats before the vote) would lose around seven senators. The socialist group would remain stable and still in second place, ahead of the centrist union, also stable.

It is the Ecologists, the Macronists and the left-wing radicals who proportionally lost the most votes in this renewal of 178 seats out of 348.

Winning and losing personalities

Ex-LR moved to Renaissance, the president of the Paca region Renaud Muselier was elected senator on a list supported by Gérard Larcher and the centrists, who obtained two seats. Facing him, outgoing senator Valérie Boyer, who formed her own LR list with the support of Bruno Retailleau, was also elected. Bruno Retailleau was easily re-elected in Vendée.

The Minister of Regional Planning Françoise Gatel won her bet in Ille-et-Vilaine. Former minister of Emmanuel Macron, the socialist François Rebsamen was also elected. If he took back his PS card, nothing says that he will join this group.

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Marie-Caroline Le Pen, Marine's sister, however, did not succeed in her bet in Sarthe.