This is a first, and Jordan Bardella is not shying away from his pleasure. At the end of Sunday's senatorial elections, the National Rally and its Ciottist allies of the UDR will be able to form a group in the Senate, having crossed the threshold of ten elected representatives required. An announcement made a few moments earlier by RN deputy Sébastien Chenu, close to Marine Le Pen.
“I congratulate all our candidates, who have led a remarkable campaign close to the ground, our campaign director, and I thank the thousands of local elected officials for their confidence,” wrote the boss of the nationalist party on
Among the victorious figures on Sunday, the RN deputy Edwige Diaz elected in Gironde.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard accused the Ecologists on Sunday of having prevented the election of a rebellious senator, unelected by three votes in the upper house, against a backdrop of disunity between the left-wing lists.
“Martha Peciña will therefore have missed 3 votes to be elected to the Senate,” the rebellious executive lamented on X about his candidate in the constituency of French people living abroad. And the MP for Bouches-du-Rhône attacks the “Ecologists’ refusal of a joint EELV/LFI list” which “therefore causes the left to lose a seat to the detriment of the right”.
The rebels, who currently have no senators, harbored some hopes among French people abroad, represented by twelve senators, six of whom were renewed this year. But Insoumis and Ecologists failed to reach an agreement, blaming each other for the failure of the negotiations.
The presidents of the Les Républicains and Les Indépendants groups in the Senate, Mathieu Darnaud (LR) and Claude Malhuret (Horizons), were both comfortably re-elected on Sunday in the first round of the senatorial elections, according to official results.
Head of the LR group, the leading force in the Senate with 131 members, Mathieu Darnaud obtained nearly 62% of the votes in Ardèche, where two seats are to be filled. His partner Anne Ventalon (LR) was also re-elected in the first round. Close to the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, Mathieu Darnaud took the helm of the LR group in October 2024, taking over from Bruno Retailleau when the latter joined the government. Candidate for his own succession at the head of the LR group, he should return without problem, due to the lack of a candidate declared against him at this stage.
In Allier, the former mayor of Vichy Claude Malhuret was also re-elected without difficulty in the first round, with nearly 67% of the votes. This close friend of Édouard Philippe (Horizons), known for his sharp speeches on international politics, leads the group of Independents (20 members) and should also retain this presidency.
SENATORIAL 2026: FOLLOW THE RESULTS
Polling stations closed at 5:30 p.m. in mainland France and results are expected throughout the evening.
Around thirty seats were nevertheless renewed at midday in the least populated departments, where the ballot is a two-round majority. Most of them are incumbents re-elected in the first round. This is particularly the case of two group leaders, Mathieu Darnaud (Les Républicains) in Ardèche and Claude Malhuret (Horizons) in Allier.
The right, a majority in the Senate with its centrist allies, has even won two seats at this stage... But the threat from the RN makes it fear losses in the largest departments, where the vote is proportional.
Buoyed by its gains in the last municipal elections, the National Rally is assured of progress in the Senate after the September 27 election. The whole challenge will be to be able to form a group, in order to complete the institutionalization of the party six months before the presidential election.
The RN already has three senators since the last elections to the upper house in 2023. It is therefore seven short of reaching the threshold allowing it to form a group.
His push for the municipal elections in March already guarantees him several seats: one in Bouches-du-Rhône, one in Var, undoubtedly another in Vaucluse and at least two in the Alpes-Maritimes with the UDR of his ally, Éric Ciotti.
