Marine Le Pen's National Rally secures enough seats to form group in French Senate

PARIS — Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won enough seats to form a group in the French Senate elections Sunday, giving the far-right party better representation in leadership roles and committees in the upper house of parliament.

“This is a historic victory and a major milestone,” Le Pen wrote on X.

The National Rally jumped from three seats to 15 in the Senate during Sunday’s contest, clearing the 11-seat threshold to form a group. Half the Senate is elected every three years by some 42,000 local officials.

Le Pen, who polls show is the front-runner in next year’s presidential election, said on X that her party’s new Senate group “will serve as an essential platform during the presidential campaign.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed movement also won its first-ever seat in the chamber.

The Senate will remain controlled by an alliance of lawmakers from the conservative Les Républicains and a centrist group, though the bloc lost several seats.

A centrist senator, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the National Rally winning a group was “the culmination of their establishment in the political landscape.”

“The [center-right] majority will remain the same, and our job will be to provide stability. If anyone wanted to touch the institutions, we will be there to guarantee stability,” the senator added.

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