National Meeting wins record 14 senators in France

Plenary of the French Senate, in Paris — Photo: Bertrand Guay/AFP

The far-right French party Réunion National (RN) and its allies won this Sunday (28) a record 14 seats in the Senate, and multiplied its number of representatives in that chamber by four, ahead of next year's presidential elections.

The party entered the Senate for the first time, with 384 seats, in 2014, with 2 senators, when it was still called the National Front. In 2023, it won 3 seats.

French senators are chosen by elected political representatives. The process is carried out every three years, when senators from half of the chamber are elected for a six-year term.

The far-right leader and presidential candidate for RN, Marine Le Pen, declared in X that "this is a historic victory and an important milestone, with the formation of a group in the Senate for the first time".

Nine senators from RN were elected today, in addition to the three who won their seats in 2023. Two others were elected from the lists of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR). The president of RN, Jordan Bardella, stated that his party's senators will form a group with UDR allies.

In the early legislative elections of 2024, the RN emerged as the largest party in the lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly, but far from the absolute majority.

Polls point to Marine Le Pen as the favorite to succeed the center-right French president, Emmanuel Macron, who will have already served the limit of two consecutive terms.