{"id":908163,"date":"2026-09-28T04:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908163\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T04:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:48:09","slug":"frances-far-right-national-rally-surges-in-senate-elections-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908163\/","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s far-right National Rally surges in Senate elections | France"},"content":{"rendered":"

France\u2019s far-right National Rally<\/a> (RN) party and its allies have secured a record 14 seats in the rightwing-dominated Senate in elections, effectively quadrupling its number in the 348-seat chamber just months before a presidential poll.<\/p>\n

RN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen<\/a> called the results an \u201chistoric victory\u201d after they were announced on Sunday. \u201cThe results \u200chave exceeded our expectations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It was the first time the \u2060party had cleared the 10-seat threshold to be able to form a Senate caucus.<\/p>\n

Local elected officials vote for new senators for half the upper chamber every three years, each to serve a six-year term.<\/p>\n

The far-right party entered the Senate for the first time with two seats in 2014, when it was known as the National Front, and won three seats in 2023.<\/p>\n

Le Pen is considering her best chance yet at power in elections scheduled for a first round in April next year when the centrist president, Emmanuel Macron, steps down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historic victory, and a major milestone with the formation for the first time of a group in the Senate,\u201d she said on X.<\/p>\n

Nine RN senators were elected on Sunday, according to an AFP tally of results, on top of the three who won seats in 2023.<\/p>\n

A further two were elected from RN ally Eric Ciotti\u2019s Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party.<\/p>\n

RN\u2019s president, Jordan Bardella, said the party\u2019s senators would form a group with UDR allies.<\/p>\n

RN president Jordan Bardella (C) poses with supporters in La Seyne-sur-Mer, southern France, on Sunday as the far right won a record 14 seats in Senate elections. Photograph: Thibaud Moritz\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ciotti quit the rightwing Republicans (LR) party in 2024 after calling for an alliance with the far right.<\/p>\n

The upper chamber\u2019s LR president of more than a decade, Gerard Larcher, 77, is expected to be re-elected next week.<\/p>\n

The right, centre and leftwing Socialists looked set to remain the three major forces in the upper house, according to initial results.<\/p>\n

The hard-left France<\/a> Unbowed party won a seat for the first time.<\/p>\n

Le Pen\u2019s anti-immigration party emerged as the single largest party in the lower-house National Assembly after Macron called snap polls in 2024, although it fell well short of a majority.<\/p>\n

With Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France\u2019s far-right National Rally (RN) party and its allies have secured a record 14 seats in the rightwing-dominated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-908163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}