Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and its allies have crossed the threshold for a Senate group for the first time, after Sunday’s partial renewal of the upper house.
Of the 348 seats in the Palais du Luxembourg, 178 were contested by an electoral college of local officials. RN and Éric Ciotti’s Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) will sit together with at least 14 senators, and possibly 15 if a Republican who announced a switch is counted.
Ten are required to form a group.
The party had three senators whose terms were not up. Nine RN names were added on Sunday, and two UDR seats in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Le Pen called it “a historic victory and a major milestone.”
The results, she said, had gone beyond what the party could have hoped for and confirmed that its implantation was accelerating “across the whole land.”
Jordan Bardella said the senators would work with UDR and held out a hand to “sincere patriots” among Les Républicains.
Sébastien Chenu said there was “no longer a glass ceiling” and called the night an accelerator for the presidential race.
The geography of the gain is the Mediterranean belt and a few surprises further west and north.
RN took two seats in the Bouches-du-Rhône and two in the Var, one each in the Vaucluse, the Hérault and the Gard, one in Gironde with deputy Edwige Diaz, who may chair the new group, and one in Seine-Maritime.
UDR took two in the Alpes-Maritimes, including European deputy Laurent Castillo.
Former RN senator Stéphane Ravier was not returned.
The advance follows municipal gains in March, which enlarged the pool of grand electors.
RN first entered the Senate in 2014, as the National Front, with two seats, and held three after 2023.
A group brings speaking time, staff money and the right to request an inquiry.
Bardella presented that machinery as a relay for Le Pen’s campaign once Emmanuel Macron leaves the Élysée next spring.
Polls have put her ahead in a first round.
The rest of the chamber barely moved. Les Républicains remain the largest group, down from 131 to about 125 according to Public Sénat, fewer than some forecasts of a double-digit loss.
Bruno Retailleau was re-elected in the Vendée on a union list with the centre.
Gérard Larcher, the Senate president, is expected to keep the chair. LR still needs the Centrist Union to command a working majority.
The Socialists look stable in second place.
La France Insoumise enters the house for the first time: Gabriel Amard was elected in the Rhône, and some tallies give LFI a second seat.
Socialist senator Patrick Kanner called for a cordon sanitaire to limit RN influence.
Still, the breakthrough still leaves RN with a thin slice of a 348-seat house due to the way the Senate is built.
Senators are not chosen by the public but by a college of grands électeurs, consisting of mayors, municipal councillors, departmental and regional elected officials, in which small communes are heavily over-weighted.
Sunday’s nine extra RN names, and the two from UDR, followed the municipal gains of March.
