France's National Rally wins first-ever Senate caucus
France's far-right National Rally says it has won enough Senate seats to form its own caucus for the first time.
France’s far-right National Rally and its right-wing allies have won enough seats in Sunday’s indirect election of senators to form their own caucus, party leaders said — the first time the party has cleared the 10-seat threshold for a Senate group.
“The results have exceeded our expectations,” Marine Le Pen, the party’s leader and presidential candidate, said in a post on X, according to Reuters.
The milestone comes as the National Rally prepares for the 2027 presidential race, in which opinion polls show it in the lead for the first round. Le Pen is seeking to win the presidency in the two-round election in the spring, although previous attempts by the far right to reach the country’s highest elected office have repeatedly been blocked.
Of the 348 seats in the upper chamber, 178 were up for grabs in Sunday’s election. The party did not say how many seats it had won. Senators are elected by lawmakers in the National Assembly and local elected representatives.
Forming a caucus matters: group leaders in the Senate are able to request votes, among other powers, giving the National Rally a new institutional lever in the upper house for the first time.
Sources
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