Le Pen's RN gains first French Senate group

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally will be able to form a group in the French Senate for the first time, election results showed Monday.

The National Rally and a smaller allied party will have at least 15 seats in the 348-seat upper house, above the 10 members needed to form a parliamentary faction.

Forming a group allows the party to sit on influential committees that work on legislation. The Senate is elected by local officials, not by direct universal suffrage, and half of its seats are renewed every three years.

The National Rally, then known as the National Front, first entered the Senate with two seats in 2014 and won three seats in 2023. In the latest vote, RN candidates won nine seats and Eric Ciotti's allied Union of the Right for the Republic held three, bringing the far right's total to at least 15.

“This is a historic victory, and a major milestone with the formation for the first time of a group in the Senate,” Le Pen wrote on X.

RN leader Jordan Bardella said the result confirmed the movement's momentum before the presidential election. “If our compatriots so desire, we will very soon govern France,” he said.

A Toluna-Harris survey for RTL and M6 published Monday showed Le Pen on about 35 to 36 percent in the first round of the presidential vote on April 18. The poll showed her ahead in possible second-round contests on May 2 against hard-left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon or centrist Edouard Philippe.

The right, led by the Republicans, is expected to retain control of the Senate despite losing seats. Senate speaker Gerard Larcher is expected to keep his post. France Unbowed won its first Senate seat.