France’s far-right to form Senate group after election gains

France’s far-right parties will form a parliamentary group in the Senate for the first time in the Fifth Republic, following success in last Sunday’s elections (September 27).

The 2026 Senate elections saw half of the chamber’s seats contested.

The Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies, principally the Union des droites pour la République (UDR) headed by Eric Ciotti, won 11 seats.

Prior to this the RN had on its own only three seats.

This will give them a total of 14-15 seats in the chamber based on alliances with independent right to far-right senators also elected on Sunday.

The result pushed them over the threshold to form a ‘group’ in the Senate, which requires 10 senators or more. 

Success came at the expense of the right-wing Les Républicains, which lost six seats (but remain the largest party in the chamber) and the groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et social européen, a mixed group of pro-EU senators, which lost four. 

The Greens also lost seats, as did one of the centrist groups, although all have retained at least ten members and therefore will not lose their ‘group’. 

The Socialists both lost and won seats, retaining the same number of senators as before the election and remaining the second-largest group.

Senators are not directly elected through a vote but by ‘grand electors’, including mayors, deputy mayors, and councillors. 

Victory adds momentum to growing 2027 campaign

The victory is the latest indicator of the far-right’s success in France, and their continued normalisation as part of the political mainstream. 

Although senators are not elected through direct suffrage (i.e, votes by citizens and eligible residents in an election), it shows their increased support among grand electors, including a greater number of mayors and councillors across France. 

This came particularly in the south-east, where the far-right has long aimed to court voters disenfranchised with the political mainstream, but has struggled to gain a footing in the political sphere, limiting their ability to gain the backing of mayors and other elected officials.

The party, alongside other groups including the far-left, had long-derided the Senate as being out of touch with the wider public, and had previously called for it to be abolished. 

Their ascension to holding a ‘group’ in the chamber – something the far-left La France Insoumise is yet to achieve - further cements them as a mainstream party, giving them heightened momentum for the 2027 presidential elections where it is possible that the far-left will be their main opposition.

Political commentators have also highlighted that success in the Senatorial elections will place the far-right in closer proximity to the traditional right, which could help break the ‘Republican Front’ in France.

This is a loose system of informal alliances by other parties to prevent the far-right from gaining seats in elections. 

The RN and its allies could use its new-found Senate success to further normalise themselves in the political sphere, weakening the lure of such a front.

They could even eventually court some right-wing MPs into allying with them, either through a formal alliance or a per-vote basis. 

Such an alliance is likely to be required for the far-right to form a majority of MPs at the Assemblée nationale, with the next legislative elections expected to be called after the 2027 presidential election is held.

An alliance between the far-right and right has been, in the 21st century, the route to power for such parties in Europe, including in Austria and Italy. 

Concrete political advantages

Alongside this symbolic advantage however, there are also concrete political benefits for the group. 

Previously sitting as part of the ‘un-grouped’ members of the chamber, the far-right senators had little power in the chamber other than their votes.

Now they have a group, they have several new powers.

Chief among these includes speaking time during debates, as well as the opportunity to set the agenda for the chamber, with one day per month allocated to opposition groups on a rotating basis to ‘lead’ the chamber.

They will also be able to establish commissions of inquiry at a rate of one per year, a key tool used by senators to highlight matters across the country.

Alongside these political benefits, the group will also see an increase in funding, including the ability to hire parliamentary assistants and an increase in public funding for the party based on the increased number of MPs and senators it has.