French far-right Senate — France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party and its allies have achieved a historic breakthrough, winning a record 14 seats in the Senate in elections held on September 28, 2026. The result quadruples the party’s representation in the upper house ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The RN, which first entered the 384-seat Senate in 2014 with two senators under its former name, the National Front, had held only three seats since 2023. Nine new RN senators were elected today, joining three incumbents, while two more were elected on the lists of the allied Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR). RN president Jordan Bardella stated that his party’s senators would form a parliamentary group with the UDR allies.

Party leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen hailed the result on social media as a “historic victory and an important milestone” marking the first formation of an RN-aligned group in the Senate. The senators are elected by local political representatives, with half the chamber renewed every three years for six-year terms.

The gains follow the RN’s emergence as the largest party in the lower house, the National Assembly, after the 2024 snap legislative elections, though it fell short of an absolute majority. Polls currently suggest Le Pen is the favorite to succeed the term-limited centrist President Emmanuel Macron in the 2024 presidential election.