Sénat elections rarely hold unpleasant surprises for the French right wing, despite it having become accustomed to electoral setbacks in recent years. Over a year after debacles in the presidential and legislative elections, the Les Républicains (LR) managed, on Sunday, September 24, to maintain its stranglehold on the Sénat, where it retained an absolute majority along with its partners from the Union Centriste (a centrist group allied with LR).
"It's a great success for us. [Sénat] President Gérard Larcher's majority is assured, and I congratulate him on this," said LR party president Eric Ciotti, from the conference room of the Palais du Luxembourg (which houses the Sénat), where the results were displayed. "These results are the recognition of our work on a line of opposition in the general interest," said Bruno Retailleau, the president of the LR group in the Sénat. Although his group lost "three or four seats," according to Retailleau – out of their previous 145 Sénat members – it will remain by far the largest in the Palais du Luxembourg.
In this indirect election, a 79,000-member electoral college – 95 % of whom are appointed by municipal councils – was called upon to renew half of the Sénat's seats, as they do every three years, with the election of 170 senators in forty-two French mainland and overseas departments as well as Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, New Caledonia and six of the twelve territories for French nationals residing outside France.
As has been the case since the beginning of the Fifth Republic – apart from a brief Socialist interlude between 2011 and 2014 – the French right wing has drawn on its strong regional roots and its good results in recent local elections, including the 2020 municipal elections, with a significant presence in small and medium-sized towns.
"In the countryside, the moderate right has very strong support from a network of elected representatives, who are sensitive to stability," analyzed Senator Philippe Bas (LR), who was re-elected on Sunday evening. "In contrast to the divisions in the Assemblée Nationale, many electors wanted to avoid a divided Sénat with no majority," he said.
Stability should also be the order of the day for the institution's leadership, with the predicted re-election – for the 5th time since 2008 – of Senator Gérard Larcher (LR) as President of the Palais du Luxembourg. Voting is scheduled for October 2, when the parliamentary session resumes.
In a campaign conducted in relative media silence among local elected representatives, where interpersonal relationships and the local reputation of candidates predominate over political etiquette, Bruno Retailleau highlighted President Macron's Renaissance party's inability "to establish itself in the territories, because it relies on just one person: Emmanuel Macron". The Macronists – united in the Rassemblement des démocrates, progressistes et indépendants (RDPI, twenty-four elected members) group in the Sénat – have seen their numbers dwindle by a few members, unlike the Horizons movement. This right-wing party – led by Macron's former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and founded in 2021 – should pick up between three and five more senators, depending on the affiliations of the elected candidates. This, however, should not upset the current balance of power in the Sénat.
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