Yesterday’s by-elections for senatorial seats in the upper parliamentary house of the French Parliament confirmed the difficulties that the Macronists have recently faced and marked the return of the far-right “National Assembly” to the Luxembourg Palace (Senate building), reported AFP.
The majority, as so far, remains in the hands of the center-right, the head of the parliamentary group in the Senate of the center-right party “Republicans” Bruno Rottaio was happy. This party continues to have the most senators after the partial vote.
In the elections yesterday, senators were elected for 170 seats out of a total of 348 seats in the Senate. Senators will have a term of 6 years. The next Senate by-election will be in 2026, when 178 senatorial seats will be voted on.
The vote is indirect and usually has a hard time moving ordinary voters. An electoral college made up of 95 percent of municipal councils makes the Senate elections a reflection of the results of the country’s last municipal elections, in which the right did well in medium-sized cities. The Macronists again had trouble convincing members of the electoral college that President Emmanuel Macron’s government had done a good job. An emblematic defeat in this regard is that of the Secretary of State for Civil Affairs Sonia Backes, who in the second round in New Caledonia was defeated by the independent candidate for a senatorial seat, Robert Xovy.
The far-right National Assembly party returned to the upper house of parliament with three senatorial seats.
The Senate examines and votes on laws, and in this matter it has shared power with the lower house of parliament – the National Assembly. However, the National Assembly has the final say on any bill debated in both chambers. But the Senate cannot be dissolved, unlike the National Assembly.
The next important elections in France are those for the European Parliament in the spring of next year.
