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Right wins French Senate, Front National takes first seats

The French Senate has swung back to the right with, for the first time ever, two National Front Senators after elections on Sunday.

The Senate, Paris
The Senate, Paris wikipedia
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It is the latest electoral setback for French president François Hollande who has already suffered a thrashing in municipal and European elections this year.

Three years ago, the left won the French upper house for the first time ever in a result followed a year later by the defeat of right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy.

On Sunday Sarkozy’s UMP party won over 188 seats, comfortably winning an absolute majority.

Yesterday’s election was also notable because for the Front National secured two seats, in what leader Marine Le Pen described as a “historic victory”.

Stephane Ravier, one of the successful FN candidates, signalled the party's upbeat mood, saying: "Now there is only one more door to push open, that of the Elysee” (presidential palace).

The fortunes of the FN have been on the ascendant this year with the anti-immigration euro-sceptic party gaining electoral ground in municipal elections and topping the European Parliament vote in May.

An opinion poll this month showed that FN leader Le Pen would beat Hollande in presidential elections in 2017 in the event of a second round run-off between them.

France's upper house is not chosen by universal suffrage but by a "super-electorate" of elected representatives who vote to renew roughly half of the 348-seat Senate every three years.

A new Senate leader will be chosen on Wednesday from the UMP ranks, to succeed socialist Jean-Pierre Bel.

 

 

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