Elections to renew half of the Senate were held in France on Sunday and, as expected, the right retained its majority. The elections saw the election of 170 new senators out of a total of 378 in the various departments into which the country is divided: the right-wing Les Républicains had 145 seats in the Senate and their centrist allies 57. The count is almost complete 151 seats are controlled by the right and 77 by its centrist allies. The renewal of the Senate takes place every three years by indirect universal election, that is, the voters are largely composed of local administrators: municipal, departmental and regional councilors elected in the last administrative elections. The right has had a majority in the Senate since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958 (the only exception was a period of socialist majority between 2011 and 2014).
The campaign for the Senate elections was closely followed by the French press, especially because the vote was seen as an important indication of preferences at the national rather than local level after a very difficult year for the majority. In addition, the Senate plays a fundamental role in the parliamentary strategy of Emmanuel Macron’s government, which has lost the absolute majority in the National Assembly (the lower house).
– Also read: The importance of the French Senate
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