With four months of senatorial elections presented as a “national test” before the presidential election, the National Rally (RN) reported this Wednesday “contacts” with parliamentarians from the right and the center who “could rally” Jordan Bardella’s party if it succeeds. obtain a group of ten elected to the upper house.
“We are not immune to surprises,” declared Christopher Szczurek during a press conference at the RN headquarters. The senator from Pas-de-Calais, one of only three elected officials from the party at the Palais du Luxembourg, assured that he had established “contacts with senators who are in the LR group” but “not necessarily included” in the Republicans (LR), as well as with “a few senators who are in the centrist group.”
“Some have let us know that if we are in a position to form a group, they could rally us,” he added, emphasizing that “the wisdom and ecumenism that generally reign in the Senate make relations much more fluid and easier.” First, the RN must therefore reach the fateful threshold of ten seats, set up as a decisive issue. “Our clear ambition: to multiply our number of senators and finally form a group,” declared Ludovic Pajot, campaign director for these senatorial elections. A vote which will have “national test value” for the 2027 presidential election, as “the last great deadline before (…) the mother of all battles”, insisted the mayor of Bruay-la-Buissière (Pas-de-Calais).
An expected “multiplier effect”
Buoyed by its breakthrough in the municipal elections in March (70 elected or re-elected mayors, more than 3,000 municipal councilors in total), the RN is counting on the “multiplier effect” of the vote of elected officials without label, in particular “in rural municipalities”, to “confirm (its) territorial establishment”, added Ludovic Pajot. The far-right party has to date invested candidates in 46 of the 63 departments brought into play at the end of September. A handful of deputies were thus designated head of the list, including Edwige Diaz in Gironde and Frank Giletti in Var.
Some first places were also reserved for Eric Ciotti’s UDR, particularly in the Alpes-Maritimes. Elsewhere, “the doors are open” to other rallies, said Ludovic Pajot. Always on the same conditions: “We will be led to support candidates who are not necessarily members of the RN, from the moment they share our philosophy and commit to joining (our) group. HAS”
