France’s National Rally has won enough Senate seats to form its first-ever Senate group, party leaders said after the Sept. 27 elections. The RN took nine new seats and now holds 12, according to Reuters.

With two to three allies from the UDR party, the bloc holds 14 to 15 seats, according to the party. That clears the 10-seat threshold needed to form an official Senate group. The Senate has 348 seats; 178 were contested in this round.

French senators are indirectly elected by about 162,000 local officials, not by direct popular vote. The RN previously held only three Senate seats and had never crossed the group-formation threshold.

Marine Le Pen called the result a “historic victory” and said it “exceeded our expectations.” Party president Jordan Bardella announced the formation of the RN-UDR group on X. The breakthrough comes ahead of the presidential election’s first round in April 2027, in which Le Pen is leading first-round polls. The result extends the party’s steady gains at every level of French politics since its 2022 legislative surge.