The National Rally (RN) headquarters was filled with anticipation on Sunday, but the celebratory mood quickly turned to disbelief as the first projected results of the parliamentary election were announced. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party, had confidently predicted an outright majority with her protege Jordan Bardella as prime minister. Instead, the RN was projected to come third, behind a left-wing alliance and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc.
The RN’s defeat was largely due to tactical dealmaking between centrist and leftist opponents, who withdrew over 200 candidates from three-way races to avoid splitting the anti-RN vote. This result halted what appeared to be the far-right’s relentless rise in France, which Le Pen had carefully engineered by attempting to clean up the party’s image and addressing voter grievances over living costs, strained public services, and immigration.
Despite previous setbacks, including Le Pen’s 2022 presidential defeat to Macron, the outcome was a bitter disappointment for the RN. Jocelyn Cousin, 18, who had come to the RN headquarters expecting a victory party, expressed his disillusionment, stating, “The results are disappointing and they don’t represent what French people want.”
The RN’s momentum had seemed unstoppable after its victory over centrists in the European elections in early June and its first-place finish in the first round of the parliamentary vote on June 30. However, Bardella and Le Pen blamed their party’s setback on what Bardella called the “disgraceful alliance” of anti-RN forces, accusing them of caricaturing the party and disrespecting its voters.
Brice Teinturier, an IPSOS pollster, pointed to the RN’s own shortcomings, including revelations before the run-off that several of its candidates had expressed xenophobic views, raising doubts about the party’s purported transformation. Teinturier commented, “RN candidates themselves showed in this campaign that they either were not ready or had in their ranks candidates that are antisemitic, xenophobic or homophobic.”
Florent de Kersauson, an RN candidate in Brittany, acknowledged the damage from these revelations and suggested that voters may have perceived the party as arrogant in predicting an absolute majority. “I thought it was strange that they said that,” Kersauson remarked. “It seemed like something that was very hard to achieve.”
Despite the setback, Bardella and Le Pen sought to remain optimistic, noting that the party had increased its share of seats in the National Assembly to a record high and vowing to continue fighting until they achieved power. Le Pen, likely to mount her fourth presidential campaign in 2027, stated, “The tide is rising, but it didn’t rise quite high enough this time. Our victory has merely been delayed.”
Supporters at the RN headquarters echoed this sentiment. Elea da Cunha, 17, expressed hope for the future, saying, “I see our victory coming. People are going to understand that the National Rally is not so horrible. I believe it will happen in 2027.”
Frederic-Pierre Vos, a close associate of Le Pen and newly elected representative, predicted that the hung parliament resulting from the election would make France ungovernable, providing fresh opportunities for the RN in 2027.
Despite the party’s fighting talk, Sunday’s outcome was a clear setback. Business newspaper Les Echos captured the mood with a front page showing a grim-faced Bardella and the headline “la claque” or “the slap.”
