Le Pen, who polls show is the front-runner in next year’s presidential election, said on X that her party’s new Senate group “will serve as an essential platform during the presidential campaign.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed movement also won its first-ever seat in the chamber.

The Senate will remain controlled by an alliance of lawmakers from the conservative Les Républicains and a centrist group, though the bloc lost several seats.

A centrist senator, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the National Rally winning a group was “the culmination of their establishment in the political landscape.”

“The [center-right] majority will remain the same, and our job will be to provide stability. If anyone wanted to touch the institutions, we will be there to guarantee stability,” the senator added.