The Senate is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators elected by part of the country's local councillors in indirect elections. Senators have six-year terms, with half of the seats up for election every three years. They represent France's departments (328), overseas collectivities (8) and citizens abroad (12).
The Senate (Sénat) is the upper house of the Parliament of Gabon. It has 67 members, elected in single-seat constituencies by local and départemental councillors or appointed by the president for a six-year term. Beginning with the 2009 election, some constituencies elect two senators.
Indirect Senatorial elections were held in Mauritania on 21 January 2007, with a second round on 4 February 2007. There are 56 seats in the Senate. The senators were elected by 3,688 municipal councilors, except for three who were chosen by the elected senators.
Indirect Senate elections were held in Senegal on 19 August 2007. Over 13,000 MPs, local and municipal councillors were eligible to vote in this election, in which 35 of the Senate's 100 members were chosen across the country's 35 districts; President Abdoulaye Wade nominated the other 65 members.
The European Democratic and Social Rally group, formerly the Democratic and European Rally group, is a parliamentary group in the French Senate including representatives of the Radical Party of the Left (PRG) that historically consisted of radicals of both the left and right. Before 1989, the group was known as the Democratic Left group.
Gérard Philippe René André Larcher is a French politician serving as president of the Senate since 2014, previously holding the office from 2008 to 2011. A member of The Republicans, he has been a Senator for the Yvelines department since 1986, with an interruption between 2004 and 2007, when he was Minister for Employment, Labour and Professional Integration of Young People under President Jacques Chirac. Larcher also served as mayor of Rambouillet from 1983 to 2004 and again from 2007 until 2014.
The Communist, Republican, Citizen and Ecologist group is a parliamentary group in the French Senate, the indirectly elected upper house of the French Parliament. Unlike most other parliamentary groups in the Senate, it counts mostly of only the Senators of one party, the French Communist Party, among its members.
Jean-Pierre Bel is a French retired politician who served as President of the Senate from 2011 to 2014. From the Ariège department, Bel is a member of the Socialist Party; he was elected to the Senate in September 1998 and re-elected in September 2008. Bel was President of the Socialist Group in the Senate from 2004 to 2011.
Françoise Férat is a French politician and a member of the Senate of France. She represents the Marne department and is a member of the Centrist Alliance.
The Centrist Union is a centrist parliamentary group in the Senate uniting members of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) and Democratic Movement (MoDem), as well as the Centrist Alliance (AC), a former component of the UDI. The group was historically associated with the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and later the Democratic Centre (CD), Centre of Social Democrats (CDS), and Union for French Democracy (UDF). Most recently, from 2012 to 2017, it was known as the Union of Democrats and Independents – UC group.
A Senate election was held for 165 of the 348 seats in the Senate of France on 25 September 2011. Senate members were primarily elected by municipal officials, and the number of senators was increased from 343 to 348, due to the growth of France's population since the previous election was held in 2008. The Socialist Party and other left-of-center parties gained a majority of seats in the upper house for the first time in the Fifth Republic.
The 2014 French senate election was held on 28 September 2014 and featured results which saw the senate being reclaimed by the centre-right party Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The right-wing conservative victory reversed the results which came during the previous 2011 French senate election, which was the first time since the foundation of the Fifth Republic in 1958 that the upper house of the French government had been won by a majority of left-wing candidates. Following the victory of the UMP, Gérard Larcher was nominated and subsequently elected to the position of president of the senate, taking the place of Jean-Pierre Bel who had served in the position following the Socialist Party's senate victory in 2011. The Far-right National Front party also claimed its first two seats in the senate election, which their leader Marine Le Pen described as "a historic victory".
The Socialist group in the Senate is a parliamentary group in the Senate including representatives of the Socialist Party (PS).
The Socialist Party is a centre-left to left-wing political party in France. It holds social-democratic and pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major political parties under the Fifth Republic, along with the Rally for the Republic in the late 20th century, and with the Union for a Popular Movement in the early 2000s. It is currently led by First Secretary Olivier Faure. The PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as En Marche ! (EM) and later La République En Marche !, before adopting its current name in September 2022. RE is the leading force of the centrist Ensemble coalition, coalesced around Emmanuel Macron's original presidential majority.
Senatorial elections were held on 24 September 2017 to renew 170 of 348 seats in the Senate of the French Fifth Republic.
The Senate Republicans, formerly the Union for a Popular Movement group, is a parliamentary group in the French Senate including representatives of The Republicans (LR), formerly the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). It is currently the largest group in the Senate. Its president has been Bruno Retailleau since 2014.
The Independents – Republic and Territories is a parliamentary group in the French Senate including representatives of The Republicans (LR).
Senatorial elections were held on 27 September 2020 to renew 172 of the 348 seats in the Senate of the French Fifth Republic. The elections were a modest victory for the centre-right Republicans. The environmentalist Europe Ecology – The Greens party entered the upper chamber, while Emmanuel Macron's centrist La République En Marche! party maintained their position, despite losses in the 2020 municipal elections earlier in the year. The far-right National Rally kept their one seat, while the Corsican nationalists gained their first seat as well.
Guillaume Gontard is a French politician who is president of the Ecologist group in the French Senate.
