Part of Paris’s 3rd arrondissement, ground zero of the city’s bo-bo (bourgeois-bohemian) universe, had burned the night before under the banner of student protests. The black smoke from torched plastic garbage bins, rental bikes piled into barricades and street signs drifted into homes around 8 p.m., and its stench never really left.

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Una parte del distrito tercero de París, zona cero del universo bo-bo [la expresión burgués-bohemio] ardió la noche antes con el pretexto de las protestas estudiantiles. El humo negro del plástico quemado de contenedores, bicicletas de alquiler amontonadas en barricadas y señales de tráfico entró en las casas sobre las ocho de la tarde y su hedor ya no despareció. Las granadas de gases lacrimógenos de la policía trazaban una parábola tan alta para llegar hasta el otro lado de la calle, donde estaban los manifestantes, que pasaban delante de la ventana de un sexto piso como gorriones. Y mientras el periodista terminaba una crónica sobre la vida de los otros, una columna de humo negro, como una chincheta de Google Maps, indicaba el punto exacto donde había aparcado el coche. Aunque eso fuera a descubrirlo más tarde.

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French Prime Minsiter Sébastien Lecornu has announced that there will be localised curfews put in place in a bid to stem the rioting and looting which have ravaged the country over the past two days. After a meeting of ministers

The post France Curfews Announced After Paris Rioters Targeted Residential Apartments for Looting appeared first on Breitbart.

In an address to the nation on Sunday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron refused to take any accountability for the national riots that erupted on Saturday, as he sought to shift the blame onto the far-left and even external forces like the Iran conflict while failing to acknowledge the role mass migration played in creating a groundswell of support for the unrest. 

The post Macron Addresses Nation: Refuses Blame, Ignores Immigration Impact on Riots, ‘How Can French People Do This?’ appeared first on Breitbart.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance blamed the nationwide riots in France on mass immigration and the inability to integrate large swaths of people from the "third world", while warning American citizens from following the same destructive path.

The post Vance: France Riots a Result of Liberals ‘Importing Third World’ in Name of ‘Diversity and Compassion’ appeared first on Breitbart.

France’s National Rally has secured enough representation to form a parliamentary group in the Senate for the first time, marking a significant expansion of the party’s presence in French political institutions ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies from Eric Ciotti’s Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) emerged from Sunday’s Senate elections with at least 14 seats between them. Ten senators are required to establish a group in the upper house.

“For the first time in its history, the Rassemblement National will form, with its UDR allies, a group in the Senate,” party president Jordan Bardella said following the vote. Marine Le Pen called the result a “historic victory” and “major step”.

The breakthrough follows a period in which the RN has been extending its reach beyond national and European elections. Its performance in the March municipal elections strengthened its representation among local elected officials — particularly important in Senate elections because senators are not elected directly by the public.

Before Sunday’s vote, the RN had only three senators: Christopher Szczurek, Joshua Hochart and Aymeric Durox. It therefore lacked the numbers necessary to establish its own parliamentary group.

The result does not mean that the RN has taken control of the Senate. The traditional right and centre remain the dominant forces in the 348-seat chamber, while the Socialists retain a substantial bloc on the left.

The importance of Sunday’s result lies instead in the RN establishing a permanent organised presence inside the upper house.

According to the French Senate’s rules governing political groups, recognition as a parliamentary group provides parties with additional institutional resources and representation in the organisation of Senate business. Groups receive speaking time, participate in the Conference of Presidents and gain greater opportunities to question the government and initiate parliamentary work.

For the RN, this removes one of the remaining institutional barriers separating its national electoral strength from its representation across the French political system.

Why the Senate has been difficult for the RN

The structure of Senate elections helps explain why the breakthrough has taken considerably longer than the party’s rise in presidential, European and National Assembly elections.

The 178 seats contested on 27 September were chosen through indirect elections. Around 95 per cent of the electoral college consists of mayors, deputy mayors and municipal councillors.

Of the seats being renewed, 119 were elected through proportional representation and 59 under a majority system.

The Senate’s 348 members serve six-year terms, with approximately half the chamber renewed every three years. The system has traditionally favoured parties with extensive networks of municipal and regional representatives — an area in which the RN historically lagged behind Les Républicains, the Socialists and the centre.

That began to change as the party expanded its municipal base. The connection between local government and the Senate makes the result particularly significant: it indicates that the RN’s political presence is increasingly being translated into representation among the local officials who constitute the Senate electorate.

The party made gains particularly in southern France, including Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Vaucluse, Gard and Hérault. Its allies also performed strongly in Alpes-Maritimes.

The geographical pattern follows the RN’s advances during this year’s municipal elections, when the party consolidated existing strongholds and expanded its presence in several southern cities.

The Senate remains controlled by the traditional right

Despite the RN advance, the overall political balance in the Luxembourg Palace has not been overturned.

The conservative Les Républicains entered the election as the Senate’s largest group, with 131 members, according to the Senate’s official group composition. The centrist Union Centriste was the next major component of the Senate majority, while the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group formed the largest bloc on the left.

The traditional right and centre therefore retain control of the chamber following Sunday’s partial renewal.

Another first came from the opposite end of the political spectrum. La France Insoumise secured representation in the Senate, adding another party to an increasingly fragmented parliamentary landscape.

The simultaneous arrival of organised RN representation and LFI senators does not fundamentally change the Senate’s balance of power, but it broadens the range of parties represented in a chamber historically dominated by the established centre-right and centre-left.

Another step in the RN’s institutional expansion

For Le Pen and Bardella, the Senate result comes as the National Rally seeks to present itself not simply as an opposition movement but as a party capable of operating throughout France’s political institutions.

That effort has become increasingly visible as the 2027 presidential contest approaches.

EU Today has previously examined the party’s attempt to reshape its positions on defence and NATO and the more recent shift in the language used by Le Pen and Bardella towards Russia.

The Senate breakthrough adds a domestic institutional dimension to that process.

It also comes after the RN’s gains in municipal politics, which are directly relevant to its Senate representation. A party that once depended heavily on presidential campaigns and protest votes now has a larger network of mayors, councillors, MPs, MEPs and senators.

Sunday’s vote should not, however, be read as a direct measurement of national voting intentions. Senate elections operate through a restricted electoral college and are heavily influenced by the composition of local government.

The presidential election will be decided by an entirely different electorate under a direct two-round system.

The significance of 27 September is therefore more specific. For the first time, National Rally has accumulated enough representation within France’s locally rooted political system to establish an organised group in the Senate.

That gives the party additional parliamentary resources and a more visible platform in the final months before France enters the 2027 presidential campaign.