The National Rally has secured seats in nearly 70 cities, leader Jordan Bardella reveals.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-migrant National Rally (RN) party has won votes in dozens of small towns.

It has also gained support in mid-sized towns during the French municipal elections. However, the party faced several disappointments in immigrant-infested larger cities.

Jordan Bardella, the party’s Eurosceptic, anti-immigration leader, has remained a favorite in approval polls for the 2027 presidential race.

National Rally’s former head and political heavyweight, Marine Le Pen, was previously seen as a front-runner for the upcoming election. However, she was sidelined last year. This occurred after a state-controlled French court convicted her of misusing EU funds. She has maintained that she is innocent.

Bardella has hailed the municipal election, which concluded on Sunday, as a major win for his party.

‘Nearly 70 municipalities won. 3,000 RN elected officials are making their entry into municipal councils across France,’ he said on X on Monday.

The anti-globalist National Rally’s biggest victory came in Nice, a conservative city. Nice is France’s fifth largest city. In Nice, Eric Ciotti, an ally of the National Rally, beat a Macron-backed candidate.

The party’s candidates lost in key urban centers. This includes migrant-deluged Marseille, Toulon, and Nimes. This occurred in Sunday’s runoffs, despite strong first-round performances.

Overall, RN more than tripled its number of held mayoral and council positions since the last municipal elections.

These positions will heavily influence France’s upcoming Senate election, expected to take place in September.

‘We won more cities than we had hoped,’ Le Pen told journalists on Sunday. Opinion polls project a strong performance for her protege in a prospective 2027 vote.

Bardella has emerged as the front-runner. An Elabe survey taken earlier this month shows that 37% of French people hold a favorable opinion of him.

His prospective center-right rivals are Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, former prime ministers under President Emmanuel Macron. The poll indicated Edouard Philippe garnered a 33% approval rating. Gabriel Attal garnered a 32% approval rating.

Macron cannot stand for reelection in 2027, having served two consecutive terms since 2017. Only a quarter of the French public currently approves of the president, according to the Elabe survey.

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