Readers will probably not have noticed that tomorrow there will be elections for the French parliament's upper chamber, the Senate. There are 348 senators, elected for six years and half the senate is renewed every three years. But there are no public elections as candidates are voted for by "grands electeurs", ie holders of elected public office, such as maires and departmental councillors.
Voting is compulsory in those seats up for renewal and about 75000 officials will be voting.
The Senate has a role very similar to the House of Lords in the UK, examining laws proposed by the Assembly and in the case of local issues (affecting communes, departments or regions) the Senate may propose laws itself. Whilst senators are usually members of political parties, the senate elections are not generally fought on party lines. President Macron will be hoping that some candidates from his party will be elected, but the majority held by the right leaning Les Republicans will probably be unchanged as more than half of their 142 seats are not up for re-election. The Front National will be hoping for some success in the north east seats where Macron failed to convince voters during earlier elections and the socialists will be grateful for any seats.
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