Reactions in France to Donald Trump’s midterm election defeat, Digi Mart USA News: Two years after Donald Trump’s re-election, Americans have turned away from the Republican president’s camp and handed the two chambers of Congress to the Democrats. The defeat has been interpreted in different ways in France, depending on the political camp drawing the lessons.
On Wednesday, November 4, the sharp setback suffered by Trump’s camp in the midterm elections was widely welcomed by leaders of left-wing parties, who saw in it a reason for “hope” six months before a French presidential election that is expected to be difficult. Another camp, also struggling at the polls, also found reason for satisfaction.
After years of electoral setbacks worldwide, the left sees a favorable wind for its political family in the recent election results in the United States and Brazil. Manuel Bompard, national coordinator of La France insoumise, said, “Everywhere in the world, it is popular mobilization that pushes the far right back.
In France too, we will do it.” La France insoumise was particularly pleased by the election of Abdul El Sayed in Michigan, a figure of the radical left wing of the Democratic camp who is closer to the Mélenchon line.
Many Socialist lawmakers also welcomed the American “Democratic wave,” a few days after Lula’s decisive victory in Brazil, said Socialist Party First Secretary Olivier Faure. His presidential candidate, Raphaël Glucksmann, saw “the victory of democracy and decency.”
While Marine Le Pen still dominates polls for 2027, several officials pointed to parallels between the French far right and American nationalists, in order to stress the risks of the National Rally reaching the Élysée Palace. Marine Tondelier, the Ecologist presidential candidate, wrote, “What has happened in the United States in recent years is a warning for France.
If our country brings the RN to power next year, it will face the same tragic fate as the United States.” She accused the RN of being as “fascist,” “corrupt,” “climate-skeptic” and “incompetent” as Donald Trump.
Former members of Emmanuel Macron’s camp shared this view. Implicitly, they also used the occasion to target La France insoumise, placing it on the same level as the far-right party.
Renaissance lawmaker Pierre Cazeneuve said, “Donald Trump is the Marine Le Pen program with Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s methods. His historic defeat tonight is an immense relief and should inspire us to avoid a deadly second round for France in six months.” Horizons member of the European Parliament Nathalie Loiseau said, “After Hungary, Serbia and the United States, authoritarian populist demagogues are piling up electoral defeats.
There is no fatality in the victory of extremes,” without explicitly mentioning the Mélenchon movement.
After first seeking closer ties with Donald Trump during his first term, the National Rally has, for strategic rather than ideological reasons, distanced itself from him. Speaking on RTL on Wednesday, RN president Jordan Bardella said he saw no “connection” between this vote and the French presidential election.
Despite these denials, points of convergence between the MAGA movement and the French far right regularly resurface, particularly on international issues such as the war in Ukraine or, more recently, Poland. Trump himself has praised the RN candidate for 2027.
