Trump’s midterm defeat and the French presidential race, Digi Mart USA News: Democrats won the majority in both chambers of the U.S. Congress in the November 3, 2026 midterm elections, a setback for Donald Trump.
Jordan Bardella says the result does not predict the French presidential election, while several left-wing officials see it as encouragement.
The U.S. midterms renewed Congress, not the presidency.
The new legislature begins in January 2027, meaning Democrats do not immediately control Congress, though Trump will face an opposition able to slow his agenda.
In France, voters directly elect the president in a two-round system, and only the two leading candidates can reach the second round if no one wins outright in the first. Speaking on RTL on Wednesday, November 4, Bardella rejected any automatic comparison, saying the contexts are very different and that what happens in other countries does not concern him.
Bardella pointed to French polls, which he says show Marine Le Pen leading in the first round and winning in the configurations tested. That is his political argument, not an election result, and a voting intention is neither a ballot cast nor a guarantee of victory.
His stance contrasts with his 2024 reaction, when he praised a dynamic of freedom beyond American borders after Trump’s return to the White House. Louis Aliot, the RN vice-president, instead said on France 2 that Trump was paying for the “Iranian adventure,” blaming Trump’s foreign interventionism rather than a shared political identity.
Left-wing figures reacted differently. Marine Tondelier called it a historic defeat after a second term she described as disastrous, Raphaël Glucksmann praised a democratic victory, and Manuel Bompard emphasized popular mobilization to push back the far right.
However, the left’s satisfaction does not resolve the constraints of the French two-round system, where several closely aligned candidacies compete first for access to the final round.
The coming weeks will show whether French officials extend this debate into concrete proposals or remain at the level of comparisons. The next decisive contest in France is the presidential election, with its two rounds scheduled for April 18 and May 2, 2027.
