After election defeat, what's the strategy for France's far right?
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00:00We can go across to Emerald Maxwell standing by at the National Rally headquarters. Emerald,
00:04good afternoon. Disappointing outcome for the far right. How are they digesting the result?
00:13Yes, so obviously a lot of disappointment last night as the results came in. It really wasn't
00:18the result they were expecting. All the signs pointed them maybe potentially forming a government
00:23today but in the end they fell well short of either an absolute or even a relative majority
00:28in the National Assembly. They came third and for that the party leader Jordan Bardella, he blamed
00:35unnatural, dishonorable alliances between left-wing and centrist parties that had nothing in common
00:42and he also said that this he had undermined and actually that tactic had deprived the
00:49rationality of their victory and of course now pushed the country into a period of uncertainty.
00:56What he's talking about here is the Republican front which is when parties they work together
01:01to keep the National Rally out of power by some in certain constituencies where there are tight
01:07races by having some of the candidates pull out so they're not splitting the anti-national
01:13rally vote. That tactic worked extraordinarily well, better than polls predicted but as Jordan
01:20Bardella and the National Rally see it, they see it as backroom scheming against it, undemocratic
01:25and they say that it's now put the country into the hands of the far left. Of course there is a
01:30bright side to all this, they did achieve with help from allies from the conservative wing of
01:35Les Républicains their best ever score in the National Assembly, they've got they almost doubled
01:40the number of seats since last time and in the first round they also got more than a third of
01:45the vote which is extraordinary considering that they used to be a party on the fringes of French
01:50society and now well into the mainstream. Exactly, they're no longer the fringes. Emerald,
01:55so what exactly is the National Rally strategy? Do they just focus to 2027?
02:04Well that's partly the point of the meeting which will take place later today behind me at the HQ
02:10of the National Rally. They will be obviously poring over the results from last night, dissecting
02:15them, planning next moves, potentially looking at some of their policies which played less well
02:21or more well, so there's that controversial one which would bar dual nationals from holding
02:26certain positions, certain important jobs in France. But also they know that they're not
02:31actually in a bad position now, not only have they doubled the number of seats in the National
02:35Assembly, they're also facing a very broad range of centre and left parties who are not that united,
02:42have a lot of differences, they're going to have to put those differences aside in order to form
02:45some sort of coalition and govern. That is of course good news for Marine Le Pen and the National
02:50Rally who will be able to position themselves, and already are, as the only alternative to that.
02:57And of course Marine Le Pen has got her eye on the prize, that 2027 presidential election.
03:03Last night she has referred to it as the result from last night only deferring their victory.