At a press conference by Julien Sanchez, the far-right Rassemblement National party’s campaign director for the March 2026 municipal elections, in Paris, on December 1, 2025. BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS
France’s 2024 snap parliamentary elections had sown the seeds of doubt in public opinion on whether the Rassemblement National (RN) might successfully seize power and govern the country, though time appears to have dispelled that uncertainty. The annual barometer on the public’s opinion of the far-right party conducted by consulting and research firm Verian for Le Monde, in partnership with the periodical L’Hémicycle, shows that the party’s ideas and proposed “solutions” have gained further traction among French voters.
“Everything seems to slide off the RN, notably the legal cases that have tarnished Marine Le Pen’s image but not the party’s momentum, including among right-wing sympahtizers,” said Eddy Vautrin-Dumaine, research director at Verian. “There is a balance between the construction of the party’s governmental credibility, which continues to strengthen, and the reassurance that it can represent a break with the past. It is no longer a vote out of anger but a vote for solutions.”
The study, which the firm has conducted for 41 years, provides a long-term view of how the French public perceives the RN. The 2026 edition of the survey was carried out from January 1 to 5. The sample size was raised this year to 1,511 respondents and the data collection method was changed from face-to-face at respondents’ homes to online.
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