Seven years after the ascension of Emmanuel Macron changed France’s political landscape, last weekend’s parliamentary elections once again set a new stage.

Beyond the headlines – the “defeat of the far right”, the “recovery of the left” seen in many media, French politics is beginning to realign itself into a more familiar pattern of left vs. right. However, Marine Le Pen’s defeat for the third time in seven years is indeed a defeat for the far right, asks Politico in an article. In other words, the French having rejected the anti-European, pro-Russian Le Pen three times are voters ever likely to elect her?

What happened in the French election could not be considered a defeat but part of another path to victory for some. The far-right bloc in the National Assembly increased from six seats in 2017 to 88 in 2022 and 143 last weekend. But for the third time since 2017, Le Pen’s party may in the first round “flirt” with power in the second, but things did not develop as she would have liked. And this time this development could prove more damaging than the previous onescomments the article.

The National Rally entered the election race claiming to be a transformed party, led by 28-year-old Jordan Bardela. But the party ultimately lost because more than 200 candidates from left and centrist parties dropped out after the first round of elections in order to prevent far-right candidates from being elected in the second. But the loss of votes was also due to the exposure of its false claim to be a serious, moderate party.

Dozens of party candidates have been branded racists, anti-Semites, Putin-lovers and Covid-deniers. One candidate even has a criminal record for armed robbery.

Moreover, Bardela and Le Pen performed daily backflips as they tried to appear socialist-interventionist to poorer voters and liberal-anti-taxer to businessmen and the middle class. Bardella’s reputation as a child prodigy in politics was also undermined by a series of complaints from the media.

He and Le Pen now have three years (and plenty of money) to rebuild their reputations. However, there are other reasons to believe that Marine Le Pen will have a difficult task in the 2027 presidential election.

Last Sunday’s results suggest that the tripartite split after 2017 in French politics scene – radical left, macronist center and hard far right – persists. But there were signs, both in this election and in June’s European elections, that the old, reformist, pro-European centre-left has been reinvigorated.

So is this the beginning of a recapture of the right-wing electorate by the successors of Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, asks Politico.

Until Sunday’s result, the media, especially abroad, seemed convinced that Le Pen was almost certain to win the presidency in 2027. However, the party was badly damaged by its unexpected third-place finish in the election. He has three years to reorganize but the presidential race is now wide open, the article points out. Faced with a runoff in 2027 and “almost any” opponent against her (except the far left), Le Pen will likely be rejected by the French again.