[3][4][5][6] After the election, the incumbent President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, stated his intention to run for re-election; he believed that he could win despite the left-wing majority, with the aid of alliances with independents, centrists, and some leftists.

in many circles as a referendum on the incumbent French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity had been in decline over the preceding months.

[citation needed] François Hollande, a Socialist politician considered to be a leading contender for the 2012 Socialist presidential nomination, pointed out that the defeat meant the Sarkozy's incumbent Union for a Popular Movement party had lost seats in every election since he took office in 2007.

[7] The German news magazine Der Spiegel, looking at September 2011 polls and forward to the May 2012 presidential election, observed that "the Socialist Party – still licking its wounds after a sex scandal brought down their great hope Dominique Strauss-Kahn – would win ... if it were held today."

It also opined that Sarkozy's "foreign policy actionism" in Libya – including a 15 September visit to Tripoli with David Cameron[10] – and "proposals for a quick resolution to the Middle East conflict at the United Nations"[11] just prior to the election were not "able to perceptively increase his popularity".