Final results aren’t due until Monday, but it looks like French President Francois Hollande’s ruling Socialist Party has lost control of the Senate to the conservative alliance.  Ominously, the far-right, anti-immigrant and anti-EU National Front (FN) won two seats, it’s first win in the house.

It’s a major setback for Hollande, whose popularity has hit record lows, making him the least popular French President in recent times.  The Socialists still control the National Assembly, which is the lower house that has the final say in drafting new laws.  But the UMP Party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy and its center-right ally, the UDI, appear to have gained a senate majority of ten to 20 seats – more than enough to delay legislative bills supported by Hollande and thwart his reform agenda.

The two seats for National Front continues leader Marine Le Pen’s string of victories.  She’s succeeding at changing the face of the FN, which had previously been condemned as a racist, isolationist band of malcontents when it was run by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.  FN captured the mayoralties in twelve cities in local elections in March, and 24 percent of France’s seats in the EU elections in May.