section_path: History/2017 Senate election and first party congress
section_name: 2017 Senate election and first party congress
paragraph_text: 2017 Senate election and first party congress
  
  In the 2017 Senate election, La République En Marche! lost seats, ending up with 21, seven fewer than before. While hoping to double its representatives in the Senate, party officials noted that due to the electoral system of indirect universal suffrage, where deputies, senators and regional councilors elect senators, the party had a disadvantage due to being new.
  
  In the same month, it was announced that the first party congress was to be held in Lyon. The first gathering of party members and representatives, party spokesman, Christophe Castaner announced his candidacy on 25 October 2017 with the endorsement of President Macron, allowing him to run unopposed. The congress took place on the 19 November 2017 and Castaner was elected the Executive Officer and leader of the party by a council of 800 people, with a quarter being members of the party. Castaner was elected for a term of three years. The congress generated media attention for criticism surrounding it, including a walk-out by attendees of the congress where a hundred attendees resigned from the party citing a lack of internal democracy and corruption.
  
  The first by-election of the 15th National Assembly of France in Val-d'Oise's 1st constituency, which was a La République En Marche! seat, was called after it was ruled that deputy Isabelle Muller-Quoy 's replacement Michel Alexeef was ineligible under the electoral code. Muller-Quoy, who had won the first round by 18 percentage points in 2017, won the first round of the by-election by only 5 percentage points, and went on to lose the seat to the LR candidate Antoine Savignat. The race was the first loss the party had endured in the National Assembly. Several subsequent by-elections showed a 10% overall swing against La République En Marche! since the June 2017 legislative elections.
  
  In the 2017 Senate election, La République En Marche! lost seats, ending up with 21, seven fewer than before. While hoping to double its representatives in the Senate, party officials noted that due to the electoral system of indirect universal suffrage, where deputies, senators and regional councilors elect senators, the party had a disadvantage due to being new.
  
  In the same month, it was announced that the first party congress was to be held in Lyon. The first gathering of party members and representatives, party spokesman, Christophe Castaner announced his candidacy on 25 October 2017 with the endorsement of President Macron, allowing him to run unopposed. The congress took place on the 19 November 2017 and Castaner was elected the Executive Officer and leader of the party by a council of 800 people, with a quarter being members of the party. Castaner was elected for a term of three years. The congress generated media attention for criticism surrounding it, including a walk-out by attendees of the congress where a hundred attendees resigned from the party citing a lack of internal democracy and corruption.
  
  The first by-election of the 15th National Assembly of France in Val-d'Oise's 1st constituency, which was a La République En Marche! seat, was called after it was ruled that deputy Isabelle Muller-Quoy 's replacement Michel Alexeef was ineligible under the electoral code. Muller-Quoy, who had won the first round by 18 percentage points in 2017, won the first round of the by-election by only 5 percentage points, and went on to lose the seat to the LR candidate Antoine Savignat. The race was the first loss the party had endured in the National Assembly. Several subsequent by-elections showed a 10% overall swing against La République En Marche! since the June 2017 legislative elections.
  
  In the 2017 Senate election, La République En Marche! lost seats, ending up with 21, seven fewer than before. While hoping to double its representatives in the Senate, party officials noted that due to the electoral system of indirect universal suffrage, where deputies, senators and regional councilors elect senators, the party had a disadvantage due to being new.
  
  In the same month, it was announced that the first party congress was to be held in Lyon. The first gathering of party members and representatives, party spokesman, Christophe Castaner announced his candidacy on 25 October 2017 with the endorsement of President Macron, allowing him to run unopposed. The congress took place on the 19 November 2017 and Castaner was elected the Executive Officer and leader of the party by a council of 800 people, with a quarter being members of the party. Castaner was elected for a term of three years. The congress generated media attention for criticism surrounding it, including a walk-out by attendees of the congress where a hundred attendees resigned from the party citing a lack of internal democracy and corruption.
  
  The first by-election of the 15th National Assembly of France in Val-d'Oise's 1st constituency, which was a La République En Marche! seat, was called after it was ruled that deputy Isabelle Muller-Quoy 's replacement Michel Alexeef was ineligible under the electoral code. Muller-Quoy, who had won the first round by 18 percentage points in 2017, won the first round of the by-election by only 5 percentage points, and went on to lose the seat to the LR candidate Antoine Savignat. The race was the first loss the party had endured in the National Assembly. Several subsequent by-elections showed a 10% overall swing against La République En Marche! since the June 2017 legislative elections.