Republican boss Eric Ciotti caused an earthquake in his political family on Tuesday by announcing that the right “needs an alliance” with the National Rally for the legislative elections on June 30. A statement immediately welcomed by Marine le Pen as a “courageous choice”.
Earthquake on the right: the president of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti announced his desire to build an alliance with the RN for the legislative elections. The president of the Republicans, who admitted to having exchanged with Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, says he concluded with the far right “an agreement which will concern the entire national territory”. Objective stated: that “all” the 61 outgoing deputies from his group can be re-elected in order to have influence in the next National Assembly. Marine Le Pen immediately greeted the “courageous choice” by Eric Ciotti as well as his “sense of responsibility”.
Several right-wing tenors opposed to an agreement with the RN
By accepting the hand extended by the far right, the president of LR created a surprise within his party itself. *”I believe in politics that is made with clarity, defending one’s ideas: sometimes we convince, sometimes we don’t convince, but we never betray”***, declared Laurent Wauquiez** on Tuesday after Eric Ciotti’s call to form an alliance between LR and the RN. “I see all those who are agitating to form coalitions, to make alliances, to make small combinations. I say it straight away: I don’t believe in it”added the former boss of LR during a press conference in Yssingeaux (Haute-Loire), while most of the figures of the Gaullist party disavowed the position of their president.
Same reaction for Valérie Pécresse, LR candidate during the last presidential election. “I will never accept any compromise with the extremeswhich I am convinced will lead France to bankruptcy and chaos.” Xavier Bertrand also issued a warning on franceino: “never the extremes”.
Bruno Retailleau, president of the LR group in the Senate, speaks during a press briefing after Eric Ciotti’s announcement: “The Republicans will never form an alliance with the National Rally. We have deep ideological differences and we must preserve our independence and our integrity.”Eric Ciotti “lied” to his party, denounces Bruno Retailleau at a press conference.“All this has been carefully thought out and carefully camouflaged, it is a lack of loyalty, a lack of righteousness,” continues this right-wing executive. (…) The spectacle we are giving is undoubtedly a spectacle which saddens our compatriots.”
The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher assured Tuesday before Les Républicains senators that he “will never endorse” an agreement with the National Rallyadvocated by LR boss Eric Ciotti in the legislative elections.
“I will never endorse, under any pretext, an agreement with the RN contrary to the interests of France and our history”launched the president of the High Assembly to his troops, before asking Eric Ciotti in a message on X to leave the presidency of LR.
For his part, Eric Ciotti refuses to resign from the presidency of the Republicans, he told the press.
At the same time, two influential senators, the vice-president Sophie Primas and the general rapporteur of the Budget Jean-François Husson, announced that they were leaving the Gaullist party after party boss Eric Ciotti advocated “an alliance” with the National Rally.
“An alliance with the RN in the legislative elections is of course without me! I am leaving Les Républicains and continuing the fight with the unanimous support of the group of Gérard Larcher (president of the Senate) and Bruno Retailleau (leader of the LR senators)”wrote Jean-François Husson on X, while Sophie Primas, vice-president of the upper house, affirmed on the same social network that she was making this choice “unwillingly”calling on the right to “rebuild”.
The president of the Young Republicans, Guilhem Carayon, is one of the rare LR to show his support for Eric Ciotti.“With Eric Ciotti and thousands of LR activists, we are making the choice of courage and common sense. A choice approved by millions of French people. We must listen to the people who can no longer stand Mr. Macron’s policies”he told the Sunday Journal.
For his part, the head of the LR list in the European elections, François-Xavier Bellamy, published a press release. He believes that an LR-RN agreement “would be counterproductive: it would in fact accomplish what Emmanuel Macron has always dreamed of, who wants people to believe that nothing exists between him and the RN.I fought this false duel for years. I believe in a clear debate”he wrote, also breaking with the position of Eric Ciotti.
A “courageous choice” according to several members of the National Rally
On the RN side, this declaration was well received. “Unity makes France”launches Jordan Bardella, head of the National Rally listwho rejoices in this union, “to fight against migratory chaos, restore authority and order”.
“I am delighted that there is an agreement from the patriots, the LR, the National Rally. Others will come tomorrow, I hope, from all walks of life because there is an urgency to save our country.” Asked on franceinfo, *the RN deputy for Moselle Laurent Jacobelli believes that, “despite disagreements”, “there is a base, an identical base” between the National Rally and Eric Ciotti.*
Marine Le Pen also welcomed “the courageous choice” And “The sense of responsibilities” by Eric Ciotti and said he hoped “that a significant number of LR executives follow him”after the boss of the right party advocated “an alliance” with the RN. “Forty years of a pseudo sanitary cordon, which caused many elections to be lost, is disappearing”argued the patron saint of National Rally deputies in the National Assembly.
Eric Ciotti’s announcement strongly criticized by the government and the Left
Eric Ciotti’s statement also provoked an avalanche of outraged reactions within the government and left-wing parties.
Former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne comments on social networks: “in this crucial period of our history, some are losing their bearings and are not up to the moment.”
“Offering General de Gaulle’s party to Le Pen on a silver platter, shame now has a name”affirms for his part the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, believes that Eric Ciotti “signs the Munich agreements and brings disgrace to the Gaullist family.”
“Shame on you !”launched the environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau to the boss of the Republicans Eric Ciotti, who was responding to the press in front of his party headquarters.“You do not deserve the name that is written on your facade”, she added, referring to the logo of the Les Républicains party.
While he has just called on all leaders of the left parties to unite in view of the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7, *the LFI deputy of the Somme François Ruffin described Erici Ciotti as “political refugee from the RN”.* “He is for retirement at 64, for drastic cuts in the hospital budget, for tax privileges for the richest” he added.
“With the rallying of Eric Ciotti’s LR to the RN, after the rallying of Marine Le Pen’s niece, we are in the situation where the hypothesis of a victory with an absolute majority for the extreme right becomes perfectly credible”, worried Olivier Faure on the microphone. The first secretary of the Socialist Party came before his troops in the Senate to present the progress of the negotiations which were initiated yesterday evening between the left-wing parties, with a view to the constitution of a new “popular Front”.