MP Sandrine Rousseau questioned the boss of the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party, Eric Ciotti, this Tuesday, while he was answering questions from journalists. As a reminder, on Tuesday he called for “an unprecedented alliance” with the far-right National Rally (RN) party for the early legislative elections in France, provoking an outcry within his own camp. To which Eric Ciotti responded before resuming his responses to the interviews: “Your diatribe honors me ma’am”
“We need an alliance, while remaining ourselves, (…) with the RN and its candidates,” declared Eric Ciotti on the TFI television channel, officially adopting a very controversial position within his party, heir of Gaullism.
Mr. Ciotti said he had held discussions with the leaders of the far-right party Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the big winner of the European elections in France with more than 30% of the vote. If the agreement comes to fruition, it will be the first of its kind in France between the right and the far right.
Mr. Ciotti estimated that the right needed this agreement to preserve its representation in the National Assembly, which today has 61 deputies, many of whom are not on the party president’s line.
Marine Le Pen immediately reacted by welcoming Eric Ciotti’s “courageous choice” and “sense of responsibility”.
“Forty years of a pseudo-sanitary cordon, which caused the loss of many elections, is in the process of disappearing,” argued to AFP Ms. Le Pen, who for a decade began a strategy of demonization and normalization of his party.
Within LR, many voices were immediately raised against this alliance: LR President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, who has always opposed a rapprochement with the extreme right, assured that he “would never endorse a agreement with the RN”.
The president of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau, denounced “a personal line”, joined by the boss of the LR deputies Olivier Marleix for whom Mr. Ciotti “only commits himself” and must resign.
Before the official announcement from the boss of LR, many party leaders, including Laurent Wauquiez, supported by Eric Ciotti as right-wing candidate for the Elysée in 2027, categorically rejected this decision.
According to a Harris Interactive – Toluna poll published Monday, the RN is credited with 34% of voting intentions for the first round of the legislative elections on June 30. This would allow him to obtain a relative majority during the second round on July 7, with 235 to 265 deputies.
President Emmanuel Macron’s party, with 19%, could only count on 125 to 155 seats, compared to 115 to 145 for the left, credited with 22% under its new unitary banner, the “Popular Front”.
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