Will Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Eric Ciotti’s Republicans get married during the next legislative elections?
AFP/AFP
The call in France by the leader of the main right-wing party to forge an unprecedented alliance with the far right created a new earthquake on Tuesday, two days after the shock dissolution of the Assembly and the convening of legislative elections by President Emmanuel Macron who ruled out any resignation.
“Disloyalty”, “lies”, “personal” game… A deluge of criticism fell on the president of the Republicans (LR) after his call to ally with the National Rally (RN) for the early elections of June 30 and July 7, reinforcing the crisis which has gripped the country since the triumph of the far right in the European elections.
“We need an alliance, while remaining ourselves, (…) with the National Rally and with its candidates,” declared Eric Ciotti on the TF1 channel, immediately disavowed by several executives of his party who denounced a historic turnaround.
A dike has fallen
Taking a hard line on immigration, Mr. Ciotti broke down a barrier which had until then kept his party, the declared heir of General de Gaulle, away from any agreement with the RN, whose ancestor was co-founded by a former Waffen-SS.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, a former member of LR who joined Emmanuel Macron in 2017, accused Mr. Ciotti of having “signed the Munich Accords”, initialed in 1938 in particular by France and Nazi Germany.
The charge was also severe within LR itself, which two influential senators left in protest. “I will never endorse, under any pretext, an agreement with the RN contrary to the interests of France and our history,” also launched the right-wing president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher.
“Sanitary cordon”
Galvanized by its success in the European elections, where it came first in 93% of French cities, the RN, conversely, welcomed “the courageous choice” of Mr. Ciotti. “Forty years of a pseudo sanitary cordon, which caused many elections to be lost, is disappearing,” Marine Le Pen, boss of RN deputies, told AFP.
For several years, the party has sought to forge alliances with the right to continue its de-demonization enterprise and is trying to broaden its base before the elections, which could bring it to power for the first time.
The RN, on the other hand, gave up on Tuesday trying to form an alliance with its right by refusing an agreement with the Reconquest party! founded by the polemicist Eric Zemmour, several times convicted of inciting racial hatred.
Macron plays for time
While the right is tearing itself apart, Emmanuel Macron is playing for time and has postponed the press conference scheduled for Tuesday until Wednesday to clarify his “orientation”.
In an interview with “Figaro Magazine” posted online on Tuesday, Mr. Macron assured in any case that he would refuse to resign “whatever the result” of the legislative elections. “I’m going there to win!” assured the president, despite his popularity at half mast.
To those who consider it “crazy” to cause such an earthquake as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11), Mr. Macron defended a “good decision”. “I say to the French, don’t be afraid, go vote.”
According to a Harris Interactive – Toluna poll published Monday, the RN is credited with 34% of voting intentions in the first round, which would allow it to obtain a relative majority in the second, with 235 to 265 deputies, almost tripling its current number of seats (89). The Macronists, with 19%, could only count on 125 to 155 seats.
Single applications on the left
After being divided during the European campaign, the four main left-wing parties (France insoumise, Socialist Party, Ecologists, Communist Party) announced Monday evening that they had found common ground to present “unique candidates from the first round “, even if discrepancies remain.
This alliance was sharply criticized by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Tuesday, deeming the alliance with France Insoumise (radical left) “revolting”, accused of ambiguities on anti-Semitism. Jewish institutions denounced a “shame” and an “infamous agreement”.
Negotiations resumed on Tuesday to refine a common program and try to resolve the debate on the leader, several parties refusing that this role be played by the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a divisive figure and former presidential candidate.
In retreat since the dissolution, lM. Attal broke his silence on Tuesday to assure that he would go “to the end of (his) duty as a citizen (…) to avoid the worst”, while recognizing the “brutal” nature of the dissolution.
(afp)
