“We need an alliance with the RN”, believes Eric Ciotti

LR boss Eric Ciotti caused a dramatic turn of events on Tuesday by announcing that the right “needs an alliance” for the June 30 legislative elections with the National Rally, an unprecedented agreement with the far right immediately rejected by many leaders of his party. “We need an alliance, while remaining ourselves, (…) with the National Rally and with its candidates,” said Mr. Ciotti, specifying that he had discussions with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. If the agreement comes to fruition, it will be the first of its kind in France between the right and the far right.

The boss of LR 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. “I hope that all outgoing Republican deputies who wish not to have adversaries from the RN can not have competitors,” he added, believing “want to preserve a group” in parliament.

Within LR, many voices were immediately raised against this agreement: LR president of the senate Gérard Larcher, who has always opposed an agreement with the far right, assured that he “will never endorse a agreement with the RN”, speaking in front of the LR senators. 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 by the boss of LR, many party leaders, including Laurent Wauquiez, supported by Eric Ciotti as a right-wing candidate for the Élysée in 2027, categorically rejected this decision.

On the government side, the Minister of the Interior, ex-LR Gérald Darmanin, denounced that Mr. Ciotti had signed “the Munich agreements and brings dishonor to the Gaullist family by kissing Marine Le Pen. A shame. French people, let’s wake up!”

On the RN side, on the other hand, Marine Le Pen praised Eric Ciotti’s “courageous choice” and “sense of responsibility” and said she hoped “that a significant number of LR executives would follow him”. “Forty years of a pseudo sanitary cordon, which caused many elections to be lost, is in the process of disappearing,” argued the boss of the National Rally deputies in the National Assembly.

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.

The French head of state, for his part, ruled out resigning “whatever the result” of the anticipated legislative elections, called after his camp’s defeat in the European elections, in an interview published Tuesday by “Figaro Magazine”.