POLITICS – Unexpected response. As a result of the alliance with the National Rally advocated by Éric Ciotti, the Republicans have decided to invest a surprise LR candidate in the first constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes for the legislative elections.
Legislative elections 2024: since the dissolution, a week which has turned political life upside down
To counter the president of the Republicans, kept in his post despite the division he caused in his camp, LR made a strong choice this Sunday, June 16. With a profile that is surprising, as a member of the investiture committee told AFP.
This candidate, Virgile Vanier, is presented as an entrepreneur from the Alpes-Maritimes and right-wing sympathizer in his forties. According to The Parisianhe is also a former president of the Côte d’Azur sommeliers association.
His particuliarity ? Be “came to see LR this week to be a candidate”. A spontaneous reaction following the shock created by Eric Ciotti’s alliance with the RN. “It is an important symbol to show that the LR continues to exist in the constituency of Éric Ciotti”added this source, referring to the profile of this political novice.
400 seats contested by LR
The Parisian specifies that at this stage, Virgile Vanier has already submitted his candidacy to the prefecture while the LR national investiture commission has still not notified his candidacy. On a national level, “nearly 400 candidates are nominated by LR”the member of the commission told AFP.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, an LR bastion where the National Rally has been nibbling ground for several years, the dissolution of the National Assembly and the psychodrama within the right-wing party has continued to widen a gap between activists favorable to the alliance of ‘Éric Ciotti with the far right and those denouncing a line “impassable in the Republic”.
The Alpes-Maritimes have five LR deputies, three from the RN and a Macronist. In Eric Ciotti’s constituency, in Nice, Jordan Bardella’s RN list had gathered almost 30% of the votes last Sunday in the European elections. For its part, François-Xavier Bellamy’s LR list was ranked fourth, barely touching 10%.
Also see on The HuffPost:
Éric Ciotti and his RN allies have, with Florence Portelli, their best enemy within the Republicans
Éric Ciotti: this unexpected argument during the legal appeal to validate (or not) his exclusion from the LR
