At the end of last week, the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, assured that there would be “70 constituencies” with joint RN-Les Républicains candidates for the legislative elections. There will ultimately only be 62, according to a press release published by LR boss Éric Ciotti on Sunday evening, when the deadline for submitting applications had just passed.
According to newspaper information The world, these candidates declared themselves in the prefecture under the nomination “On the right, the friends of Éric Ciotti”. Among them are some close to Eric Ciotti, such as the president of the LR federation in Creuse, Bartolomé Lenoirwho describes himself as “advisor to the president of the Republicans”, or the deputy for the 5th constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes Christelle D’Intorni. But the list also includes more unusual profiles. Non-exhaustive overview.
Young LR executives
He was one of the first to support Éric Ciotti, after the latter announced his intention to reach an agreement with the National Rally. The president of the Young Republicans Guilhem Carayon is a candidate in the legislative elections under the LR-RN banner in the 3rd constituency of Tarn.
His choice is not really surprising: in March 2023, Guilhem Carayon had already caused controversy by appearing on the front page of the conservative monthly The Incorrect alongside his counterparts from the National Rally and Reconquest! Pierre-Romain Thionnet and Stanislas Rigault under the title “Young people cut the cord”.
But Guilhem Carayon is not the only young party executive to have followed Éric Ciotti. This is also the case of the former general secretary of the Young Republicans, Théo Michelalso vice-president of the Republicans, who is a candidate in the 1st constituency of Seine-et-Marne.
In the 8th constituency of Isère, the former president of the Young Republicans 38, Hanane Mansouri, is also a candidate under the banner of the Union of Rights. “Faced with the current situation in France, the alliance with the RN was politically the only option,” she justified to the Dauphiné Libéré.
Finally, in the 9th constituency of Hérault it is also a former youth executive of the party who is LR-RN candidate: Charles Alloncleformer president of Youth with Sarkozy.
Defectors…
At Les Républicains, Eric Ciotti’s alliance with the RN was rejected by almost all party executives. So to achieve his “rally of the right”, the boss of LR also had to go and collect candidates from other parties. He managed to convince Typhanie Degoisformer LREM deputy for the 1st constituency of Savoie (where she represents herself under her new banner) from 2017 to 2022. During her mandate, this jurist had repeatedly shown her opposition to the majority’s policy, before bringing his support for Marine Le Pen during the 2022 presidential election.
Invested in the 7th district of Yvelines, the chef and television presenter Babette de Rozières is also used to changing sides. After supporting Anne Hidalgo (PS) during the 2014 municipal elections, she gave her support to Valérie Pécresse (LR) in the 2015 regional elections then ran for the 2022 legislative elections, saying she supported Emmanuel Macron (without having received the nomination of the presidential party). “France is in danger and I want to save it. There’s crap everywhere and the little people don’t have enough to fill their carts. I can’t stay here and do nothing,” she explained to Parisian to discuss his LR/RN candidacy.
Another defector: the former prefect Thierry CoudertLR-RN candidate in the 3rd constituency of Côte-d’Or, was successively a member of the Socialist Party, the UMP and the Radical Party.
…including several pro-Zemmour
In the 1st constituency of Isère, Éric Ciotti managed to bring back towards Les Républicains Alexandre Lacroix. A member of the Young Republicans, he then supported Éric Zemmour and joined LR again after the announcement made by Éric Ciotti to ally with the RN, according to The Dauphiné Libéré.
Similar scenario in the 4th constituency of Val d’Oise where the former senator LR of Val-d’Oise Sébastien Meurant, who had taken his card from Reconquête! in 2022, will be the LR-RN candidate.
In the 4th district of Paris, it is also a clear support from Éric Zemmour who was invested: the entrepreneur Arnaud Dassier, son of Jean-Claude Dassier. He co-founded Avisa Partners, a consulting group accused of misinformation in several journalistic investigations.
Media speakers
“Friends of Eric Ciotti” also includes the candidacy of Guillaume Bigot, columnist on CNews and Sud Radio and columnist on Europe 1. Parachuted into the 2nd constituency of the Territoire de Belfort, Guillaume Bigot outraged the political class in 2021 after describing the environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau as “a sort of menopausal Greta Thunberg”. In 2002, he supported the sovereignist candidacy of Jean-Pierre Chevènement.
The criminal lawyer Philippe FontanaLR/RN candidate in the 5th constituency of Seine-et-Marne, speaks regularly on CNews, but also in Current values, Le Figaro and the JDD. This is also the case for the economist Sébastien Layeinvested in the 10th constituency of Hauts-de-Seine.
A pro-Russian and a pro-Trump
Éric Ciotti also lists among his “friends” a convinced Trumpist: Nicolas Conquer (4th constituency of Manche). This Franco-American is the former spokesperson for the American party Les Républicains expatriates in France. He notably estimated at the end of May that the trial of Donald Trump in the United States was a “sham of justice” and said he was convinced that the former president would be elected next November.
Mayor LR of Maison-Laffitte, Jacques Myard, known for his pro-Russian positions, is also on the list of “Friends of Éric Ciotti” (5th constituency of Yvelines). He is a member of the French Center for Intelligence Research (CF2R), a think tank pro-Russian and had sparked controversy by traveling twice, in 2015 and 2016, to occupied Crimea. He had also positioned himself against the extension of civil partnerships and marriage to homosexual couples, repeatedly equating homosexuality with a “perversion”.
