French right-wing splits over choice of arm-wagging with Le Pen

On the square of the Bourbon Palace, in front of the French National Assembly, Eric Ciotti speaks to the media to explain his decision to form an alliance with the far-right party Marine Le Pen in view of the next legislative elections. At that moment, environmentalist deputy Sandrine Rousseau interrupts the appearance, points to the glass door of the Los Républicains headquarters and says to Ciotti: “What a shame, Mr. Ciotti. “It doesn’t deserve the name on that facade.”

This is another of the long list of criticisms that the leader of Los Republicans (LR) has had to listen to in the last 24 hours. The majority is coming from his own party colleagues, where Ciotti’s announcement has unleashed a political earthquake that has left a deep scar and is not over yet. On social networks

“Sometimes you convince people, sometimes you don’t, but you don’t betray them,” said Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, who was considered an ally of Ciotti within the party. On Monday afternoon, several advisers to Ciotti’s team submitted their resignations, rejecting the decision.

“If necessary, we will remove him from office, which is the office of General de Gaulle’s successors,” deputy Aurelien Prody said on public television on Tuesday. “It’s a matter of time, it will go away. He is no longer our leader,” he added.

Tension before LR executive meeting

Party vice-president Anne Genevard has called a meeting of LR’s political bureau – the executive – this Wednesday afternoon to discuss Ciotti’s future within the party. According to several media outlets, the main point of the meeting is his expulsion from the conservative formation, based on several articles of the LR statute.

Now, Ciotti has assured that the same statutes determine that only the president can call a meeting of the Political Bureau and, therefore, Wednesday’s meeting lacks legitimacy. And although the majority of party colleagues oppose Le Pen’s rapprochement with the extreme right, Ciotti assured that he has the “massive” support of the extremism. So in a statement “it has no legal value.”

His entourage has also indicated to the AFP agency that he will not attend and has ordered activists to close the doors of the headquarters. In response, members of the party executive said the meeting would take place at a location near the National Assembly.

A day earlier, after Ciotti announced his alliance with the extreme right, Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (AN), confirmed that his party would support “several dozen” “outgoing” or “appointed” representatives by LR in the next legislative elections, without giving further details. The leader of the far-right party specified that he would continue his talks with Ciotti “in the next few hours” to finalize the agreement.

Predictably, one of those candidates backed by the far right will be Ciotti himself, who will seek re-election in the same Alpes-Maritimes constituency where he was elected by a slim margin two years ago. In the European elections last Sunday, the Republicans list ranked fifth in votes (8.9%) in that region, far behind AN, which got 37.7%.

Macron presents himself as a response to “extremists”

Meanwhile, three days after shaking up the French political landscape by calling an early election following his coalition’s severe defeat, President Emmanuel Macron confirmed in a lengthy press conference that he is not considering resigning as president of the republic – a position that is not at stake in the electoral upturn.

Macron has presented his moderate program as a response to the two factions comprising the extreme right and the extreme left facing early legislative elections, which will take place in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, and has stressed that “unnatural coalitions have been formed at both extremes that do not agree on anything (…) and are not prepared to implement any program.”

“We are at a historic moment for our country,” said Macron, who has focused on attacking not only the proposals of the far-right National Rally but also a coalition of left-wing and environmental parties that includes La Francia Insumissa (LFI) led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

According to his analysis, AN’s victory in the European elections, in which it obtained 31.4% of the vote while his party, Renacimiento, only obtained 14.6%, is explained by an “angry” vote that he claims to understand, and that will translate into a series of changes in its political priorities, and above all in its security policy.