The hangover isn’t over. The call for early legislative elections by Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, after the setback suffered in the European elections, has torn apart the traditional French right. Given the announcement by the president of The Republicans (LR), Eric Ciotti, that he wants to reach an agreement with the extreme right of Marine Le Pen, senior officials of the conservative party announced this Wednesday his dismissal. The decision was made unanimously during a management meeting, held in a bizarre manner in a building other than the headquarters, locked by its leader, totally isolated, who refused to resign.
“Eric Ciotti is in total rupture with the statutes and the line adopted by The Republicans,” said Annie Genevard, the party’s general and number two secretary, who will assume the interim presidency alongside François-Xavier at the end of the meeting. Bellamy, head of the list in the European elections, in which he obtained 7.2% of the votes. “The Republicans will present candidates to the French in clarity and independence,” she stressed.
“I am and continue to be the president” of LR, Ciotti immediately reacted on social network X. The politician refuses to resign and added that the meeting was held “in flagrant violation” of the party’s statutes. He has also warned of the “criminal consequences” of the decision. Shortly after, the party has presented all its outgoing deputies for the next elections, with the exception of Ciotti and another deputy, both in favor of an alliance with the National Regroupment (RN) of Marine Le Pen.
The possible alliance with the ultra party, announced by Ciotti on Tuesday, has unleashed a wave of rebellion in the moderate right-wing party, twinned with the Spanish PP and with only 61 deputies in the National Assembly. Most of its leaders consider that allying with the extreme right betrays their principles. Taking this step would also mean breaking the cordon sanitaire against the ultra-conservatives, in force for decades.
Ciotti, 58 years old and elected to head the party in 2022, justified his alliance proposal by the danger that, according to him, both President Macron’s centrist bloc and a left-wing alliance represent for France. “We need an alliance [con el RN] to continue being ourselves,” he said during an interview with the TF1 network. His words provoked a wave of immediate indignation in the ranks of the party, heir to the RPR and UMP of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, and a descendant of Gaullism, a movement inspired by General Charles de Gaulle.
The left-wing parties agreed on Wednesday on a first distribution of 546 electoral districts (there are 577 in total). France Insoumise (LFI, Mélenchon’s left) will present 299 candidates, 97 less than in 2022. The Socialist Party, which obtained better results in the European elections, 175 (in 2022 they had 70 candidates), the Greens in 92 (compared to the 100 previous) and the Communist Party remains with 50.
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Bizarre day
Faced with the possibility of an agreement with RN and the rejection of the majority of those responsible for the formation, Annie Genevard, the party’s number two, decided to call an “exceptional” meeting. The event, which lasted almost two hours, was held during a bizarre day, in the midst of chaos and with surreal scenes. The senior officials of LR met at three in the afternoon, but they did not do so at the party headquarters, but at the Social Museum of Paris, located not far from the National Assembly.
Three hours before the meeting, Ciotti locked the imposing blue doors of the headquarters and ordered all workers to leave the building, citing risks of “threats and disorders.” The dismissed leader also assured in X that no meeting was planned at the location. The reactions were swift. “We are in a madhouse,” said conservative deputy Aurélien Pradié. The newspaper Le Parisian quoted a former close colleague of Ciotti who until yesterday was a member of his cabinet, who compared him to “Saruman after the siege of Isengard” in El Lord of the Rings. “He no longer has any power.” After the meeting, which focused all eyes this Wednesday, the number two and now interim president of LR reopened the doors of the headquarters, to which she had double the keys. A security agent quoted by the newspaper Le Monde He stated that Ciotti was not in the offices.
Several senior LR officials spoke to the press before the meeting, less than three weeks before the legislative elections, which will take place on June 30 and July 7. “There is no place for traitors (…). I want the Republican right to continue embodying its values, against all extremes and as an alternative to Emmanuel Macron,” said Valérie Pécresse, LR candidate in the last presidential elections of 2022. Xavier Bertrand, LR president of the Hauts de France region and An influential figure in French conservatism, he insisted that it was necessary to have a “vote of the militants” before making a decision of this magnitude. The message, repeated by several heavyweights, was unanimous: Ciotti betrayed the values of the party and must be excluded.
The LR psychodrama is not over and could open the door to legal battles, with two sides interpreting the party rules to their advantage. Ciotti called the meeting “illegal” and assured that it had no legal value. Jordan Bardella, president of RN and Le Pen’s right-hand man who triumphed in Sunday’s European elections, praised the “courage” of the former leader of the moderate right and maintained that he was the “only legitimate one” after an internal election.
According to Franceinfo, Ciotti sent an email to the militants this Wednesday in which he invited them to support the “right-wing grouping” after his announcement of an alliance with the RN. The message contained a link and, according to the ousted and isolated leader, more than 10,000 people signed the petition in just one hour.
The tensions caused by the success of Le Pen’s party and the early calling of legislative elections do not only affect the traditional formations, left and right. Marion Maréchal, the number two of the far-right Reconquista party, and in turn Le Pen’s niece, broke this Wednesday with the president of the party, Éric Zemmour, and claimed to support the candidates of the alliance between the far-right RN and the traditional right Of r.
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