The leader of France’s main conservative party on Tuesday called for an alliance with the far right in the upcoming snap elections, causing deep turmoil in his party as shock waves from President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the lower house of parliament continue. going through French politics. .
The announcement, by Éric Ciotti, leader of the Republicans, marked a historic break with the party’s long-standing line and its ties to former president Charles de Gaulle. Ciotti’s call was immediately met with a chorus of angry disapproval within his own ranks.
No leader of any dominant French political party has previously embraced a possible alliance with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, or its predecessor, the National Front. But across Europe, barriers to what was long considered the nationalist far-right have been falling as those parties adjust their positions and a broader consensus forms that large-scale illegal immigration must be curbed through of a porous border of the European Union.
Elections for the National Assembly, the lower and most powerful house of the French Parliament, are scheduled for June 30 and July 7. Macron called them last week after his party suffered a resounding defeat in the European Parliament elections, winning just 14.6 percent. of the vote nationally, compared to around 31.4 percent of the National Rally led by Le Pen protégé Jordan Bardella. Republicans fared even worse, with just 7.25 percent.
Bardella, 28, who became the new and widely popular face of French politics during the European Parliament election campaign, welcomed Ciotti’s announcement, describing it as “putting the interests of the French people before of our parties”.
In an interview on TF1 television, Ciotti said Tuesday that his party had become “too weak” to stand on its own and needed to reach an agreement with the National Rally to keep a sizable group of lawmakers in the lower house. The Republicans, a party that was long a dominant force in French politics under the presidencies of Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, has just 61 lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly and could see those numbers decline further.
If such an agreement were formalized (with the National Accord agreeing not to run candidates against Republicans in certain districts), it would be the first time that France’s center-right conservatives would work in tandem with the far right. That, in turn, would make it more difficult for Macron to form any kind of coalition after the election that would keep Le Pen’s party out of power.
“We need an alliance while still being ourselves,” Ciotti said. Later, when asked by journalists at party headquarters what had happened to the barrier that traditional parties in France used to erect around the far right, he demurred, calling the term “no longer appropriate” and “totally out of step.” with the situation in France.” “
“The French don’t see the cordon sanitaire,” he said, referring to what was sometimes called a “dam” against the far right. “They see diminished purchasing power, they see insecurity, they see the avalanche of immigrants and they want answers. Macron has been unable for seven years to give concrete answers, beyond mere words, so today I think we must change our method.”
Many senior conservative politicians, who had warned against any alliance with the far right, immediately deemed it unacceptable and called for Ciotti to resign.
Gérard Larcher, an influential Republican leader who is president of the French Senate, said Ciotti “can no longer lead our movement.” Valérie Pécresse, head of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, said Ciotti had “sold his soul.” Olivier Marleix, the top Republican lawmaker in the House, said Ciotti had to resign.
He has refused to do so, and it was not immediately clear how many Republican lawmakers might follow his lead and agree to work with the National Caucus.
But the shock announcement could herald a split within Republican ranks, the latest sign that the steady advance of Le Pen’s party has left the major parties that dominated post-war French politics struggling for relevance.
The Republicans, who have undergone several name changes, date back to the right-wing party founded by de Gaulle after World War II, a historical legacy that for years made any alliance with the far right anathema. After all, de Gaulle fought and defeated the Vichy government that ran France in collaboration with the Nazis from 1940 to 1944.
Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister who resigned from the Republicans in 2017 to join forces with Macron, said Ciotti “signed the Munich accords and brought the Gaullist family into disgrace,” referring to the 1938 Munich Agreement that handed over part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler and led Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain to declare “peace for our time.” World War II broke out a year later.
“This is shameful. French, wake up!” Mr. Darmanin added.
The Republican party line has shifted increasingly to the right, especially on crime and immigration, in recent years. It has been divided between those who favor an alliance with Macron’s centrists and those who want to lean more to the right.
Ciotti is a lawmaker representing Nice, where the far right has done exceptionally well. The National Rally won the European elections last week with more than 30 percent of the votes, while the Republicans fell behind in sixth place.
In a flurry of messages on social media, Ciotti’s party colleagues quickly attempted to characterize his announcement as a personal position, not an official line.
“Éric Ciotti speaks only for himself,” said Jean-François Copé, mayor of Meaux and former minister who headed the party. “He must immediately resign from the presidency of the Republicans; his praise of the far right is unacceptable and contrary to all the values we defend.”
When asked on Franceinfo radio what the next steps were, Florence Mosalini-Portelli, vice president of the party, was blunt.
“We fired him,” he said of Ciotti.
It may seem simple, but Ciotti’s decision to open the door to the far right was not an act of pure personal whim. He reflects a significant current within his party, as well as the current broader acceptance of the notion that the National Rally could one day legitimately govern France.