Eric Ciotti, the head of the conservative political party Les Republicans (LR), astounded political observers Tuesday by suggesting it was time to drop the longstanding tabu against working with the country’s National Rally (NR) party in hopes of taking power in in the wake of Sunday’s European parliamentary elections.
Speaking on TF1 TV, Ciotti said: “We say the same things, so let’s stop making up imagined opposition. This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They’re telling us, ‘reach a deal.”
In response, several of Ciotti’s fellow party members spoke out against allowing former NR leader Marine Le Pen anywhere near the levers of power.
“It’s unthinkable for me (and many LR MPs) that there could be the slightest agreement, the slightest alliance, even local, or personal, with the RN,” LR parliamentarian Philippe Gosselin told Reuters news agency.
French political alliances: everyone’s looking for new partners
Although the RN is expected to perform well in the upcoming June 30 and July 7 elections, polls show it is highly unlikely that it can win enough votes to rule on its own.
Talks between various groups both on the left and the right of the political spectrum have been ongoing since Macron dissolved parliament.
On Tuesday, Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal of Eric Zemmour’s smaller far-right Reconquest party, said talks between her and her aunt’s parties had failed.
The hard-right anti-immigrant RN welcomed Ciotti’s overture.
The LR itself has struggled to define itself after slowly shedding the glory of its Gaullist past, first with the downfall of and then a centrist defection led by Macron.
js/wmr (AFP, AP)
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