Since Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the French National Assembly following the European elections, negotiations between the parties have accelerated in the run-up to the legislative elections due to be held on June 30th.
One of the major issues at stake in the election will be the ability of the French Right to unite in the hope of winning a majority in the Assembly.
On Monday, June 10th, Marion Maréchal, against the advice of Éric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo, met with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella to negotiate an agreement and share the constituencies. Sovereigntist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan has also been approached and is keen to join the budding alliance.
The battle is raging within the centre-right Les Républicains (LR) party. The leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, published a statement late on Tuesday morning in which he explained that the LR senators were voting unanimously against any form of rapprochement with the RN. This line has also been adopted by Laurent Wauquiez, president of France’s second-largest region, Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne, and a potential LR candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
But party president Éric Ciotti decided otherwise. Invited to appear on TF1’s 1 p.m. news programme, he explained that he was in favour of an electoral alliance with Marine Le Pen’s and Jordan Bardella’s Rassemblement National: “I would like all outgoing LR MPs to join forces with the RN to preserve a powerful group in the National Assembly”, he explained.
This is unprecedented in French political history. You have to go back to the 1998 regional elections to find a similar situation, when some candidates from the then centre-right RPR party, the forerunner of LR, were elected, albeit informally at the time, with votes from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National—and were expelled from their political family as a result. The crisis that began back then is now coming to an end and a new page is being turned.
Many upheavals are to be feared, as a section of LR will clearly not accept Ciotti’s choice. The break-up of the historic party of the French governmental Right is at stake, and several members of the party’s governing bodies are calling for Ciotti’s resignation. On the other hand, he has the support of several members of parliament and the chairman of the Young Republicans.
While there is still some uncertainty, Ciotti’s call for the right to unite strengthens the Right’s chances of securing a majority in the next legislative elections.
