French Republicans sack leader over far-right alliance pact

The French Republican Party has dismissed its leader, Eric Ciotti, who called for a political alliance with the far-right Rally National party in the general election at the end of this month.

Political leaders of right-wing parties took the decision just over 24 hours after Ciotti’s plans caused an uproar among republican politicians.

The apparent collapse of the core of France’s mainstream conservative parties comes shortly after the National Rally won a landslide victory in European Parliament elections on Sunday and President Emmanuel Macron’s swift decision to hold a national referendum.

Ciotti slammed his colleagues, accusing them of “flagrant violations” of party rules and insisting he was getting nowhere.

Ciotti, who was elected leader in December 2022, has traditionally been seen as more hardline than most of the party’s leading figures.

But when he appeared on television on Tuesday and declared that Republicans “need to remain who we are and form an alliance…an alliance with the RN.” [National Rally] Senior figures in his party said he was only speaking for himself in proposing the pact.

National Coalition leader Jordan Berdella later confirmed there was an agreement and that the party would back “dozens” of Republican candidates.

Highly respected Senate president Gérard Larcher has said he will never accept a deal with the RN, while other colleagues have openly called for Ciotti’s immediate dismissal ahead of two parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7.

Speaking on Wednesday, Macron accused Ciotti of turning his back on a party that inherited the traditions of former presidents Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Republicans have struggled in recent elections, unable to counter the rise of Macron’s centrist party (now called Renaissance) and the Rally National party. In Sunday’s election, the party won just 7.25% of the vote.

While roughly half of grassroots Republicans support working with the National Rally, the majority of party leaders reject it outright.

Ciotti is believed to have tried to thwart his sacking at an emergency meeting of party leaders on Wednesday by ordering the doors of the party’s Paris headquarters to be locked, citing security risks.

“None of the decisions taken at this meeting have any legal effect. They could have criminal consequences,” he insisted afterwards. He later told French television that “around 80” Republican candidates would run, with the support of the National Rally.

The party appointed François-Xavier Bellamy, the front-runner in Sunday’s vote, as interim leader, who told reporters that “the forces of chaos threaten our country today… We have a red line to defend.”

Hours earlier, Macron had defended his shock decision to dissolve parliament and hold elections, calling on French voters to unite and “say no to extreme policies.”

The French president denied he would hand over the keys to power to the far-right and insisted the referendum was the only option for a republic.

He said a wide range of political groups “who are not sympathetic to this extremist fervor” should unite in opposition to it.

His comments not only echoed Ciotti’s outreach to Rally National leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.

He also reacted to the mainstream centre-left’s decision to make a pact with the far-left, accusing the latter of preaching anti-Semitic and anti-parliamentary stances.

On Sunday, Raphael Glucksmann steered his centre-left party into third place in a campaign that attracted voters alienated by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s more radical “Straightforward France” party.

Macron suggested the masks of both factions had been torn away, exposing a battle over values.

Mélenchon accused the president of embarking on a strategy of confusion and drowning in a flood of insults against “people who do not share his views.”

Macron has been widely criticised for his apparently spontaneous decision to call the elections just an hour after his own party’s support fell below 15% in the European vote, while the Rally National won nearly 31.5%.

Two years into his second term as president, his party does not have a majority in the French National Assembly, so any legislation requires the support of political allies.

Macron claimed the system was paralyzed, leaving the government unable to act.

Although he said he would not get involved in the election campaign as president, leaving it to Prime Minister Gabriel Atal, his speech on Wednesday sounded like the launch of his party’s election campaign.

Asked by a journalist whether he had handed the keys to France to the far-right, Macron said doing nothing was not an option and that it was a democratic principle to ask the people to decide.

He said voters who supported the National Rally on Sunday expressed their anger, adding that “the message has been received.”