France’s conservatives and far right explore uniting to beat MacronThe center-right Les Républicains say they are open to working with France’s two main far-right parties.
Eric Ciotti, Marion Maréchal and Jordan Bardella. | Source images via Getty ImagesJUNE 10, 2024 10:59 PM CET
BY VICTOR GOURY-LAFFONT
PARIS — Problems are rapidly multiplying for Emmanuel Macron ahead of a high-stakes snap election at the end of the month after France’s main center-right Les Républicains party said on Tuesday it was willing to explore teaming up with the far right to beat him.
The country’s two main far-right parties had already opened talks on Monday about a potential alliance in a showdown that stands to prove crucial for the future of both France and the European Union.
Eric Ciotti, the head of the Les Républicains, then upped the ante on Tuesday, saying his party was ready to take its part in such an alliance.
“We can either ignore what’s going on … or offer an alternative for the country,” Ciotti said. “We need to unite our forces,” he added, specifying that he had spoken with both Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella from the far-right National Rally, and claimed his move sought to guarantee the fate of his MPs.
Macron called a legislative election on Sunday night after the National Rally trounced his liberal Renaissance party in the EU election by a margin of 31.4 percent to 14.6 percent. While the French president is gambling he can stem the surge of the nationalist, anti-immigration right in a national election, his rivals are testing the waters for a united front.
Key voices within Les Républicains, a party which dominated the French right for decades with presidents including Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, have already voiced their opposition to such an alliance. “I will never accept any compromise with the extremes, which I am convinced will lead France to bankruptcy and chaos,” the party’s 2022 presidential candidate and president of the Paris region Valérie Pécresse said.
“We know that Eric Ciotti would have not have crossed the channel in 1940,” Julien Dive, a Les Républicains lawmaker and the party’s vice president wrote on X, referring to Charles de Gaulle’s move to the U.K. to lead a French resistance movement against the Nazis during World War II.
On the far-right side, the marriage is not yet sealed.
Marion Maréchal, the lead candidate for the Reconquest party during Sunday’s EU election, on Monday met with National Rally’s presidential candidate, her aunt Marine Le Pen, and the movement’s President Bardella to discuss a potential tie-up.
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-far-right-jordan-bardella-president-emmanuel-macron-election-european-election-national-rally/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social
