PARIS: French right-wing parties were mired by infighting Thursday as campaigning intensified for snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron, but his government faces a more unified challenge from the left.
Coming just two years after he failed to secure a majority in parliament to buttress his second presidential term, Macron’s gamble on early polls risks strengthening the far-right National Rally (RN) and has sparked meltdown among traditional conservatives.
Eric Ciotti of the mainstream right Republicans party announced a surprise alliance with the RN this week, which prompted the rest of the leadership team to vote him out Wednesday.
But on Thursday Ciotti insisted he was still party leader, dismissing the effort to oust him as “quibbles, little battles by mediocre people... who understand nothing about what’s going on in the country”, adding that it was legally void.
“I’m president of the party, I’m going to my office and that’s it,” Ciotti told reporters as he arrived at Republicans headquarters in Paris, calling his opponents’ vote a “takeover” attempt and saying he had challenged its validity in court.
Viral images spread on social media the day before of Paris region president Valerie Pecresse rolling up her sleeves as she approached Republicans party headquarters — closed by Ciotti in an apparent bid to prevent the political committee meeting from going ahead.
Some on the right remain open to the RN, with Francois-Xavier Bellamy — the party’s lead candidate in Sunday’s European ballot — saying Thursday he would “of course” vote for an RN candidate over the left in a second-round run-off.
“I’ll do everything to prevent France Unbowed (LFI) coming to power,” Bellamy told broadcaster Europe 1, referring to the hard-left outfit that has struck an alliance deal with other left-leaning parties. The lightning election campaign, with the first round of voting on June 30, has also shattered the RN’s smaller far-right rival Reconquest over whether to ally with the heavyweight formation.
Marion Marechal, who led Reconquest’s European Parliament list, called for an alliance with the RN — whose figurehead Marine Le Pen is her aunt.
“She’s reached the end of the road, she’s shutting herself out of this party that she’s always despised,” Reconquest founder Eric Zemmour said late Wednesday. While smaller outfits fight amongst themselves, Le Pen’s RN appears set to cruise to a massively increased parliamentary presence from its current 88 out of 577 seats.
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