French conservatives' chief backs election deal with far-right, a historic shift
The leader of France’s conservative Republicans on Tuesday called for an alliance between his party’s candidates and the far right National Rally in a snap parliamentary election — a political shift that will have wide repercussions.
The leader of France’s conservative Republicans on Tuesday called for an alliance between his party’s candidates and the far right National Rally in a snap parliamentary election — a political shift that will have wide repercussions.
“We say the same things so let’s stop making up imagined opposition,” Eric Ciotti told TF1 television. “This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They tell us ‘reach a deal’.”
Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, euroskeptic National Rally (RN) is widely expected to emerge as the strongest force after President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called snap elections for June 30 and July 7, although it may fall short of an absolute majority.
The RN was therefore looking for allies to secure control of parliament and it immediately applauded Ciotti’s comment. But this in turn means The Republicans (LR) is likely to implode.
Ciotti’s comments also signified that a decades-old consensus in France’s political establishment to join forces to keep the far right from power was blowing up.
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