Political figures involved

Éric Ciotti, President of LR

Jordan Bardella, President of National Rally

The National Rally–The Republicans alliance crisis (Crise de 2024 au parti Les Républicains) was triggered by the alliance between Éric Ciotti, the president of The Republicans (LR), and the National Rally (RN), ahead of the 2024 French legislative election. The alliance was presented as a "political revolution", but this was strongly contested by almost all of the LR MPs and senators. For the first time in French politics, the senior members of the party voted unanimously to exclude its president, accusing him of having conducted "secret negotiations, without consultation with his political family and activists" and of not respecting the party statutes.^{[ citation needed]} This marks the first time that a major party has allied with the National Rally, breaking the traditional cordon sanitaire. ^[1]

This crisis provoked the nomination of two opposing groups of candidates, all claiming to be Republicans. On one side, Ciotti nominated around sixty candidates, half of whom were not LR members, and called for support of RN candidates in other constituencies. On the other side, the party's nomination committee nominated 400 candidates, including all the outgoing MPs, except Ciotti and Christelle d'Intorni. The alliance project was secretly prepared before the dissolution of parliament by businessman Vincent Bolloré and promoted by his media outlets. ^[2]

Background

Éric Ciotti and the 2022 presidential election

As an unsuccessful candidate in the LR primary to nominate the party's candidate for the 2022 presidential election, Éric Ciotti was accused of not having supported the winner of this primary Valérie Pécresse, as he had showed his closeness to the billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré and his protégé Éric Zemmour who was also a candidate in the election, for the Reconquête party. ^{[3][ failed verification]}

On 26 July 2022, Ciotti announced his candidacy for the Republican leadership election in December. ^[4] Ciotti obtained 42.73% of the vote, ahead of Bruno Retailleau and Aurélien Pradié, ^[5] and gained the support of 140 elected officials including Laurent Wauquiez and Nadine Morano. ^[6]

Schism in the midst of the 2023 pension reform

After the presentation of the pension reform law, Aurélien Pradié was demoted. ^[7] On 18 February 2023, in the middle of a discussion on this pension reform, Ciotti dismissed him from his functions judging that the positions he was taking were "no longer consistent with the values" of the party, ^{[8] [9]} worrying that his party had "cut itself off from popular categories" by seeming divided on the question. ^[7] Seven members of the LR management team wrote to Ciotti to reproach him for this dismissal and asked for a meeting, without which they "would no longer participate in meetings" at headquarters.^{[ citation needed]}

Because the pension reform had been imposed by recourse to article 49.3 [ fr] of the French constitution, a third of Republican MPs disobeyed Ciotti and Bruno Retailleau by voting for a bipartisan no confidence motion on 20 March. ^[10]

2024 European elections

In the 2024 European election, “the decline of the LR vote”  was reflected in the result of the list lead by François-Xavier Bellamy, who obtained 7.2%, after “the poor result (4.78%) of Valérie Pécresse in the 2022 presidential election. These elections repeated bad results which raised questions about the future of the party. ^[11]

Development

Preparation and announcement of the alliance project

On 11 June 2024, two days after the dissolution of the National Assembly and within a week of the deadline for submission of candidates for the elections, Éric Ciotti announced that the Republicans would form an alliance with the National Rally. ^[12] The announcement had been prepared in concert with Vincent Bolloré and without consulting the party's national council. ^[13]

Bruno Roger-Petit informed CNews anchor Pascal Praud three hours before the dissolution was announced ^[14] and two hours before the prime minister ( Gabriel Attal). ^{[15] [14]}

The creation of this group will stand against the New Popular Front ( left-wing) and the Together coalition ( presidential majority). ^[16] The proposals were welcomed by Marine Le Pen ^[17] and Jordan Bardella ^[18] from the National Rally, and also Guilhem Carayon, president of the young republican organisation Les Jeunes Républicains [ fr]. ^[19] The project was described by the President Emmanuel Macron as a “ devil’s pact” during a press conference. ^[20]

Battle for LR's social media accounts

Citing “threats received and disorder”, Éric Ciotti first reacted to the plan to exclude him by deciding to close the doors of the party headquarters, where he locked himself after giving the permanent employees 10 minutes to leave. He thus was able to access the Republicans' Facebook profile alone, which then remained in the hands of the president of the party. ^[21] He filmed himself alone in his office, at the party headquarters, to clearly show his disagreement in a video broadcast on social networks. However, he was faced with a password change on X (formerly Twitter), preventing him from accessing the official party account. ^[21]

Resignation requests and response

Gérard Larcher, the President of the French Senate, and Olivier Marleix, President of The Republicans group in the National Assembly, demanded Ciotti's resignation. ^{[22] [23]} Gauthier Le Bret, CNews journalist, asserted that Gérard Larcher is “negotiating an agreement with the presidential majority” , which he immediately denied. On CNews, Pascal Praud castigated the Republican elected officials who disagree with Éric Ciotti. This rallying to Jordan Bardella coincided with that of some of the leaders of the Reconquête party. Thus, Sarah Knafo was invited with Sébastien Chenu and Éric Ciotti onto the show " Touche pas à mon poste ! on C8 where Cyril Hanouna asked her to answer the phone live to Jordan Bardella in front of over 2 million viewers. ^[2] The media organisations of Vincent Bolloré engaged in the campaign "save soldier Ciotti", a tactic similar with that of Alfred Hugenberg, the giant of steel and media in Germany in the 1930s , according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Esther Duflo. ^[24]

Exclusion of Éric Ciotti by the political office then the national council

Finding the doors closed, the political bureau was forced to meet "in a nearby building".. The exclusion of Eric Ciotti from the party was voted unanimously, and he was presented as a "traitor" to his own party. Annie Genevard was charged by the political bureau with ensuring the interim presidency with François-Xavier Bellamy, the lead candidate in the European elections and the treasurer Daniel Fasquelle. ^[25] Ciotti's expulsion was voted unanimously on 12 June and then on 14 June, by a second meeting of the political bureau, held via the Internet, which aimed to reinforce the first and convened in order to "legally reinforce the exclusion" by Éric Ciotti "thanks to the support of LR's national advisors".^{[ citation needed]}

The two exclusions of Éric Ciotti contested in court

The crisis involves numerous “legal aspects”, in addition to political aspects, pitting the president against the political office. The latter is composed, according to article 24 of the party statutes, of the 80 members elected by the National Council, ^[26] including 50 members of Parliament, 20 non-parliamentary elected officials and 10 representatives of the federations, ^[26] as well as the president, the deputy vice-president, the former presidents, the general secretary and national treasurer of the party. ^[26] It also included the president, deputy vice-president, general secretary and treasurer of the Les Jeunes Républicains [ fr], as well as the former prime ministers, presidents of the Republic and president of parliamentary bodies members of the party. ^[26]

The two successive exclusions of Ciotti, by the political bureau on 12 June then by the same body and the national council on 14 June, are considered to have no legal value by the main party concerned. Both were subsequently challenged in court in summary proceedings and suspended by the courts  , which ruled on the fact that the lower court must be seized “within eight days” by “the most diligent party”, failing which “the suspension measure ordered will lapse”. ^[27]

An internal source recognized on 18 June that the two votes of 12 and 14 June were legally poorly supported, because they did not provide proof that the members of the national council had voted in the same direction. The office therefore decides to gather during the day of 18 June the signatures of 700 members of the national council of LR, "a number more than sufficient to ask Éric Ciotti, under article 24.3 of the statutes, to convene an office policy" aimed at excluding it.^{[ citation needed]}

Candidates in the legislative elections

Candidates supported by Éric Ciotti

Jordan Bardella and Ciotti announced two days after the 2024 European Parliament election that “several dozen” members of parliament would be “supported” via this “agreement”  but without specifying any names and two days later, the press revealed that of the 61 outgoing MPs, only he and d'Intorni were part of it. ^[28] Ciotti then cited the newly elected MEPs Céline Imart [ fr] and Christophe Gomart [ fr], but Imart disassociated herself.^{[ citation needed]}

Éric Ciotti ultimately nominated 63 people as candidates for the legislative elections, only one in two of whom was a member of The Republicans. Their names were only revealed by the press, and partially, on 17 June, the day after the deadline for submitting applications. ^[29]

Among them, “many former supporters” of Zemmour, but also “people close to Marion Maréchal, columnists from CNews, a spokesperson for Donald Trump in France, and a former Macronist MP” and numerous parachute candidates from Paris. ^[29] There are only 17.5% women. This is punishable by fines under the law tending to promote equal access for women and men to electoral mandates and elective functions. ^[30] On 19 June, the alliance announced that it would withdraw the nomination of two of these candidates after “the revelation of anti-Semitic, racist or even homophobic messages on social networks”. ^[31] Among them, Jean-Pierre Templier, deputy of Anthony Zeller in Loiret, was the target of a complaint from MP Richard Ramos ( Modem) for having written about the Jewish community. ^[31] The other example was Louis-Joseph Pecher in Meurthe-et-Moselle. ^[31] A third candidate was withdrawn for the same reason; National Rally candidate Joseph Martin in Morbihan, ^[31] who wrote a tweet stating that "Gas brought justice to the victims of the Holocaust." ^[32] Martin was reinstated after he explained that he meant his tweet as an allusion to the death of Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. ^[33]

Candidates dubbed by the National Republican Nomination Commission

The Republicans national investiture commission (CNI) only nominated 400 candidates compared to 457 in the 2022 French legislative election. Mayor Philippe Dallier said “to find the candidates in a week, in the ambient circus that Éric Ciotti put on, with the legal questions that this didn't make our task any easier!" ^[34] The list could only be revealed by the CNI on the evening of 16 June, a few hours before the deadline for submitting applications. ^[34] In Haute-Garonne, of the seven people proposed to the national investiture commission, "only two candidates decided to go", the others having been worried by the legal challenges of Eric Ciotti, according to the president of Christine Gennaro-Saint federation. ^[34] Among the 400 candidates are 59 of the 61 outgoing deputies and two candidates against Ciotti and d'Intorni, who were favorable to the electoral alliance with the National Rally. ^[34] The party did not have time to ally itself with Union of Democrats and Independents candidates in constituencies where it is less established, as it did in 2022 as part of the Union of the Right and Centre. ^[34]

Analysis

The crisis is considered as a betrayal by the Gaullist party leaders but presented as a "political revolution" by Éric Ciotti. It was the first time a political office of a major party excluded its own president during a “stunning vaudeville” according to the media. ^[25]

According to Gilles Richard, professor of contemporary history, the roots are the election of Emmanuel Macron "on a liberal and Europeanist line", having "shattered the balance of LR", a party moving closer to the FN in 2018 and according to him LR "should have decided" between the two lines within it, because it will become "a satellite of the RN, without real autonomy" if it follows Éric Ciotti, but also "a relatively marginal satellite party", if it allied with the Macronist right.^{[ citation needed]}

With no other political group likely to join the RN and those of the Republicans allied to it like Ciotti, France is “heading straight towards a regime crisis” , analyzed political scientist Virginie Martin, research professor at Kedge Business School. ^[35] Ciotti denounced a “low manoeuvre by the macronie aimed at destabilizing our candidates and our voters” the classification of his 63 candidates in “Union of the extreme right” by the Ministry of the Interior, which according to him “constitutes a democratic scandal of unprecedented gravity”. ^[36]

References