An agreement between the National Rally and Reconquest seems to be looming on the far right for the 2024 legislative elections. Is it possible despite the history between the two clans?
Latest updates
1:21 p.m. – Eric Ciotti announces “an alliance” with the RN
On TF1, Eric Ciotti wishes to conclude “an alliance” with the RN and announces that he wants his political family to follow him towards this agreement to stand up against Emmanuel Macron and the Insoumis whom he judges to be “the real threat”. This “agreement will concern the entire national territory” specifies Eric Ciotti.
“I hope that all outgoing Republican deputies, there are 61 of us, who wish not to have the RN as an opponent” can benefit from this alliance. “The challenge is to have a powerful group in the National Assembly,” assures Eric Ciotti who indicates that he wants to “preserve our outgoing deputies, I am doing that for them, they will have the guarantee of their re-election in a very clear and indisputable.”
1:00 p.m. – Several LR executives ask Eric Ciotti for explanations
Valérie Pécresse, Laurent Wauquiez, Xavier Bertrand, Jean-François Copé among the LR. Bruno the Mayor, Renaud Muselier at Renaissance, many of them asked for explanations from the President of the Republicans this morning after the announcement in Le Figaro on a potential alliance between RN and LR. Eric Ciotti is due to speak on TF1 at 1 p.m. but if he confirms an agreement between the right and the far right, it is possible that many will oppose it.
“I will never accept a commission with the extremes” indicates Valérie Pécresse. “This is not our vision of France. The one we inherited from General de Gaulle,” explains Olivier Marleix. “The origin of this party […] it is total opposition to the extreme right” recalled Bruno Le Maire.
12:39 – An LR-RN alliance would be “infamy” assures Renaud Muselier
Formerly of the Republicans, the Renaissance president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region also reacted to a potential agreement in LR and RN. “De Gaulle, Pompidou, Chirac: our elders, my masters, our mentors must turn in their graves” he wrote before adding “Free France flouted, the cross of Lorraine humiliated! Where has the family gone policy that I loved and served so much, whose standard I carried with pride and honor? Renaud Muselier then asked “the leaders of the Republicans not to let this infamy happen”.
10:59 – Annie Gennevard affirms that LR wishes to remain “independent”
Annie Gennevard, secretary general of the Republicans, is the guest of BFMTV Tuesday morning. Asked about a potential agreement between the RN and Eric Ciotti, Annie Gennevard reaffirmed the independence of the LR. Explaining that the meeting between the main party executives, including Eric Ciotti and Gérard Larcher, had led to “a position of independence”. “LR must run according to its values” she insisted before warning about potential “false information”, sometimes disseminated during the electoral campaign. However, she explained that she did not have more information on this subject and that if the information from Le Figaro was confirmed, “it would be serious”.
10:40 – Eric Ciotti does not reject Marine Le Pen’s outstretched hand
Eric Ciotti would consider an agreement with the National gathering and should speak on this subject during an 8 p.m. news this Tuesday evening, announces Le Figaro. The boss of the LR who continues to affirm that there will be no agreement with the presidential majority could rally to Marine Le Pen for the next legislative elections. Jordan Bardella having announced this morning that he had met with right-wing executives and that some were ready to work with him, Eric Ciotti should quickly speak to the French and his political family on the strategy for the election on 30 June and July 7.
In the French political landscape, alliances are sometimes made and unmade as quickly as a dissolution occurs. The proof with the union of the left, buried with Nupes at the beginning of the year, and which was already reborn from its ashes in June, thanks to early legislative elections, with the shadow of Bardella above the heads . Will it be the same for the union of the rights? On the far right in any case, some are visibly hoping for an agreement to obtain seats in the National Assembly.
While Reconquête has been trying since 2022 to establish itself as the killer of the National Rally, Marion Maréchal Le Pen became Eric Zemmour’s emissary this Monday at the RN headquarters, where she met her aunt Marine Le Pen and a Jordan Bardella triumphant, with his 31.45% and 30 seats obtained in the European elections. The granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, also head of the European list, narrowly obtained 5, barely exceeding the 5% mark of votes necessary to have elected representatives in the Parliament of Strasbourg.
“Nothing is decided” according to Bardella
It is therefore a long way from the time when Eric Zemmour made the entire political world tremble, starting with the historic formation of the French extreme right. The Maréchal-Bardella-Le Pen meeting this Monday shows that part of the Zemmour clan has watered down its wine and is ready to discuss an agreement. This is the case of Marion Maréchal in any case, who would not have warned the head of Reconquest of her initiative, according to several media. Enough to suggest that the atmosphere in the young Zemmourist party is not good.
People close to Marion Maréchal stressed the importance of setting up a “coalition of the rights”, considered essential to succeed in installing a majority in the Assembly on July 7. If “nothing was acted upon” this Monday at the RN headquarters according to Jordan Bardella himself, the meeting in any case did not fail to arouse varied reactions within the two camps. Among those close to Marion Maréchal, we believe that it is now a question of setting up “a common platform and a number of constituencies”, to seize this “historic opportunity to be able to participate in real change”.
Other members of Reconquête showed less enthusiasm, fearing that Marine Le Pen’s niece would more simply “deal places for her loved ones or to influence the RN’s line on the union of the rights”, as reported by Le Parisian. Faced with a fait accompli, Eric Zemmour only assured in a laconic tweet that his party “will take its part in the great rally for victory”.
The door open to Marion Maréchal, not to Eric Zemmour
However, according to several media outlets, the RN has its conditions for this gathering: in particular that it takes place with personalities who have shown their “constructive attitude” in the past. Understand: without Eric Zemmour himself. If Marion Maréchal still seems welcome in the Le Pen family, she who has always taken care to distinguish between “adversaries and competitors”, this is apparently not the case for the former polemicist who never held back his blows.
And that’s without even talking about the substance. On what project could the National Rally and all or part of Reconquest come together? On immigration policy itself, deep disagreements exist, with Reconquest pushing for a more radical approach, with proposals like “remigration”, consisting of a return of non-European immigrants and their descendants to their countries of origin . A concept from which the RN has distanced itself.
On the economic level, Marion Maréchal promotes a very liberal vision, contrasting with the line of the RN in recent years, which has broken through into the working electorate with a much more protective discourse.