Invited this Tuesday, June 11 on TF1’s 1 p.m. news, Eric Ciotti announced his desire to form an “alliance” with the National Rally (RN), putting an end to a rumor that had been circulating at the Republican headquarters since the dissolution of the Assembly national Sunday evening. And the president of the Republicans may insist that “several” executives of his party support his “right-wing bloc” project, this afternoon he is collecting disavowals and calls for resignation from his own camp.
Starting with that of the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region whom he himself had dubbed for the 2027 presidential election. From his X account (formerly Twitter), Laurent Wauquiez opposes the “republican right” to that of the RN, and assures that there is “no future for device combinations”.
Her counterpart from Ile-de-France, Valérie Pécresse criticizes a decision which amounts to “selling one’s soul for a plate of lentils”, echoing the reaction of the former head of the LR list in the European elections François-Xavier Bellamy who considers that “abandoning our colors today would be a useless choice for the country”. The most incisive, however, remains the outgoing LR deputy for Aisne Julien Dive, who blurted out on X: “We now know that in June 1940, Eric Ciotti would never have crossed the Channel.”
On the same social network, the boss of the LR group at the Palais Bourbon, Olivier Marleix, also dissociated himself from the president of the movement: “Eric Ciotti only commits him.” And to go so far as to ask for his resignation as head of the Republicans. In conjunction with the President of the Senate. “I believe that he can no longer preside over our movement and must resign from his mandate as president of the Republicans,” declared on Gérard Larcher a few minutes after Eric Ciotti’s intervention on the 1 p.m. news.
Two LR heavy goods vehicles leave the ship
A position followed by LR senators. First and foremost, their group leader, Bruno Retailleau, who said he was “angry” against the outgoing deputy for Alpes-Maritimes. “He didn’t tell me anything,” he assures, even though the two men spoke on the phone several times the day after the announcement of the dissolution. He “lied to us for undoubtedly personal purposes […] to place us in a situation such that we cannot turn around,” lamented the Vendée elected official.
Others have decided to leave Les Républicains. “I was already questioning, but this is an impassable red line,” criticized the vice-president of the Senate Sophie Primas who returned her card at the same time as her colleague Jean-François Husson, general rapporteur of the Budget. Two personalities considered influential at the Luxembourg Palace. But above all, the first, undoubtedly, in a long list of resignations.