Deputy Éric Ciotti was elected president of the right-wing party with 53.7% of the votes in the second round of the internal ballot which opposed him to Senator Bruno Retailleau.
The 91,110 claimed members of LR were invited to decide between the two men. Éric Ciotti collected 53.7% of the vote, and Bruno Retailleau, 46.3%. The participation rate rose to 69.7% in the second round, according to party authorities. The third man in this election, MP Aurélien Pradié, was eliminated in the first round after winning just over 22% of the vote.
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Deputy of the first constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes since 2007, president of the departmental council of the Alpes-Maritimes from 2008 to 2017, quaestor of the Assembly for four years, Éric Ciotti is 56 years old. The chosen one had created the surprise by arriving at the top of the first round of the LR primary last year for the presidential election, finally won by Valérie Pécresse.
” I’m on the right, I’m proud of it and I’ll never apologize for it “, he repeated again Thursday during a public meeting in Paris. He takes firm positions in matters of security and identity, to the point of having said he preferred the far-right polemicist Éric Zemmour to Emmanuel Macron during the last presidential campaign.
” Stop the migratory invasion »
Its program offers, in particular, rehabilitate the value of work, fight against violence and disorder in the streets, stop the migratory invasion and the rise of Islamism “. He did not rule out voting for the pension reform currently being prepared by the government. Éric Ciotti had a turbulent campaign, which saw him notably reject fictitious employment accusations concerning his ex-wife, Caroline Magne.
To influence his very marked image on the right, he had also spoken of the economy, speaking of abolishing the tax on inheritances and donations, and of lowering taxes and charges. At the end of the campaign, he also addressed societal themes such as domestic violence, disability and gender equality, depicting ” a right open to society, to freedom, which speaks on these subjects “.
Laurent Wauquiez, ally in this campaign
His main campaign argument was Laurent Wauquiez, present Thursday evening in Paris. Devoid of personal presidential ambition for the moment, Éric Ciotti wants the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to quickly get involved in the race for the Élysée in 2027.
Facing him, the Vendéen Bruno Retailleau, president of the LR group in the Senate, aged 62, presented himself as a champion of ” rupture » and the fight against « the ideologies of deconstruction that are Islamism and Wokism “. He wishes to wait for the European elections of 2024 to engage LR on the road to the Élysée.
Eight months after the low score of their candidate Valérie Pécresse in the presidential election (4.78%), the new president will have the delicate mission of putting his political family back on track, which once brought to power Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicholas Sarkozy. Majority in the Senate and endowed with around sixty deputies in the National Assembly, LR is struggling to find its place in the political landscape, torn between the National Rally and the calls from the foot of the presidential camp of Emmanuel Macron.
(with agencies)