The president of the party and his supporters announced that at least 62 candidates will defend the alliance with the RN during the legislative elections. However, this Monday, an investigation was opened against Eric Ciotti for “embezzlement of public funds”.
16:17 – Jérôme Garcia facing Darmanin
Jérôme Garcia, already LR candidate in 2022, in the 10th constituency of the North, assured that he was on the list for the LR against Gérald Darmanin while the invested candidate, Appoline Mignot, had finally given up her candidacy on Sunday and that no one seemed to place themselves against the Minister of the Interior, in addition to the RN and Reconquest. Jérôme Garcia accused the latter of having “negotiated to have no LR candidate” facing him.
15:09 – The investigation against Eric Ciotti is, according to him, “obvious political manipulation”
The deputy for Alpes-Maritimes denounced in a press release “obvious political manipulation” after the opening of a preliminary investigation for “embezzlement of public funds” against him. “It should be noted that the report at the origin of this procedure was timely filed by someone very close to my opponent Christian Estrosi (mayor of Nice, now a member of Édouard Philippe Horizons’ party),” he said. -he adds. “I do not feel concerned by this matter. My serenity is total,” he said regarding the accusations against him. Could this investigation weaken its alliance with the RN? According to Eric Ciotti, there will be no turning back: “I reassure the French, nothing will make me give in and back down, no one will be able to intimidate me or muzzle me. I have thick skin and trust in justice,” he assured.
14:58 – First divergence between Bardella and Ciotti?
Jean-Philippe Tanguy, Monday June 17, on BFMTV, assured that in the event of a victory for the RN in the legislative elections, the pension reform relating to the legal retirement age at 64 “will be repealed in the fall”. He explained that the party does not want to “make a mess” during the Olympics. Eric Ciotti, for his part, supported this reform, deeming it “necessary or even essential”. Is this the symbol of a first difference of opinion in the alliance? The New Popular Front, for its part, promised to repeal this reform from the summer in the event of a majority.
13:56 – No LR candidate facing Gérald Daramin
The Les Républicains party has decided not to present a candidate against Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin in Tourcoing. He will nevertheless be opposed to a various right-wing candidate, an RN and a Reconquest for the legislative elections. Appoline Mignot, the invested LR candidate, gave up her candidacy on Sunday. The minister is accused of having negotiated to have no one from the LR face him.
1:35 p.m. – Eric Ciotti’s campaign manager comes out of silence
A new investigation for “embezzlement of public funds” has been opened against Eric Ciotti. “It’s yet another stink ball, thrown by a competing candidate, who lost the elections in 2022 and who is now correspondent for the Anticor office,” denounced Eric Ciotti’s campaign director in a written statement sent to franceinfo. “He accused Éric Ciotti of having forgotten to pay for his parking at the port of Nice. It’s ridiculous and pathetic given the stakes,” he added. He assures that this affair will quickly be “defeated” and will therefore have “no impact on the future result”.
12:22 – Eric Ciotti targeted by an investigation
Eric Ciotti, at the origin of the RN-LR alliance, would, according to Le Figaro, be the target of a new investigation following a report from a representative in the Alpes-Maritimes of the anti-corruption association Anticor . The Nice prosecutor’s office has reportedly opened an investigation into “misappropriation of public funds” during Eric Ciotti’s 2022 legislative campaign. The local representative of the association would have pointed out the misuse of parking cards near the port office of the Nice MP, made available free of charge by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Eric Ciotti would have taken advantage of this with several collaborators during the 2022 campaign to come and work in the permanent offices. Eric Ciotti has already been targeted by a preliminary investigation for embezzlement of public funds following suspicions of multiple employment at the Alpes-Maritimes departmental council.
11:32 – Who is Virgile Vanier-Guérin, Eric Ciotti’s LR opponent in Nice?
Virgile Vanier-Guérin, invested by Les Républicains, will be opposed to Eric Ciotti in the 1st constituency of Alpes-Maritimes. He is an entrepreneur in his forties, specializing in logistics. “I am a commercial executive, self-taught and ambitious, having to my credit successes in the wine, transport, logistics and e-commerce sectors for 24 years,” he introduces himself on Linkedin. According to AFP, he is “a right-wing sympathizer who came to see LR to be a candidate” following the announcement of Eric Ciotti’s alliance with the RN.
10:57 – What logo on the campaign posters for Ciotti’s alliance?
The question of logos on campaign posters promises to be complicated, given the alliances formed between the parties. What logo should LR candidates in favor of the alliance with the RN choose? Sébastien Laye, who has just been invested by Eric Ciotti in the 10th constituency of Hauts-de-Seine against Gabriel Attal, revealed, according to Le Figaro, that he will write on his campaign leaflets “member of the Republicans invested by the presidency of the Republicans and the National Rally”, accompanied by the two logos, LR and RN.
10:48 – Edouard Phillipe deplores a “shameful attempt by Éric Ciotti to explode the party”
“In a very short time a lot has already happened,” said Édouard Philippe on BFMTV-RMC, regarding the campaign for the legislative elections. He also denounced a “shameful attempt by Eric Ciotti to explode the LR party” following the alliance with the far-right. Édouard Philippe then declared: “The two extremes scare me.”
10:37 – Rachida Dati deplores Ciotti’s alliance
The Minister of Culture assured this Monday morning on Sud Radio that this alliance “liquidates the heritage of a major party” and “everyone is sorry about this”, according to Rachida Dati. She points to a “slow drift” by Eric Ciotti. She also believes that “the place of the Republicans is alongside the presidential majority”.
10:26 – “Voters will follow”
On Franceinfo, MEP Nicolas Bay congratulated Eric Ciotti’s alliance with the RN. According to him, “the voters will follow”. “Either we let the left and the extreme left govern the country for three years and that will be an amplification of all evils, or we manage, by putting aside egos, to bring out a majority bloc of patriots and conservatives and the right and at that moment, we have the possibility that our ideas will be in power”, assured the one who campaigned with the Reconquest label.
10:01 – The son of a former FN official in the West invested by the RN-LR alliance
Gilles Bourdouleix, close to Eric Ciotti, notably decided to join the RN and the alliance with LR. In the same way as Typhanie Degois, elected Macronist in 2017 before moving closer to Marine Le Pen in 2022. Finally, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Louis-Joseph Pecher is invested. He is in reality the son of Pascal Gannat, former head of the National Front in the West and close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen. “He is the brother of Jean-Eudes Gannat, the main figure of the national-Catholic movement in France, with whom he played politics and demonstrated against marriage for all before leaving activism aside,” indicates Le Monde.
09:29 – Michel Hunault (ex-UMP), Guillaume Bigot (CNews) and Arnaud Dassier candidates
Michel Hunault, MP between 1993 and 2012, will defend the Rally of Rights in Loire-Atlantique. Jacques Myard, close to Eric Ciotti, is invested in Yvelines for a sixth mandate. The son of Jean-Claude Dassier, television man and former president of Olympique de Marseille, Arnaud Dassier will also be a candidate. The entrepreneur Gérard Gérault (investor in the far-right media Frontières, previously Livre noir) will also be a candidate.
But that’s not all. According to Le Monde, several CNews speakers should also be part of the adventure initiated by Eric Ciotti. The editorialist Guillaume Bigot, who had already been considered on the RN list for Europeans, should be well invested in the RN-LR rapprochement. The liberal entrepreneur Sébastien Laye, the lawyer Philippe Fontana and the ex-magistrate Charles Prats, “specialized in fanciful estimates of social fraud in France” according to the newspaper will also be candidates.
09:10 – The president of the Young Republicans candidate in Tarn (81)
The president of the Young Republicans, Guilhem Carayon will be a candidate in the department of Tarn, that of his father, Bernard Carayon, “a former member of the violent far-right group, Groupe union defense (GUD)” recalls Le Monde this Monday. And “the friends of Eric Ciotti” as they are called were distributed among different French departments. Théo Michel in Seine-et-Marne, a business manager was parachuted into Saône-et-Loire, “a lawyer in the Rhône, the founder of an online bank in Hérault, a television columnist in Belfort and an executive from L’Oréal in La Manche” specifies the media.
09:03 – Former Zemmourists, CNews columnists.. What list for the RN-LR alliance?
If no list was communicated by Eric Ciotti (LR) or by the National Rally (RN) in the evening following the submission of candidacies, with a view to an alliance between the two parties for the Legislatives, the newspaper The world attempted to reconstruct a list, made up of former Zemmourists, relatives of Marion Maréchal (who slammed the door of Reconquête), CNews columnists, a spokesperson for Donald Trump in France and even parliamentary collaborators
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Eric Ciotti caused an earthquake in his party by calling for an alliance with the National Rally for the legislative elections, the first round of which will take place on June 30. “All outgoing Republican deputies who wish not to have an opponent from the RN may not have a competitor,” he declared. He thus hopes to guarantee his political family “to have the same number of seats” in the National Assembly. It had 61 before the dissolution. “We need an alliance, while remaining ourselves (…) with the National Rally and with its candidates,” assured the man who had nevertheless declared in the past that he would never associate with Marine Le Pen.
Jordan Bardella, for his part, announced that there would be an agreement with “several dozen” LR deputies who will be “invested” or “supported” by his party. He also argued with Marine Le Pen that RN candidates might not be presented against outgoing LR deputies.
On the Republican side, Eric Ciotti is being rejected from all sides, with some going so far as to ask for his resignation from the party. A real split could be created among the Republicans, torn between the macronie, the RN and their desire for independence.
If the possible RN-LR alliance is at the center of concerns, the Maréchal-Bardella-Le Pen meeting on Monday shows that part of the Zemmour clan is also ready to discuss an agreement. 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. According to Jordan Bardella, however, nothing has been decided at the moment.