Many don’t know each other. Do not share the same activist history and supported different candidates in the presidential elections. Their only link, a Whatsapp loop. Information relating to the electoral campaign is centralized there. Here, a choice of printer for posters. There, a review of the legal obligations to be respected.
So many emergencies to resolve in record time. Here are the 62 candidates from the alliance formed between Eric Ciotti and the National Rally (RN) in the deep end of the legislative elections. Fortunately, big brother is watching. RN departmental managers are there to take care of any administrative hassles. The boss of LR, too. On Thursday, June 13, he brings his foals together for a video discussion, and allays fears. “I did not leave alone. Some withdrew at the last moment,” he explains in substance. Caution is the mother of safety. All these contenders are financially attached, not to LR, but to his microparty “On the right, the friends of Eric Ciotti”.
What should they be called, anyway? These 62 applicants, symbol of a right on the verge of implosion? Devastated by the fight to the death in which Eric Ciotti and the vast majority of party executives are engaged. They claim the name “LR-RN” and set themselves up as a symbol of a union of rights finally on its feet. Eric Ciotti’s opponents dismissively refer to them as “Ciotti-RN”. Affiliates of a single man, not soldiers of political recomposition. Rhetorical trench warfare.
“Ciotti took it like a stick”
How meager the harvest was! On June 11, Eric Ciotti sees things big. The president of LR, who claims to be already supported by a “dozen parliamentarians”, outlines on TF1 the contours of his great alliance: the 61 outgoing LR deputies are welcome, and around sixty constituencies to conquer are offered to anyone who joins Ciotti . This ambition fades quickly. On Friday June 14, Jordan Bardella only discussed 70 “LR-RN” applications. The figure has since fallen. And so few senior executives in the Niçois’ suitcase. Eric Ciotti only brings back the very right-wing president of young people LR Guilhem Carayon and the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes Christelle D’intorni.
The fruit was nevertheless ripe. Eric Ciotti’s project, likely to appeal to more than one executive. The right certainly has a condescending view of the RN, a party with suspect skills. And what about his economic program “borrowed from the left”? Yes, but. So many LR elected officials come from constituencies favorable to the RN. All observe the rise of a standardized formation, countering their own decline. The power is there, so close. Tempting. Alas, Eric Ciotti’s secret approach has cooled many people’s enthusiasm. The form has crushed the substance. “Ciotti took it like a stick, some were ready!”, marvels an LR deputy. “If the form had been different, he would perhaps have been able to recover a handful of deputies. But everyone is angry with him for having weakened us by creating such a mess,” confirms Michèle Tabarot, deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes and president of the National Investiture Commission (LR).
Refusals, and DIY
This anger isolated Eric Ciotti. It deprived him of high-level candidates. She finally deprived her of valuable information. Like this list of LR candidates nominated by the CNI, which he was unable to get his hands on, due to a rebellion by headquarters employees. On Thursday June 13, accompanied by a bailiff, he demanded that the LR elections director give him the document.
“I am the president of the party. You are under my hierarchical authority.”
“I can’t.”
Eric Ciotti, to the bailiff: “Note that he is not responding to my instructions.”
So, it’s time to DIY. Eric Ciotti relied heavily on Guilhem Carayon to find candidates. He has the party’s youth files, we assure ourselves internally. The boss of LR gave of himself. When he announced his alliance with the RN to his colleagues, he offered them a constituency. Refusals, and the “yes” from Bartolomé Lenoir, candidate in Creuse. The offer is also submitted to former Vaucluse MP Julien Aubert. “Do what your conscience demands of you”, whispers Bruno Retailleau, who has gone to war against Eric Ciotti. He won’t follow up.
Motley group
The 62 candidates form a heterogeneous group. First there are young people, a privileged land of conquest. Hanane Mansouri, ex-president of young people LR 38, will leave for Isère. Quentin Taïeb, LR representative in Vénissieux, will go to Haute-Savoie. Both supported Michel Barnier and Xavier Bertrand, hardly suspected of collusion with the RN, during the 2021 primary. “They go where the wind blows,” mocks a former LR official. They defend to L’Express a choice consistent with their ideological orientations. Hanane Mansouri went through the UNI, a student union apostle of the union of the rights. Young LRs, it is well known, are more to the right than their elders. “Executives have mandates and monopolize management positions. We are committed to our ideas,” defends Charles-Henri Alloncle, former president of Youth with Sarkozy, in the running in Hérault.
Some contenders have a more distant link with LR. Such as the magistrate specializing in tax and social fraud Charles Prats. Or former LREM MP Typhanie Degois, joined by Cnews columnist Guillaume Bigot. And what about Nicolas Conquer, spokesperson for Republican Overseas and supporter of Donald Trump? Or Arnaud Dassier, support for Eric Zemmour after leading Nicolas Sarkozy’s digital campaign in 2007? Several former supporters of Reconquest are in the party. David Attia, candidate for the Zemmourist party in the 2022 legislative elections after years spent with LR, will be a candidate in Paris. Gérault Verny, close to Marion Maréchal and investor in the identity media Livre noir, and the former senator close to Reconquête Sébastien Meurant are launching into the battle. Finally, there are these elected representatives of the older generation, who have come out of the closet. Here are the former UMP deputy Jacques Myard, the mayor of Cholet Gilles Bourdouleix and the councilor of Montauban Brigitte Barèges. And we even find a former prefect, Thierry Coudert, who, after having been advisor to a left-wing minister, was the chief of staff of Brice Hortefeux, Minister of Immigration.
“I cannot guarantee that everyone will stay on the line”
The LR executives smile at this baroque team, far from Eric Ciotti’s initial promise. “The RN must not be happy,” complains an executive. The little troop advances, indifferent to the jeers. Those sent to winnable constituencies will benefit from the precious RN label. Are they unknown? Not Jordan Bardella, featured on their campaign posters.
“LR historic canal” against “LR Ciotti”. The two camps are leading a parallel campaign tinged with ambiguity. Eric Ciotti still enjoys the title of “president” of the Republicans, after the suspension of his exclusion from the party… But will face an LR candidate in his constituency. Eric Ciotti’s troops claim their status as “official” LR contenders, but do not display the party logo on their campaign posters. Please find your way there. The matter promises to become more complicated on the evening of June 30. Eric Ciotti suggested Monday on France 2 that other LR deputies could join him after the first round. Could parliamentarians give in to the sirens of the alliance to save their skin? Or even to join a hypothetical RN majority in the Assembly after the election? “There may be some… I cannot guarantee that everyone will stay on the line,” concedes a manager. The ironic smiles opposed to Eric Ciotti could then tense up.
.