Annie Genevard is a far-sighted woman. The kind to keep a copy of the keys to the Republican headquarters (LR) with her. You never know, political life is so unpredictable. This Wednesday, June 12, the Doubs MP opens the heavy blue door of the enclosure at 5 p.m., in the heart of Paris. Here she is in the besieged fortress of Eric Ciotti, who had asked all party officials to leave the premises at noon. “Our house,” rejoices the chosen one.
Let it be said: Annie Genevard is at home here. With François-Xavier Bellamy, she has just been appointed to succeed Éric Ciotti, excluded from the movement a few minutes earlier for having initiated an “alliance” with the National Rally. The sanction was taken unanimously by a political bureau of the party. Immediately, a press release came out. “Republicans condemn the illegal decisions of the meeting called today.” Supporting legal arguments, the text reinforces Éric Ciotti in his status as president of LR. Don’t you understand anything about it? It’s normal. The Republican right experienced one of the craziest days of its existence. The comedy of vaudeville and the drama of a party on the edge of the abyss are intertwined. Conflicts of legitimacy which turn into the absurd.
“No, I’m not giving you anything.”
Éric Ciotti did not come to the Republican headquarters. Where is he ? Mystery. Refugee in the quaestorage of the National Assembly, some suspect. What’s the point of going to your office? The MP is a single man. His call for an agreement with the RN has cornered him. With all the executives, who demand his departure in unison. With the permanent members of the party, who repudiate their leader. Of the forty employees at headquarters, only three remain loyal to Nice. The latter lost several close collaborators, furious at this pact with the devil. They found out at the last moment. One of them was even brought to light by an RN collaborator. Many employees have since worked remotely.
Like an air of mutiny. The all-powerful Eric Ciotti is challenged by simple employees. On Tuesday, he asks one of them for documents on the upcoming legislative elections. “No, I’m not giving you anything.” The man is trying to set up an online survey to sound out LR activists on the agreement with the RN. Same success. “No one around him knows how to do that, so they couldn’t do it,” laughs a permanent employee. Eric Ciotti wanted a visual to promote the agreement with the RN on social networks. It will not see the light of day. Guerrilla warfare is digital. An employee changed the passwords of LR’s X account (ex-Twitter). He keeps them for himself… like the party cameras, kept in a double-locked office. Several employees speak of the burst calls from the deposed boss, powerless in the face of the rebellion. Even his professional email box is unavailable.
“We have to intern him”
But Eric Ciotti doesn’t give up. He only gets his legitimacy from the activists. He is convinced of it: they support a rapprochement with Marine Le Pen. And too bad for these one-day college students! Shortly before noon, employees were invited by email to leave the party headquarters. Officially, for security reasons. When will the barricades come? “We have to intern him”, “He is in a bunker”, “Human Bomb”… The deputies then compete with metaphors, halfway between laughter and dismay.
The accused does not give in. He will have the right to a trial. At noon, the party leaders meet for lunch. Laurent Wauquiez is there, as are François-Xavier Bellamy, Gérard Larcher, and the presidents of the parliamentary groups Olivier Marleix and Bruno Retailleau. Hey, Michèle Tabarot too. The “president” of the National Investiture Commission (CNI) learned of her ouster from this strategic position, by an email sent Tuesday at 11 p.m. She didn’t like it much. Nor did she like learning after her plane landed in Paris that Eric Ciotti had just brought forward the announcement of the alliance by a few hours. She was not able to communicate with him. At least Laurent Wauquiez was entitled to a phone call a few minutes before the TF1 news, after so many calls went unanswered. At the table, the leaders sharpen their strategy. We discuss the replacement of Éric Ciotti and the thorny issue of legislative nominations. An emergency: avoid, at all costs, the drama of the opposition of LR “Ciotti sauce” and independent LR candidates.
Larcher’s notes
Accused, stand up! At 3 p.m., the party’s political office opens, a stone’s throw from LR headquarters. Eric Ciotti is not there. Well almost. At least one bailiff was mandated by the party leadership to note the irregularity of this meeting. Its organizers admit that the execution of Eric Ciotti is not within the legal framework. A new “BP” will be convened in the coming days for the bottling. But whatever. All that matters is the strength of the image. A right finally united, opposed to the solitary approach of its leader. In the room, unanimity reigns. The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher is teasing. Grabs a paper. Read the verbatim – he wrote it himself – of a strategic meeting around Eric Ciotti Monday evening. “We must be independent in this election,” insisted the Riviera.
Shortly before 5 p.m., the executioner does his job. Éric Ciotti is excluded from LR, Michèle Tabarot is reinstated in her functions. The hearing is adjourned. Attorney General Laurent Wauquiez denounces in front of the cameras these “small backroom alliances”, going against an “independent right”. But Éric Ciotti does not accept his sentence. The law is his shield, LR members are his sword. He denounces an irregular sanction and appeals to his troops. A petition praising the “rally of the rights” was then addressed to the activists. “More than 10,000 signatures,” enthuses those around him. Please believe it. The deputy for Alpes-Maritimes defended this Wednesday on Cnews a “consultation” of members and the organization of a Congress after the legislative elections. “You have to know how to be right against everyone else,” he assured, defending the formation of a new majority in the National Assembly.
Litigation in progress
He swears not to be alone, and affirms that around 80 LR candidates will be supported by the RN in the legislative elections. The man has not renounced his title of president of the Republicans, and acts as such. Distributes investitures from the top of his Olympus. His adversaries would like to bring him back to earth. At 5 p.m., an CNI is organized, without him. 59 of the 61 outgoing LR deputies have the green light to return to battle on June 30 and July 7. Eric Ciotti and Christelle D’intorni, a close friend, are not involved. We will pass over here in silence the dry legal debate and the litigation in progress. But the situation is simple. A conflict of legitimacy is emerging between Eric Ciotti and his rivals. Everyone is preparing the legislative elections in their own corner, with the risk of competing candidates. The legislative nominations will close on Sunday. With, thus, a first indication of the strategic battle to come.
Curious day. The right displayed an unprecedented image of unity. And strengthened – apparently at least – its independence from the far right. But this image has a price: a sequence that looks like a telenovela, and a blurred image. “Some voters will criticize us for a deal that we did not conclude, and others will criticize us for not having done it,” said a senator. The existential crisis, always.
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