

The announcement comes as no surprise. Appearing on TF1's 20 heures regular on Monday, January 15, Eric Ciotti, president of Les Républicains (LR, right-wing) officially named François-Xavier Bellamy as head of the LR party for the European Parliament elections on June 9. "François-Xavier Bellamy will lead our campaign. He is a remarkable MEP who has given influence to our group and to France at the European Parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels," the LR president praised. "He is a man of convictions, values, experience and hard work."
Like the Rassemblement National (RN, far-right) with Jordan Bardella and likely the Parti Socialiste (PS, left-wing) with Raphaël Glucksmann and La France Insoumise (LFI, left-wing) with Manon Aubry, the right is opting for the same lead candidate as in 2019. Back then, the list led by Bellamy – then a political novice – landed with 8.48% of the vote after a promising start to the campaign. The latest polls now place its share between 8% and 9%. Nothing disgraceful for a right-wing party whose electoral standards have been largely revised downwards since Valérie Pécresse's disaster in the presidential election of 2022 (4.78%). "I have no fears or concerns about my nomination," Bellamy told Le Monde at the end of November 2023.
However, in recent weeks, the head of the LR caucus was beginning to feel that time was slipping away. Similar to Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the LR senators, numerous LR MPs urged Ciotti to end a suspense that no longer existed. "I'm not pro-Bellamy, but you have to admit that he's working hard at the European Parliament," acknowledged Philippe Juvin, LR MP for Haut-de-Seine (Paris suburb). "He's made good progress and is a good lobbyist for the group."
For months, Ciotti had been looking for a Plan B or rather a (very) rare pearl. In other words, a figure associated with the right but capable of attracting a more moderate electorate that has shifted toward the Macron wing. In Ciotti's eyes, Bellamy – very popular with party members – embodied a line that was too conservative for the broader right-wing electorate. In 2019, at the very end of the campaign, his stance on stopping treatment for Vincent Lambert, a quadriplegic patient who had been in a vegetative state for over a decade, faced significant criticism from his party. It even cost him two points, according to an internally commissioned poll.
Without denying what he said at the time ("there is no life unworthy of being lived," he declared at the time), Bellamy insists he has learned from the experience and now wants to stay away from social issues. A tall order. But in five years, the politician has emerged from an intellectual posture and is now moving forward more cautiously. Even Bardella privately praises Bellamy's qualities and sees him, somewhat mischievously, finishing ahead of Marion Maréchal, head of the list for Eric Zemmour's Reconquête! party (far-right). "Bellamy can take advantage of the competition between Bardella and Maréchal," observed LR MEP Brice Hortefeux. "I don't expect a respectful campaign between the two; we say that at the beginning, but it's never the case at the end."
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