French right-wing parties were mired in infighting Friday, June 14, as campaigning intensified for snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.
Eric Ciotti, leader of the conservative Les Républicans (LR) party, broke a historic taboo this week, announcing that his party would form an alliance with the far-right Rassemblement National (RN). It prompted the rest of the leadership to vote him out on Wednesday.
But Ciotti insisted that he was still party leader, dismissing the effort to oust him as "quibbles, little battles by mediocre people... who understand nothing about what's going on in the country", adding that it was legally void. "I'm president of the party, I'm going to my office and that's it," Ciotti told reporters as he arrived at LR's headquarters in Paris on Thursday. He called his opponents' vote a "takeover" attempt and said he was challenging its validity in court. A Paris court is examining the case on Friday as LR's political bureau held a fresh meeting by videoconference and confirmed his expulsion.
Viral images had spread on social media the day before, of Paris region president Valérie Pécresse rolling up her sleeves as she approached the LR party headquarters closed by Ciotti in an apparent bid to prevent the party's political committee from meeting to oust him.
Après plusieurs sommations, c’est finalement Valérie Pécresse qui arrive au siège LR pour y déloger Éric Ciotti. Exit le GIGN. pic.twitter.com/cXZZPuIrvJ
— Charlotte Rocher????️ (@ChaRocher) June 12, 2024
Anoter largely shared and commented clip shows Ciotti back inside the LR headquarters after he was voted out. He can be seen smiling and telling journalists that he has normal access to the building.
???? Éric Ciotti prononce ce matin sa traditionnelle bénédiction « Urbi et Orbi » :
— Olivier Varlan (@VarlanOlivier) June 13, 2024
pic.twitter.com/tKuI5M6593
A little while after that, Ciotti posted a video on his X account where he can be seen in his office and sitting at his desk. The caption reads "At work for France!".
Au travail pour la France ! ???????? pic.twitter.com/rtOwR4WfkP
— Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) June 13, 2024
But some on the right remain open to the RN. Francois-Xavier Bellamy, the party's lead candidate in Sunday's European elections, said he would "of course" vote for an RN candidate over the left in a second-round run-off. "I'll do everything to prevent La France Insoumise from coming to power," Bellamy told Europe 1 radio, referring to the radical-left party that struck an alliance with other the rest of the left.
The lightning election campaign has also split the RN's smaller far-right rival Renconquête! over whether to ally with the heavyweight formation. Marion Maréchal, who led Reconquête!'s list for the EU elections, was excluded from the party after she called for an alliance with the RN, whose leading figure Marine Le Pen is her aunt.