When Eric Ciotti, president of the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party, seized the outstretched hand of the far-right, he was well aware of the symbolic significance of the gesture. He was opening the door to an agreement between, on the one hand, the distant heir of the Gaullist party, and on the other, a movement structured by men hostile to General de Gaulle: former members of the Secret Army Organization, ex-collaborationists, neo-fascists.

The party "is historically the adversary, if not the enemy, of the Gaullist family, for historical reasons, which plunge their roots very far back," said a man with a good memory of history: Ciotti himself, in 2021. By blowing up LR through a perilous electoral agreement with Marine Le Pen, Ciotti has not only offered his party's scalp to its historic enemy, he has also accomplished the far-right leader's personal goal.

Ever since 2011 when she took over the Front National (FN), the party co-founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen has constantly wished for the "dislocation" of LR. "We still need a few more blows, a few more shoulder work, for the UMP system to collapse," she said in 2012 referring to the former name of the conservative party. At the time, Le Pen's words were more of a self-fulfilling prophecy, but there was already a strategy at play: to make the far-right party strong enough to establish itself as a pole of attraction and attract personalities around a rallying platform built around two simple ideas: national preference and the rejection of European federalism.

Twelve years later, the FN's successor, the Rassemblement National (RN) and the president of LR are in agreement on the same program: the fight against immigration, insecurity and lower taxes. In 2023, former minister Franck Allisio resurrected another former Gaullist party, the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), to welcome local LR leaders into a microparty subservient to the RN.

For Le Pen, there's still a long way to go to achieve her dream, since Ciotti was quickly dropped by his troops after announcing their agreement. And she still hasn't won the support of the entire right. But for the first time, the initiative came from the conservative party leader. Reached by Le Monde on the evening of Tuesday, June 11, Le Pen said Ciotti's move highlights "the disappearance of a cordon sanitaire that has existed for 40 years." In other words, the end of the impossibility of an alliance between the two parties. She said there were three reasons for this: "The gap that has been widening for a long time between LR voters, elected representatives on the ground and the leadership; the score of the RN, which is considerable and concomitant with the weakening of the traditional right, which is now fighting for its survival to have a seat at the table; and, finally, the current situation in the country."

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