France’s mainstream conservative party is seeking an alliance with Marine Le Pen in an unprecedented embrace of the hard-Right.
Emmanuel Macron, the centrist president, called snap parliamentary elections after a humiliating defeat at the hands of National Rally in European elections on Sunday. He has maintained his position is not under threat and said he will not resign.
Eric Ciotti, leader of the Republicans has now signalled his willingness to enter a government with Ms Le Pen, insisting their parties “say the same things” adding that any opposition between them was “imagined”.
“This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They tell us ‘reach a deal,” he added in comments that overturned a decades-old consensus of establishment parties joining forces to shut the hard-Right from power.