France’s Republicans leader wants to form ‘alliance’ with Le Pen’s NR

Republicans party chairman Eric Ciotti urges country-wide alliance with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in upcoming polls.

France’s conservative Republicans party chairman Eric Ciotti has called for a country-wide alliance between his party’s candidates and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) in forthcoming parliamentary elections.

“We say the same things so let’s stop making up imagined opposition”, Ciotti told TF1 television on Tuesday.

The announcement is the first time in modern French political history that a leader of a traditional party has backed an alliance with the far-right National Rally (RN).

President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called the elections for June 30, with a second round on July 7, in a major gamble after the RN scored more than double the number of votes of his centrist alliance in the EU elections.

Ciotti spoke to RN party leaders Le Pen and Jordan Bardella before announcing the move, which he said was aimed at ensuring the Republicans (LR) can secure enough seats to still form a parliamentary group.