The announcement of his surprise alliance with the National Rally (RN) during the legislative election campaign was criticised by members of his party Les Républicains (LR). However, Eric Ciotti had embarked on a legal battle to remain as president of the right-wing party. He finally announces that he will leave LR and step down from his post, on Sunday 22 September, in an interview with Figaro.
Eric Ciotti says he has informed party leaders of his decision, including the leader of the LR deputies, Laurent Wauquiez. “repentant” by the way that the latter “He did not join this right-wing union.” “I note the dissolution of the Republican staff in the macro-snow. This government is not a government of coexistence. It is a Macronist government, with some LR as guarantors and alibis.”says the MP for the Alpes-Maritimes to justify his decision.
The day after the revelation of the composition of Barnier’s government, which includes Macronist elected officials alongside LR members, he added: “Therefore, LR fell into the trap that I denounced when I asked for an electoral alliance with RN. » According to him, “The casting of the government demonstrates the great influence of the President of the Republic, his total control. (…) Emmanuel Macron lost all the elections but, through deception, managed to stay in power. »
End of the legal battle
Although the courts had set October 14 as the date for a future hearing on the merits of the case pitting Ciotti against LR leaders for control of the party, the latter say the legal battle is coming to an end. “In any case, as far as I am concerned, yes, since the dispute was about my presidency. I have won three times and I had no worries about the hearing on October 14. But from now on this no longer makes any sense, since by then I will have left the presidency of LR and the LR party.”declares.
After having blown up his political family in June by breaking the cordon sanitaire that the heirs of Gaullism have always maintained with the far right, and despite being little followed, Eric Ciotti launched a legal battle with the party to remain president of LR. But he had since called on right-wing voters to join him in his party, the Union of Rights for the Republic (UDR), renamed at the end of August.
Eric Ciotti criticizes his former allies for having saved their skin in the legislative elections, thanks “to an alliance with Emmanuel Macron in the first round, or even with the New Popular Front (NFP) in the second, depending on the circumstances”He now heads a group of 16 Assembly deputies, allies of the RN.
Asked about the appointment of the leader of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau to the Interior Ministry, known for his conservative positions close to his own on security and immigration, Eric Ciotti said: “have respect for Bruno Retailleau”. “But I am convinced that he will have no real independence from Emmanuel Macron and very little freedom of action,” he said.the deputy argues.
