Expelled from the party while barricaded in his office. French politicians observe what is happening within the party between incredulous and disheartened Républicainswhere the leader Eric Ciotti he was kicked out by his own political committee gathered 500 meters from the headquarters. A real one psychodrama consumed in front of the cameras and live on all social networks. The president, who only 24 hours ago had broken down another taboo on the right and opened an alliance with the party of Marine Le Penhad closed in the late morning the official headquarters of the party to prevent the meeting that would have kicked him out. However, the meeting was called anyway and the decision communicated to the media. But it’s not that easy. Ciotti, who left his office only in the evening to go as a guest on TV, rejected the decision by publishing a note on his X profile (after being forcibly kicked out of the party profile). “I am and remain the president of our political formation, elected by the members,” we read in his statement. “This afternoon’s meeting took place in flagrant violation of our statute. None of the decisions made at this meeting result legal consequences. But it can have criminal consequences.”
But what happens now? The first concrete move was made by the interim president Annie Genevard who, immediately after her nomination, went to the party headquarters to physically reopen it with her set of keys. A comedy scene, except that it involves one of the main parties of the Fifth French Republicdirect heir of Charles De Gaulle. Those who look forward to it are the far right of Marine Le Pen: the names of the candidates will have to be presented by the weekend and at the moment the agreement with the Republicans seems to have expired. Ciotti is accused of having wanted to secure his seat in the South of France and of having sacrificed all the others in the name of his career. But the twists aren’t over. Le Pen has benefited from the rapprochement of the leader’s niece Marion Marechal who in the evening distanced himself from the decision of his formation (the even more extreme right Reconquête) to go alone and announced his support for the RN. In short, nothing is defined yet.
The picture is so evolving that each analysis lasts very little. Or at least it can be quickly doubted. In France we have moved on from the shock of the triumph ofextreme right to the terror of early legislative elections. But as if the fibrillations weren’t enough, the leader of the Republicans also took steps to shake the political balance. Open to National Rally it is the move that none of the neo-Gaullists ever thought they could make. A choice to count more, beyond the 7 percent collected in the European elections, and to do so in view of an election that will be played above all in local territories. But the forward flight was massacred by the management of the RN and at the moment it can only find support from the base. “The forces of chaos threaten our country today, we have a line to maintain”, were the first words of the leaders RN François-Xavier Bellamyappointed today, together with Genevard, interim president of the Les Républicains. “We are capable of bringing our voters together and acting as a bulwark. It is our responsibility to assume this clarity.” But first of all, they will now have to recover from the blow and will have to try to revive the image of a party destroyed by internal clashes.
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