French conservatives in turmoil as leader backs Le Pen alliance for snap elections

The stunning announcement by the Republicans (LR) leader Eric Ciotti in a lunchtime television interview 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 on 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.

With less than three weeks to go before the first round, Macron is facing opposition alliances crystallising on the left and right amid warnings that his bet could backfire.

A Harris Interactive-Toluna poll published on Monday suggested just 19 percent of people would back him, compared to 34 percent for the far-right National Rally.

But in an interview, he ruled out resigning after the poll.

The forthcoming ballot has set alarm bells ringing across Europe, as it risks hobbling France – historically a key player in brokering compromise in Brussels and support for Ukraine against Russian invasion.

"We need to have an alliance while remaining ourselves... an alliance with the RN and its candidates," Ciotti told TF1 television, adding that he had already held discussions with Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate, and RN party leader Jordan Bardella.

"We say the same things so let's stop making up imagined opposition," Ciotti added. "This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They tell us 'reach a deal'."

Le Pen praised "the courageous choice" and "sense of responsibility" of Ciotti, saying she hoped that a significant number of LR figures would follow him.   

She hailed the move as a historic break with the traditional right's refusal to work with the far right in France.

Bardella later told France 2 television that his party would be supporting "dozens" of LR candidates for seats.

End of 'sanitary cordon'      

The LR traces its history back to postwar leader Charles de Gaulle and is the political home of ex-presidents such as Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Forty years of a pseudo sanitary cordon – which caused many elections to be lost – is disappearing," Le Pen, now head of RN deputies in the lower house National Assembly, told AFP.

But Ciotti's move, which he said was aimed at creating a "significant" group in the new National Assembly after the elections, risks tearing apart his own party.

"A political party is not just one person," said the head of the Republicans in the upper house Senate, Bruno Retailleau. 

The LR speaker of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, a heavyweight figure, said he would "never swallow" an agreement with the RN and urged Ciotti to resign.