The leader of France’s Republicans party has said he would be open to an alliance with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in snap French elections. Such an alliance would break a decades-old taboo.
Eric Ciotti, the head of the conservative French political party Les Republicans (LR), astounded political observers Tuesday by suggesting it was time to drop the longstanding taboo against working with the country’s far-right National Rally (NR) party in hopes of taking power in snap elections called by centrist President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of Sunday’s European parliamentary elections.
Speaking on TF1 TV, Ciotti said: “We say the same things, so let’s stop making up imagined opposition. This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They’re telling us, 'reach a deal.”
In response, several of Ciotti’s fellow party members spoke out against allowing former NR President Marine Le Pen anywhere near the levers of power.
There were 38 parties participating the EU elections. That doesn’t work either.
Our election system is based on a 2 rounds election. First you vote for your first choice. The first two get to the second round and we elect the one we prefer between the two.
When the system works it’s fine, but it can also be dangerous. Our left shattered because of that. So the parties are making alliances before the first round of elections to have a chance of being in the government.
In France we also have an History of voting against the far right. A good bunch of conservative Presidents were elected because the left helped them. This what we call “Vote républicain”, meaning “Vote to save the Republic against a fascist party”.
The conservatives making an alliance with the far right is most insulting action they could have taken. But TBH their party is dead now. They’ve been doing less than 10% in every major elections since the last 10 years.