The leader of the French right closes the party headquarters after agreeing with Le Pen not to throw him out

The political earthquake in France triggered by Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly and call legislative elections continues. Eric Ciottileader of The Republicans (LR), a traditional French right-wing party, has decided to close the party’s headquarters to avoid its expulsion after reaching an agreement this Tuesday with Marine Le Pen’s National Regroupment (RN) to attend together in the legislative elections.

Ciotti’s agreement with the RN has completely divided the party and several senior leaders planned to meet this Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. to take measures against him and try to throw him out of the historic formation.

Party employees have received an email informing them that “the president has decided to close the doors of the headquarters at 12:00 p.m. today and everyone must leave their office and continue teleworking.”

The fracture in the traditional and historical party of the French right exploded this Tuesday when Ciotti announced his desire to form an alliance with Marine Le Pen, the great winner of the European elections at the hands of Jordan Bardellacandidate in the community elections and in the legislative elections.

“We need an alliance with the National Rally,” Ciotti said on TF1, in which he justified his position because his party is “too weak” on its own compared to the other large political blocs to defend “the values ​​of the right.”

The LR, under different names, has governed France for 39 years, since the proclamation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, longer than any other party, and, since the emergence of the extreme right of Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine Le Pen and founder of the National Front, the predecessor of RN) in the 80s, had boasted of being a pillar of stability against the extremes.

Dozens of party leaders soon expressed their rejection of the agreement and asked for Ciotti’s resignation.

The voice of the Republicans with the greatest institutional weight that denounced the pact was that of Gerard Larcherpresident of the Senate, the second figure of the State after the President of the Republic.

In a message on “he must abandon his mandate as president of Los Republicanos”.

Michel Barnier, former minister, European commissioner and EU negotiator of the Brexit agreement, also came to the fore and stated that Ciotti “no longer has any legitimacy to speak on behalf of the political family” of the Conservatives.

He was joined by other well-known conservative faces, such as Valérie Pécresse, president of the region that includes Paris, and Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and leader of the LR between 2017 and 2019, as well as other parliamentarians. and regional leaders.