Ciotti Election To See Les Republicains Shift Further Right

The nominally centre-right Gaullist Les Republicains (LR) elected Eric Ciotti as new party head on Sunday, signalling a further shift to the political right in a party that has found itself squeezed on both sides in recent years. In the April presidential election, LR candidate Valerie Pecresse secured less than 5% of the vote, the worst result for the party or its predecessors in the Fifth Republic.

• Ciotti, a deputy from the Nice area, stated he intends to fight to, "rehabilitate the value of work, fight against violence and disorder in the streets, stop the migratory invasion and the rise of Islamism".
• First big test comes in pension reform, where Pres. Macron wants to raise the age from 62 to 65. LR is broadly supportive of the move, but Ciotti is fiercely anti-Macron and may not want to offer any support.
• Mujtaba Rahman at Eurasia Group writes on what Ciotti's election means for LR: "[...] The old, broad centre-right movement of Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy is no more [...]. His enemies fear he will, de facto, merge LR with populist-nationalist Right of Le Pen & Zemmour. A group of moderate LR parliamentarians detest Ciotti. [...] An outright split is probable in the long run but most LR deputies may give Ciotti time to fulfil his pledge to reunite the party. [...] [Ciotti] is less interventionist & more classically conservative than Le Pen on econ issues."