FRANCE: LR Head Ciotti Calls For Alliance w/Far-Right National Rally

Eric Ciotti, leader of Les Republicains (The Republicans, LR) party has publicly called for an alliance with the far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally, RN) in the upcoming 30 June legislative elections. Ciotti says that the alliance should cover the entirety of the French territory. Claims that a 'majority of our voters tell us they want such a deal'. Ciotti claims that talks have already been held with RN parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen and party president Jordan Bardella.

• LR was formed in 2015 by former President Nicolas Sarkozy as the successor to Jacques Chirac's 'Union for a Popular Movement'. Starting off as the main centre-right Gaullist party, it has shifted over time initially towards a more US/UK-style conservative party, supportive of low taxes and a smaller state, until under Ciotti going further towards the right-wing populism similar to Italy's Brothers of Italy.  
• Latest opinion polling has the Union of the Right and Centre (UDC), in which LR sits, at 9% support. While this is a distant fourth behind RN, the leftist New Popular Front, and President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance-led bloc, these votes combined with the surging support for RN could increase the prospect of a right-wing bloc winning a plurality (or even a majority) in the National Assembly. A RN-UDC coalition would leave almost no-one for whom for voters on the right or centre-right to cast their ballots for.