French Republicans party leader ousted after proposing far-right alliance

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00:00Well it's another one of the most impressive developments in French politics in the last

00:06week. Eric Ciotti, who's been at the helm since 2022 of Républicain, has now been expelled from

00:13the party. That's after a meeting between some of the deputies in the political decision-making

00:18of the right-wing party here behind me at the Social Museum, just about 100 metres away from

00:23the headquarters, which were locked. That was on directive from Ciotti earlier in the day,

00:29at about 12pm, anticipating this meeting from those deputies in the high-ranking positions,

00:36and this all stems from a response to Ciotti's statements and comments yesterday, where he said

00:43that an alliance with the national rally of Marine Le Pen was in the interests of

00:49Les Républicains. So he has now been expelled. It was a unanimous decision from inside the chamber

00:55there behind me, and now the question remains who is going to likely step into his place. Well,

01:01we do have word on that. It is going to be General Secretary of the movement, Annie Geneva,

01:06as well as François-Xavier Bellamy, who has been holding the position on the list of the

01:12European elections, at least the parliamentary elections for Les Républicains party, which

01:17didn't perform well there, but now they do have two people basically taking a joint leadership

01:22mandate over from Eric Ciotti, who will now be vacating his position. Ciotti responding after

01:29this, he said the meeting organised this afternoon was basically implemented in flagrant violation

01:36of our statutes as Les Républicains. He says none of the decisions taken at this meeting have any

01:41legal consequences. It can have criminal consequences, in fact. This is what he said on

01:45social media. I am and remain the president of our political party elected by the members. So

01:52Ciotti clearly in disagreement with any basic decisions taken by this body in the chamber

02:00behind me today at the Social Museum. Just an extraordinary moment, Jean-Emile. As you say,

02:07we have party officials saying, look, Ciotti's out, and you have Ciotti himself saying I remain

02:13the president of the party. Just do we have any sense now as to practically what this means? You

02:21mentioned potentially a new leader and what the Republicans do now? Will some of them be joining

02:27Emmanuel Macron's alliance? Will anybody but Ciotti be going to join Marine Le Pen and the far right?

02:36Well, it was interesting because ahead of this, the far right president, Jordan Bardella,

02:42he praised Ciotti for his bravery by basically saying that an alliance was possible with the

02:49national rally. He obviously received criticism from a large part of his Republican party. But

02:55at the same time, the national rally themselves believe that there are enough people in the

03:00Republicans who would side with them regardless of Ciotti or not. So there seems to be a belief,

03:05at least from their side, that they do have that support base. And they also gave their

03:10assurances that they would back those MPs who would show any kind of favor towards the national

03:17rally in Parliament with those parliamentary elections coming up in just under three weeks'

03:21time after that bombshell National Assembly dissolution by Emmanuel Macron and those new

03:26elections to come. But then there is the other side, which might show more moderate favor with

03:32Emmanuel Macron's renaissance. And that might be at least a representation of the likes of Gerard

03:39Darmanin. And he's the interior minister who did leave the Republicans to join the renaissance,

03:46as well as Bruno Le Maire, the current economy minister. So there are those who definitely see

03:51a more moderate tone as being the future. Then if you ask the likes of former president

03:56of Les Républicains, Valérie Pécresse, who spoke just before this meeting, she said that

04:01neither an alliance with the extreme right or with the centrists of Macron would actually work

04:07in their favor. So a bit of an alienation, therefore, a Républicain to contend with and

04:13to see if they indeed will form any of a coalition. Pécresse, who was ousted at least or replaced

04:20by CRT after that dismal showing at the presidential election run-in in 2022, said

04:28there is no place for traitors or small-time putschists. So very strong words ahead of this

04:32meeting. And it was reflected in the way that they at least expelled CRT after the meeting.

04:38But in terms of the political future of the party, it is at a crossroads. And there are fears that

04:42this could be the disintegration of Les Républicains, who have been very much synonymous with French

04:47history since Charles de Gaulle and then with their presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.

04:53So a lot of questions now to be asked in the future and just three weeks to go to form that alliance.

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