The rise and fall of France’s far-right union

A union of far-right movements in France, including renegades from the conservatives Les Républicains, appeared to be on the cards, united around the hope of beating President Emmanuel Macron but at the last moment, it all came unravelled.

The contours of an alliance of far-right parties were starting to be drawn out less than 48 hours after Macron called on Sunday (9 June) for snap legislative elections following his party’s crushing defeat in the European Parliament elections.

“We hope for the largest union of right-wing forces in these legislative elections,” Eric Zemmour, a journalist turned president of the fringe far-right Reconquête party said. 

Far-right Rassemblement national (RN), which secured a landslide win with over 31% of the vote, almost double what their runner up, Macron’s Liberal list, scored, had even confirmed it was in conversations with other right-wing forces. 

“We are looking into possibilities today to expand the [right-wing] majority in the context of these legislative elections,” RN’s lead candidate Jordan Bardella said on Monday evening (10 June).

The deal would initially bring Reconquête, the RN and the Conservatives Les Républicains into a broad coalition in the hopes of securing an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

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“Dédiabolisation” first

“We have singularities, but we also have a lot in common […]. There is a necessity to work together in the European Parliament and in France,” Maréchal of ECR’s Reconquête told French broadcast CNews on Tuesday (11 June).

“Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour and [LR lead candidate] François-Xavier Bellamy agree on the essentials, i.e. everything. Their shared priority is to safeguard national identity; to achieve this, all want to limit immigration and encourage assimilation rather than integration,” conservative newspaper Causeur wrote on Monday. 

But the deal blew unexpectedly just a day later with little to no hope of recovery.

The reality of policy divergences and the presence of Zemmour in Reconquête, judged to be electorally toxic, put to rest any hopes of an alliance and confirmed that the different natures of far-right movements prevented, or at least seriously hindered, a coalition. 

“To build an alliance and a majority, you need trust,” RN’s Bardella said on Tuesday evening.

“I believe that Eric Zemmour’s positions throughout the European elections campaign, the stabs he has repeatedly taken against the RNl and the oft-times very excessive positions he can take have rendered the conditions for an agreement obsolete”.

Zemmour was found guilty of inciting racial hatred on several occasions.

A Reconquête official told Euractiv earlier in the day that the only hurdle to a coalition, when negotiations were in full swing on Monday (10 June), was that Zemmour would not run for MP, which he confirmed he had no intention of doing.

“What changed between yesterday and today? No one knows,” they said. 

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Conservatives on the verge of collapse

Instead, Bardella confirmed a coalition would go ahead with a small number of conservatives Les Républicains MPs and party officials. Under the current terms of the agreement, these LR candidates would be granted official RN support, and be able to run unopposed by far-right counterparts.

Earlier on Tuesday, LR President Eric Ciotti unveiled in a historic move that he would seek an alliance with the RN “and all those that find themselves in right-wing ideas and values”.

He claimed the party would back such a decision – instead bringing it to the verge of collapse, with a large majority of its officials balking at the announcement and calling for Ciotti’s immediate resignation.

“Eric Ciotti lost the legitimacy he had to speak on behalf of our [political] family,” LR heavyweight and former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told journalists.

The party’s EU elections frontrunner Bellamy made clear on Tuesday he would not take part in any coalition with the far-right – but other newly elected MEPs have openly taken Ciotti’s side.

Such a pact means the few LR renegades that agreed to it will likely be shunned from the leaderless party – and questions over the direction of the conservatives will soon be asked.

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[Edited by Aurélie Pugnet/Alice Taylor]

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