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The leader of France’s centre-right party has called for an electoral alliance with the far-right Rassemblement National ahead of snap legislative elections on June 30 that have rattled financial markets.
A pact would boost the chances of RN securing an absolute majority in the election called by President Emmanuel Macron in a shock move on Sunday.
Éric Ciotti, leader of the centre-right Les Républicains (LR), said his party needed to strike “an alliance with the RN, its candidates, with all those who identify with ideas of the right, with the values of the right”.
“I want my political family to move in this direction,” Ciotti added, calling for a force to oppose the “impotence of Macronism” and the threat from the far left.
Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, said Ciotti had made a “courageous choice” and hailed his “sense of responsibility”.
Investors sold French stocks and government debt for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, as markets digested the possibility that RN, which advocates tens of billions of euros of extra public spending, could take or share power following the elections.
French stocks in the Cac 40 have fallen 2.6 per cent this week, on course for their biggest two-day decline since July 2023.
However, other senior members of LR immediately rejected Ciotti’s call, suggesting the party, which has been divided on how closely to co-operate with the far right, could disintegrate in the run-up to the election.
“Following Éric Ciotti’s comments, I believe he can no longer lead our movement and must resign as chairman of the party,” said Gérard Larcher, president of the Senate and a senior LR figure.
Michel Barnier, another senior figure within the Républicains and the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, also called on his party to refuse a far-right alliance. “Never, never can an alliance or pact with a populist and anti-European country be the solution,” Barnier said on X.
The dispute heralds a potential broader realignment of the French right as parties on all political fronts try to forge partnerships and bolster their chances of gaining a majority with just three weeks to campaign. Leftwing parties have thrashed out a preliminary pact to run a single list of candidates.
Macron’s unexpected decision to call a snap vote, which will be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, followed his party’s drubbing in European elections on Sunday by RN, which echoed success for the far right elsewhere in Europe.
The RN’s leader and Le Pen protégé, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, has also reached out to members of another far-right group, meeting with lawmaker Marion Maréchal on Monday to discuss options. Maréchal, Le Pen’s niece, left her aunt’s party to join far-right rival Reconquête.
“I’ve had a number of discussions with people who are not from my political family,” Bardella told RTL radio on Tuesday, adding that these included senior Républicains figures who were keen to join him.
Tuesday’s market moves came after the Europe 1 radio station reported that Macron had discussed resigning if he suffered another heavy defeat in the two-round election to parliament.
A person close to the president said the rumours were unfounded.
Macron has pushed back a press conference planned for Tuesday until Wednesday.
As investors responded to an apparent increase in political risk, the yield on France’s benchmark 10-year bond, which moves inversely to price, rose 0.08 percentage points to 3.32 per cent by early afternoon.
The formation of the leftwing pact was a setback for Macron’s hopes to form a united front with the forces of the centre-left and centre-right to take on RN.
The pact includes the Socialists, the Communists, the Greens and the far-left France Unbowed party, but not the president’s centrist alliance.
Additional reporting by Harriet Clarfelt in New York and Leila Abboud in Paris