"The left knows how to unite, let's do the same": how the political crisis is contributing to the rapprochement of the right and the far right

The right and the far right are eyeing each other up, seeking each other out, and getting closer. Nothing really new, one might say: in June 2024, following the dissolution of the National Assembly, a section of the "Republicans" (LR) followed Éric Ciotti, then president of the party, to form an alliance with the National Rally (RN). But the current political crisis and the approach of the next presidential election are greatly accelerating this movement. This Saturday, it is the latter, UDR deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes, who is working to bring the two neighbors together at high speed, taking advantage of the political context. "Today, I solemnly extend my hand to you with humility to invite you to join me (...) in order to prepare the great change in the alliance of the right ," he wrote to the LR elected officials this Saturday, as reported by Vincent Bolloré's Journal du Dimanche . We now share, I am sure, an absolute rejection of Macronism and its impasse. At a time when France has never been so right-wing, this gathering is a duty before history."

In this same letter, he asks his former party colleagues to "get rid of (their) clichés" and to "see the essential" , namely "the sharing of a certain idea of ​​France" . And to illustrate: "In the LR and UDR groups our votes in the hemicycle are often at 95%, with the RN at 90%. These votes reflect a strong and obvious political convergence" . Does this wish have any chance of succeeding?

On the far right, Éric Ciotti isn't the only one working on this project. Marion Maréchal, MEP (formerly of Reconquête and now president of Identité-Libertés), has made it a long-standing priority. But even within the RN, although long unenthusiastic about the idea, this possibility is gaining ground. This is evidenced by Jordan Bardella's statement on October 8 on CNews (a member of the Bolloré group, which is actively campaigning for this merger), who was "largely willing" to conclude a possible "government agreement" with the LR, who would be willing to do so in the event of a relative far-right majority following a new dissolution.

At LR, Bruno Retailleau, party leader and resigning Minister of the Interior, although officially opposed to such a merger, opened the door to a potential union this week by calling for not giving "a single vote to the left" in the second round of the legislative by-election in Tarn-et-Garonne opposing the UDR (supported by the RN) and the Socialist Party (PS). A line shared by many party figures, like Senator Sylvie Goy-Chavent. "The left knows how to unite to win, so let's do the same!" she posted on X.

As a symbol of these dikes bursting: this Thursday, in the European Parliament, LR François-Xavier Bellamy, vice-president of the party, Laurent Castillo, Christophe Gomart and Céline Imart supported the motion of censure tabled by Jordan Bardella against Ursula von der Leyen while the latter belongs to their own group (EPP).

At the same time, the former LR spokesperson for François Bayrou's government, Sophie Primas, a guest on RTL, observed that there were "not only disagreements with the RN" . And to clarify: "If there is a government contract with ideas and measures that are not orthogonal to our convictions, let's work together" . Like her, other LR members have come out of the woodwork to plead in favor of a rapprochement. For Henri Guaino, a former MP close to Nicolas Sarkozy, all shame swallowed, "it is not abnormal that a part of the Republicans, or even a part of the center under certain conditions, says, in the current circumstances: "we are going to govern with them, we governed well with the communists in 1944" .

A path that tramples on the Gaullist roots of the party, as Jean-François Copé, LR mayor of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), regularly hammers home, but which corresponds to a demand from its base, according to the polls carried out on the subject. Last June, the CSA institute (in a survey for CNews, Europe 1 and the JDD, again, and conducted among 715 right-wing and far-right supporters: UDI, LR, DLF, UDR, Les Patriotes, RN, Reconquête) reported that 74% of them want an alliance between the right and the far right. "To understand LR, you have to look at its voters: those who remain are the most nationalist, and not the most liberal and pro-European ," analyzes the historian of the right Gilles Richard for l'Humanité . The slope towards the RN has already begun, we saw it with the transfer of votes in the last legislative elections." Will the next legislative election, potentially brought forward, definitively conclude this rapprochement?