The leader of the Republicans party, Eric Ciotti, has denounced that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, are sealing an “alliance” ahead of the second round of elections “before the astonished eyes of millions of French people.”
Ciotti, who allied himself with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally before the first round, has now denounced that several Macronist candidates from Juntos and several others from the New Popular Front – the left-wing coalition that includes LFI and the Socialist Party, among others – are resigning to pave the way against the far right.
According to Ciotti, in some cases Juntos candidates are withdrawing in an attempt to concentrate the vote on candidates from the New Popular Front who “deny the anti-Semitic attack” perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 against Israel and, allegedly, chant slogans against Jews.
The National Group won the first round of elections yesterday with 33.15 percent of the votes, ahead of the New Popular Front (28.14 percent) and Juntos (21.27 percent). These three forces will be the ones to fight for the majority of the constituencies in the second round next Sunday.
The New Popular Front and Juntos have called on their candidates to withdraw from the constituencies in which they came third, thus facilitating a possible concentration of votes on parties other than Le Pen’s National Rally.