Eric Ciotti said he was “ready to take up the challenge” of the election for the presidency of the Republicans, without his “final decision” being “totally taken”.
The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Eric Ciotti said he was “ready to take up the challenge” of the election for the presidency of the Republicans, without his “final decision” being “totally taken”, in an interview with the Journal du Sunday . “My final decision is not fully made but I am ready for the challenge and very determined,” said Mr Ciotti. Arriving second in the right-wing primary for the presidential election, Mr. Ciotti assured that he had started “work to offer both a broad rally and a modernized political offer, in line with the expectations of the French”.
The first round of the election for the presidency of LR will take place electronically from December 3 at 6 p.m. to December 4 at 6 p.m. and, if no candidate obtains the majority of the votes cast, a second round will be organized on December 10 and 11. december. If none has officially applied yet, the number 2 of the party Aurélien Pradié, the MEP François-Xavier Bellamy or the former European commissioner Michel Barnier have expressed their interest in the presidency of LR.
“I respect his choice”
Annie Genevard, current interim president after the departure of Christian Jacob, also indicated that she did not rule out running as a candidate. Conversely, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez, like that of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand, gave up running for the post. “Laurent Wauquiez is the one who has the best assets to hope for victory in 2027”, hammered Mr. Ciotti in the JDD. “I respect his choice, carrying a real strategy for the return to power of the Republican right”, he continued, believing that Mr. Wauquiez, “can answer this question of leadership” within LR in view of the next presidential election.
As for Nicolas Sarkozy, who supported in the last legislative elections a rival of Mr. Ciotti in the Alpes-Maritimes, the right must “assume to break this link of dependence” with the former president, estimated the deputy. According to Mr. Ciotti, LR must imperatively carry out its “ideological revolution” to hope to weigh between Macronism and the RN. “I believe in the need to assert a political line resolutely on the right, without confusion, without compromise,” he explained. “More than ever, I am convinced that the ideas of the right – authority, identity and freedom – are the answers to the ills of our country”, underlined the elected representative of the Alpes-Maritimes.