“Heads must be cut off”: the LR group in the Assembly on the verge of implosion

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While 19 LR deputies, a third of the group, voted for Liot’s motion of censure, Eric Ciotti’s entourage calls for an emergency “purge”.

By Sebastien Schneegans, Nathalie Schuck

Ithey dared. Despite repeated warnings from the Ciotti-Marleix tandem and despite the major political risks involved in such a choice, 19 LR deputies voted for the cross-partisan censure motion tabled by Liot and part of Nupes. As soon as the results of the vote were announced, the telephones of the tenors of the party, stunned by such an affront, crackled. Whereas they anticipated 10 to 15 slingers, they find themselves with 19 rebels, that is to say a third of the 61 elected members of the group. Worse still, three LR deputies – Pierre Cordier, Fabien Di Filippo and Maxime Minot – pushed the affront so far as to vote for the National Rally motion. “We will not vote for motions of censure”, assured, however, bravado, the boss of the LR group in the National Assembly Olivier Marleix, a few hours before …