The Republicans (LR) have nominated a candidate, Virgile Vanier, in Nice against Éric Ciotti, president of LR who caused a division in the party after advocating an alliance with the National Rally, a member of the Republican Party told AFP on Sunday. investiture committee.
“Nearly 400 candidates are invested by LR”
Presented as an entrepreneur from the Alpes-Maritimes in his forties, specialist in logistics, Virgile Vanier is “a right-wing sympathizer who came to see LR this week to be a candidate” following the shock created by Eric’s alliance Ciotti with the RN, this member of the commission explained to AFP on condition of anonymity. “It is an important symbol to show that the LR continues to exist in the constituency of Eric Ciotti,” he added, referring to the profile of this political novice. At the national level, “nearly 400 candidates are nominated by LR”, this source also indicated.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, a traditional LR bastion where the National Rally is nibbling away at ground, a week of “chaos” has deepened divisions between activists approving Eric Ciotti’s alliance with the far right and those denouncing an “impassable line in Republic”. “Éric, for whom I had a lot of friendship, presented our family with a fait accompli,” lamented LR MP for Alpes-Maritimes Michèle Tabarot on Friday at the launch of her campaign.
The Alpes-Maritimes have five LR deputies, three from the RN and a Macronist. In the constituency of Éric Ciotti, the 1st in the Alpes-Maritimes, located in Nice, the RN list of Jordan Bardella gathered almost 30% of the votes on Sunday during the Europeans, while that of François-Xavier Bellamy’s LR was ranked 4th, barely touching 10%.