Les Républicains head vows to stay on despite revolt over call for alliance with Le Pen

Éric Ciotti, the leader of France's mainstream rightwing party, Les Républicains, has vowed he will stay in his job despite key members of his party voting unanimously to oust him over his proposed alliance with the far right.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Ciotti was believed to have been holed up in his office yesterday after locking members out of his party's Paris headquarters amid a mass revolt over his call for an alliance with Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN).

The extraordinary scenes outside the locked offices echoed the disarray that has gripped French politics since Emmanuel Macron called a snap election on Sunday to try to counter the rise of the far right.

Senior figures from Les Républicains (LR) arrived at the party headquarters yesterday, where they had planned to hold a meeting to oust Ciotti, saying his announcement on Tuesday of an alliance with Le Pen was a betrayal of their values. However, they found the building locked.

Ciotti posted on X that he had closed the doors "after receiving threats" and that he had to "guarantee staff safety".

"What's more, there has never been any meeting planned at the HQ this afternoon," he wrote.

Aurélien Pradié, a senior member of the party, said: "We live in a democracy. People that shut themselves in their office and say: 'I'm never coming out' - that's not possible."

Pradié said Ciotti "was no longer president [of the party] from the second he made this insane decision", referring to the proposed alliance with the RN.