 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in French. (April 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Éric Ciotti | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Ciotti in 2023 | |
| President of theUDR group in theNational Assembly | |
| Assumed office 18 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| President ofThe Republicans | |
| In office 11 December 2022 – 22 September 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Christian Jacob |
| Succeeded by | Bruno Retailleau (2025) |
| Member of theNational Assembly forAlpes-Maritimes's1st constituency | |
| Assumed office 20 June 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Jérôme Rivière |
| President of the Departmental Council ofAlpes-Maritimes | |
| In office 18 December 2008 – 15 September 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Christian Estrosi |
| Succeeded by | Charles Ange Ginésy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1965-09-28)28 September 1965 (age 60) Nice, France |
| Political party | Union of the Right for the Republic (2012–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Rally for the Republic (1981–2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015) The Republicans (2015–2024) |
| Spouse | Caroline Magne |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Sciences Po |
Éric Ciotti (French:[eʁiksjɔti]ⓘ or[eʁiktʃɔti]ⓘ,Italian:[ˈtʃɔtti]; born 28 September 1965) is a French politician who ledThe Republicans (LR) from 2022 to 2024. He has representedAlpes-Maritimes's 1st constituency in theNational Assembly since the2007 legislative election. Once a member of The Republicans' right-wing, he was seeking to distance the party fromEmmanuel Macron's presidency.[1][2] He left The Republicans in 2024, and is now the leader of theUnion of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party andparliamentary group.[3]
Ciotti briefly served as First Deputy Mayor ofNice under MayorChristian Estrosi in 2008, before he assumed the presidency of theDepartmental Council ofAlpes-Maritimes from 2008 to 2017.[4] He sought the party's nomination for the2022 presidential election at its2021 congress; he unexpectedly placed first in the first round of voting,[5] but was defeated by centre-right candidateValérie Pécresse in the second round.[6] In December 2022, following Pécresse's historic loss in the presidential election, he was elected president of The Republicans, placing first in the first round and winning the second round against SenatorBruno Retailleau, with whom he has worked closely since he took office as leader.[1]
In June 2024, after attempting to forge an electoral alliance with the far-rightNational Rally ahead of thesnap election, he was unanimously, though contentiously, removed from his position as president by the party leadership, a move he described as "illegal".[7] On 14 June, a Paris court invalidated the removal of Ciotti from the party presidency.[8] This led to an unprecedentedleadership crisis within the party, which culminated in Ciotti creating his own parliamentary group, theUDR, named after hisUnion of the Right for the Republic (UDR).
Ciotti was elected to the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes in 2008 inSaint-Martin-Vésubie following the resignation of incumbent councillorGaston Franco. He was elected by his peers to the body's presidency the same year, succeeding Nice MayorChristian Estrosi. Ciotti had previously failed to be elected in thecanton of Nice-1 in the2008 cantonal election, having been defeated by incumbent Socialist Marc Concas. Following the2015 departmental election, in which he was elected inTourrette-Levens, the Departmental Council of Alpes-Maritimes replaced the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes. After the adoption of a new law organisingcumul des mandats restrictions, Ciotti resigned the presidency in 2017 while keeping his councillor mandate.
Ciotti was elected to the National Assembly during the2007 election; he was reelected in2012 and2017. In Parliament, Ciotti has been serving on the Committee on Legal Affairs since 2007.[9] Since 2017, he has also been aquaestor and therefore part of the Assembly's Bureau in the15th legislature of the French Fifth Republic, under the leadership of presidentRichard Ferrand. He recently recognized having had an affair withNadine Morano while in office.[10]
Ahead of the UMP's2012 leadership election, Ciotti managedFrançois Fillon's campaign.[11] When Fillon's opponentJean-François Copé eventually won, Ciotti was one of more than 50 party members who threatened to form a new centre-right caucus within the UMP parliamentary group under the leadership of Fillon.[12] In September 2014, Ciotti joined Fillon,Étienne Blanc,Pierre Lellouche andValérie Pécresse on an official trip toIraq.[13]
Ahead of The Republicans'2016 primaries, Ciotti managed former PresidentNicolas Sarkozy's campaign for the presidential nomination, alongsideCatherine Vautrin.[14] Also in 2016, he formally requested that prosecutors investigate PresidentFrançois Hollande over a potential breach of security allowing revelations that Hollande disclosed classified information to journalists.[14]
Amid theFillon affair, Ciotti succeededGérald Darmanin as deputy of the Republicans' secretary generalBernard Accoyer[15] and subsequently became a vocal defender of Fillon as the party's candidate for the2017 presidential election. When magistrates put Fillon under formal investigation on suspicion of embezzling state funds, Ciotti publicly state "I trust and support Francois Fillon more than ever".[16][17] When Fillon called on members to vote forEmmanuel Macron in the second round of the election againstMarine Le Pen, Ciotti refused to endorse Macron.[18]
InThe Republicans' 2017 leadership election, Ciotti endorsedLaurent Wauquiez.[19] In 2018, Wauquiez included him in hisshadow cabinet; in this capacity, he served as opposition counterpart toMinister of the InteriorChristophe Castaner.[20][21] In 2020, Ciotti became the Parliament'srapporteur on how the government handled theCOVID-19 pandemic in France.[22] In 2021, Ciotti announced his intention to run as The Republicans's candidate in the2022 presidential election.[23][24] Ciotti narrowly placed first at the2021 The Republicans congress and proceeded to the primary second round, in which he was defeated byValérie Pécresse.[5]
Ciotti retained his seat in the second round of the2024 French legislative election.[25]
To the Right! (French:À Droite !, ÀD!), is a movement withinThe Republicans. The movement was founded by Ciotti during the 2021The Republicans congress.[26] Ciotti was elected with 53.7% of the votes against his main opponent,Bruno Retailleau, who received 46.3% to become the next leader of The Republicans.[27] He ruled out a formal alliance with Macron's minority government in parliament, although he was open to negotiate a pension reform.[28]
Ciotti was voted out as leader of the party on 12 June 2024 over his decision to seek an alliance with the far-rightNational Rally[29] and was "unanimously" removed from the party, according toAnnie Genevard.[30][31] A Paris court reviewed the decision on 14 June and ruled in Ciotti's favor.[32] His alliance with the RN was labeled theUnion of the Far-Right.
On 22 September 2024, Ciotti announced he would leave The Republicans, fully committing himself to hisUnion of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party.[33]
Ciotti has largely been described asright-wing and of belonging in theright-wing populist faction ofThe Republicans.[1][2]
On economic issues, Ciotti defends, as part of his candidacy for the primary of his party for the presidential election of 2022, the elimination of 250,000 positions in thecivil service, the return to 39 hours as the legal duration ofworking time, raising the retirement age to 65, the lowering ofcorporate taxes, the abolition ofinheritance tax as well as the reduction ofunemployment benefits andsocial assistance.[34]
During the protests against Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms, Ciotti's office in Nice was attacked. According to a photo posted by Ciotti to his Twitter account, the front window of the office had been broken with a paving stone and vandals wrote "the motion or the stone", in reference to an upcoming vote in the National Assembly. Protests against pension measures have taken place across the country, affecting various industries.[35]
In 2019, Ciotti successfully added an amendment to an education bill to make it mandatory for classrooms to display both aFrench andEuropean Union flag in all classrooms.[36]
During his presidential campaign in 2021, Ciotti argued that France should reassert itself by leavingNATO's integrated command.[37] He claims an "immense admiration" for the state ofIsrael and wants the recognition ofJerusalem as the unified capital of that country, as well as the transfer of the French embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in order to "break with a form of diplomatic tradition that is globally pro-Arab" of France.[38]
In 2020, Ciotti proposed a bill to theNational Assembly which would prohibit the dissemination of images depicting functions of the national police, municipal police, military and customs officers; with a maximum penalty of 15,000 euros and a year in prison for violators.[39]
For theMarianne magazine, Ciotti joinedMarine Le Pen's positions on security, identity, immigration and Islamism, sharing with her "an ethnic and identity-based vision of the nation". He thus proposes to change the nationality code in order to abolish thejus soli in favour of thejus sanguinis alone, to include in theConstitution "our Christian origins", as well as to accentuate security policies (creation of 100,000 additional prison places, lowering of the criminal majority to 16 years, suppression of family allowances to "parents of children who do not respect the values of the Republic").
In 2021, he stated "our society is changing, if we have to talk about 'great replacement', I talk about 'replacement'".[40][41]
In the face of Islamic terrorism, he advocated the creation of a "French-styleGuantanamo" and the adoption of "specially adapted laws, like thePatriot Act in the United States.[42]
In April 2021, Ciotti stated that "what differentiates [The Republicans] from theNational Rally is our capacity to govern".[43] In September 2021, Ciotti declared that if the second round of the French presidential election ended up being betweenEmmanuel Macron andÉric Zemmour, he would vote for the latter.[44] Later that year,Renaud Muselier, thePresident of theRegional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur left the Republicans, saying that Ciotti was "conveying the ideas of Éric Zemmour within LR".[45]
Ahead of the2024 French legislative election, he called for The Republicans to enter into anelectoral alliance with the National Rally.[46] He was expelled from the party in response.[47] This decision was subsequently recognised as illegal by the Judiciary Tribunal of Paris, re-instating him.[48]
Following the election, Ciotti said in an interview withLe Figaro that he was proud to have broken the “artificial” taboo against working with the far-right and predicted that the “vast majority of people on the right” would follow the same path.[49]
Media related toÉric Ciotti at Wikimedia Commons
