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Ciotti briefly served as First Deputy Mayor of Nice under Mayor Christian Estrosi in 2008, before he assumed the presidency of the Departmental Council of Alpes-Maritimes from 2008 to 2017.[3] He sought the party's nomination for the 2022 presidential election at its 2021 congress; he unexpectedly placed first in the first round of voting,[4] but was defeated by centre-right candidate Valérie Pécresse in the second round.[5] 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 Senator Bruno 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-right National Rally ahead of the snap election, he was unanimously, though contentiously, removed from his position as president by the party leadership, a move he described as "illegal".[6] On 14 June, a Paris court invalidated the removal of Ciotti from the party presidency.[7] This led to an unprecedent leadership crisis within the party, which culminated in Ciotti creating his own parliamentary group, the UDR, named after his Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR).
Political career
Early career in local politics
Ciotti was elected to the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes in 2008 in Saint-Martin-Vésubie following the resignation of incumbent councillor Gaston Franco. He was elected by his peers to the body's presidency the same year, succeeding Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi. Ciotti had previously failed to be elected in the canton of Nice-1 in the 2008 cantonal election, having been defeated by incumbent Socialist Marc Concas. Following the 2015 departmental election, in which he was elected in Tourrette-Levens, the Departmental Council of Alpes-Maritimes replaced the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes. After the adoption of a new law organising cumul des mandats restrictions, Ciotti resigned the presidency in 2017 while keeping his councillor mandate.
Ciotti was elected to the National Assembly during the 2007 election; he was reelected in 2012 and 2017. In Parliament, Ciotti has been serving on the Committee on Legal Affairs since 2007.[8] Since 2017, he has also been a quaestor and therefore part of the Assembly's Bureau in the 15th legislature of the French Fifth Republic, under the leadership of president Richard Ferrand. He recently recognized having had an affair with Nadine Morano while in office.[9]
Ahead of The Republicans' 2016 primaries, Ciotti managed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign for the presidential nomination, alongside Catherine Vautrin.[13] Also in 2016, he formally requested that prosecutors investigate President François Hollande over a potential breach of security allowing revelations that Hollande disclosed classified information to journalists.[13]
Amid the Fillon affair, Ciotti succeeded Gérald Darmanin as deputy of the Republicans' secretary general Bernard Accoyer[14] and subsequently became a vocal defender of Fillon as the party's candidate for the 2017 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".[15][16] When Fillon called on members to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the election against Marine Le Pen, Ciotti refused to endorse Macron.[17]
Leader of The Republicans, alliance crisis and departure
To the Right! (French: À Droite !, ÀD!), is a movement within The Republicans. The movement was founded by Ciotti during the 2021 The Republicans congress.[25] 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.[26] He ruled out a formal alliance with Macron's minority government in parliament, although he was open to negotiate a pension reform.[27]
Ciotti was voted out as leader of the party on 12 June 2024 over his decision to seek an alliance with the far-right National Rally[28] and was "unanimously" removed from the party, according to Annie Genevard.[29][30] A Paris court reviewed the decision on 14 June and ruled in Ciotti's favor.[31] His alliance with the RN was labeled the Union of the Far-Right.
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 the civil service, the return to 39 hours as the legal duration of working time, raising the retirement age to 65, the lowering of corporate taxes, the abolition of inheritance tax as well as the reduction of unemployment benefits and social assistance.[33]
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.[34]
European policy
In 2019, Ciotti successfully added an amendment to an education bill to make it mandatory for classrooms to display both a French and European Union flag in all classrooms.[35]
Foreign policy
During his presidential campaign in 2021, Ciotti argued that France should reassert itself by leaving NATO's integrated command.[36] He claims an "immense admiration" for the state of Israel and wants the recognition of Jerusalem 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.[37]
Security and immigration policy
In 2020, Ciotti proposed a bill to the National 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.[38]
For the Marianne magazine, Ciotti joined Marine 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 the jus soli in favour of the jus sanguinis alone, to include in the Constitution "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'".[39][40]
In the face of Islamic terrorism, he advocated the creation of a "French-style Guantanamo" and the adoption of "specially adapted laws, like the Patriot Act in the United States.[41]
Relations with the far-right
In April 2021, Ciotti stated that "what differentiates [The Republicans] from the National Rally is our capacity to govern".[42] In September 2021, Ciotti declared that if the second round of the French presidential election ended up being between Emmanuel Macron and Éric Zemmour, he would vote for the latter.[43] Later that year, Renaud Muselier, the President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur left the Republicans, saying that Ciotti was "conveying the ideas of Éric Zemmour within LR".[44]
Ahead of the 2024 French legislative election, he called for The Republicans to enter into an electoral alliance with the National Rally.[45] He was expelled from the party in response.[46] This decision was subsequently recognised as illegal by the Judiciary Tribunal of Paris, re-instating him.[47]
Following the election, Ciotti said in an interview with Le 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.[48]
Other activities
French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), Member of the Board of Directors.[49]
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