Former President Sarkozy Calls for an Alliance With the RN

Mind-boggling! Sarkozy, who catered to the jihadists in the 2005 riots, when he was Interior Minister, has had a change of heart and now wants to align with the RN.

From The European Conservative

By Hélène De Lauzun, PhD

He who supported Emmanuel Macron twice at the presidential election considers times have changed—sparking an outcry in his own camp.

During his period of incarceration, suspended pending the appeal process in the trial concerning Libyan funding of his election campaign, French former president Nicolas Sarkozy devoted himself to writing and is preparing to publish, on Wednesday, December 10th, an essay in which he combines his brief experience of prison life with various political reflections. In it, he explicitly calls for a union of right-wing parties, including the Rassemblement National (RN).

In his account of his life as a prisoner—he spent a total of twenty days behind bars at the Santé prison—Sarkozy reveals that he had a long telephone conversation with Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN deputies and potential candidate for the national camp in the 2027 presidential election. When asked by Le Pen about Sarkozy’s position on a potential ‘republican front’ that could be formed against her, he claims to have given an “unambiguous” answer: “No, and what’s more, I will take responsibility for this by taking a public position on the subject when the time comes.”

There will always be time to judge when the time comes. In the meantime, the statement is surprising: in 2017 and 2022, Nicolas Sarkozy explicitly called for people to vote for Emmanuel Macron and defeat his opponent in the second round, Marine Le Pen. “The path to rebuilding the right can only be achieved through the broadest possible spirit of unity, without exclusion or anathema,” he explains in defence of his position.

Has his time in prison gone to his head? Within his own camp, Sarkozy’s statement in favour of Le Pen has been met with mixed reactions. Among the leaders of the Les Républicains party (LR), the cordon sanitaire is still going strong and the Italian model of a right-wing coalition is not an appealing prospect. The party’s historical figures—former prime ministers and former MPs—have said they are “shocked” by the scenario of a right-wing alliance, or at least a modus vivendi with the RN, that Sarkozy seems to be proposing. No alliance with these parties with whom we do not share the same values,” declared former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who was ousted just a year ago—but who nevertheless acknowledges in veiled terms that his political family is no longer able to speak to its former voters about work, security or immigration.

Only a few figures on the fringes of the movement dare to support the former president’s ‘incorrect’ remarks, such as Gaullist and sovereigntist Henri Guaino, Sarkozy’s former adviser. A long-time supporter of Jacques Chirac, for whom no alliance with the party then led by Jean-Marie Le Pen was conceivable, Guaino believes that Sarkozy’s position is defensible and justified by changes in society and political parties. In his view, this is an “evolution” and not a “U-turn”—let alone a betrayal. “The RN’s electorate is no longer the same as it was at the beginning. Even within the party, there are people who are not neo-fascists, who come from the UMP, and sometimes even from the RPR,” he explains, implying that there are no major differences between him and the current members of the RN, as he is often presented as the guardian of the tradition of the former RPR, the party that inherited De Gaulle’s legacy.

The current president of LR, former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, is much more cautious, advocating a middle ground so as not to upset anyone, which risks displeasing everyone. He condemns the “futile political manoeuvring”—implying that he opposes any electoral agreement with the RN—and believes that the union of the right must be achieved “at the ballot box,” while being careful not to specify who the union’s candidate will be. In a significant concession and sign of the times, he nevertheless believes that the RN does indeed belong to the “republican arc,” from which the far-left party La France Insoumise would be excluded.

To clear up any misunderstandings, Reconquête party candidate Éric Zemmour has said he is in favour of organising an open primary on the right to give right-wing voters a say in the 2027 elections. But there are two conditions: it must be done without the RN, and it must not be organised by LR. In other words, the project is dead before it has even begun.