section_path: Campaign/Parties and coalitions/The Republicans
section_name: The Republicans
paragraph_text: The Republicans
  
  The president of The Republicans (LR), Éric Ciotti, spoke in favour of an alliance with the National Rally (RN) during an 11 June interview with the French channel TF1. Olivier Marleix, the head of the party in the National Assembly, called for Ciotti's resignation in response. On 12 June, The Republicans' political committee voted unanimously to remove Ciotti as its president and expel him from the party. However, the latter rejected the decision, calling it "a flagrant violation of our statutes" that was illegal and void. A Paris court reviewed the decision on 14 June, in which Ciotti was reinstated as party leader in the interim, as well as a member of the party, which was followed by two additional abortive attempts to remove him, while the local branch of The Republicans in Hauts-de-Seine announced a local alliance with Renaissance. On 17 June, Ciotti secured an agreement with RN to present 62 candidates (later 63), none of which are outgoing LR deputies except for himself and his close ally Christelle d'Intorni, while the national investiture committee of LR unveiled candidates in a majority of other constituencies, including all other incumbent deputies seeking re-election, as well as fielding candidates against both Ciotti and d'Intorni. Because Ciotti requested that the party's bank require his authorisation for any transactions, LR candidates are not receiving any financial support from the party.
  
  With no detailed national election programme to run on, most LR candidates opted to campaign primarily on issues concerning their constituencies, rely on their strong local roots and name recognition in order to fight for their survival, and keep their distance from the drama surrounding the other three main political forces and Ciotti's alliance with the RN. Numerous incumbent LR deputies declined to feature the party's logo on their election paraphernalia, stayed out of national media, and tried to portray themselves as independent of any party, with Aurélien Pradié choosing to describe himself on leaflets as "a strong voice, a free voice," before announcing that he would run only under the label of his micro-party Du courage on 26 June, declaring in an interview with La Dépêche that " Gaullism isn't dead, it's more alive than ever, but LR is dead." This reduced visibility was also the product of the highly varied circumstances of LR candidates, with 63 invested as part of the LR-RN alliance, roughly 400 invested by the party's national investiture committee, and 39 other candidates (including 26 incumbents) completely unopposed by the Ensemble coalition owing to their "constructive" alignment with Macron's policies. Even figures with a significant national profile like former party president Laurent Wauquiez, threatened by the possibility of an RN wave, sought to stay out of the national spotlight and focused on avoiding being subsumed by the tripolarisation of the electorate.
  
  The president of The Republicans (LR), Éric Ciotti, spoke in favour of an alliance with the National Rally (RN) during an 11 June interview with the French channel TF1. Olivier Marleix, the head of the party in the National Assembly, called for Ciotti's resignation in response. On 12 June, The Republicans' political committee voted unanimously to remove Ciotti as its president and expel him from the party. However, the latter rejected the decision, calling it "a flagrant violation of our statutes" that was illegal and void. A Paris court reviewed the decision on 14 June, in which Ciotti was reinstated as party leader in the interim, as well as a member of the party, which was followed by two additional abortive attempts to remove him, while the local branch of The Republicans in Hauts-de-Seine announced a local alliance with Renaissance. On 17 June, Ciotti secured an agreement with RN to present 62 candidates (later 63), none of which are outgoing LR deputies except for himself and his close ally Christelle d'Intorni, while the national investiture committee of LR unveiled candidates in a majority of other constituencies, including all other incumbent deputies seeking re-election, as well as fielding candidates against both Ciotti and d'Intorni. Because Ciotti requested that the party's bank require his authorisation for any transactions, LR candidates are not receiving any financial support from the party.
  
  With no detailed national election programme to run on, most LR candidates opted to campaign primarily on issues concerning their constituencies, rely on their strong local roots and name recognition in order to fight for their survival, and keep their distance from the drama surrounding the other three main political forces and Ciotti's alliance with the RN. Numerous incumbent LR deputies declined to feature the party's logo on their election paraphernalia, stayed out of national media, and tried to portray themselves as independent of any party, with Aurélien Pradié choosing to describe himself on leaflets as "a strong voice, a free voice," before announcing that he would run only under the label of his micro-party Du courage on 26 June, declaring in an interview with La Dépêche that " Gaullism isn't dead, it's more alive than ever, but LR is dead." This reduced visibility was also the product of the highly varied circumstances of LR candidates, with 63 invested as part of the LR-RN alliance, roughly 400 invested by the party's national investiture committee, and 39 other candidates (including 26 incumbents) completely unopposed by the Ensemble coalition owing to their "constructive" alignment with Macron's policies. Even figures with a significant national profile like former party president Laurent Wauquiez, threatened by the possibility of an RN wave, sought to stay out of the national spotlight and focused on avoiding being subsumed by the tripolarisation of the electorate.
  
  The president of The Republicans (LR), Éric Ciotti, spoke in favour of an alliance with the National Rally (RN) during an 11 June interview with the French channel TF1. Olivier Marleix, the head of the party in the National Assembly, called for Ciotti's resignation in response. On 12 June, The Republicans' political committee voted unanimously to remove Ciotti as its president and expel him from the party. However, the latter rejected the decision, calling it "a flagrant violation of our statutes" that was illegal and void. A Paris court reviewed the decision on 14 June, in which Ciotti was reinstated as party leader in the interim, as well as a member of the party, which was followed by two additional abortive attempts to remove him, while the local branch of The Republicans in Hauts-de-Seine announced a local alliance with Renaissance. On 17 June, Ciotti secured an agreement with RN to present 62 candidates (later 63), none of which are outgoing LR deputies except for himself and his close ally Christelle d'Intorni, while the national investiture committee of LR unveiled candidates in a majority of other constituencies, including all other incumbent deputies seeking re-election, as well as fielding candidates against both Ciotti and d'Intorni. Because Ciotti requested that the party's bank require his authorisation for any transactions, LR candidates are not receiving any financial support from the party.
  
  With no detailed national election programme to run on, most LR candidates opted to campaign primarily on issues concerning their constituencies, rely on their strong local roots and name recognition in order to fight for their survival, and keep their distance from the drama surrounding the other three main political forces and Ciotti's alliance with the RN. Numerous incumbent LR deputies declined to feature the party's logo on their election paraphernalia, stayed out of national media, and tried to portray themselves as independent of any party, with Aurélien Pradié choosing to describe himself on leaflets as "a strong voice, a free voice," before announcing that he would run only under the label of his micro-party Du courage on 26 June, declaring in an interview with La Dépêche that " Gaullism isn't dead, it's more alive than ever, but LR is dead." This reduced visibility was also the product of the highly varied circumstances of LR candidates, with 63 invested as part of the LR-RN alliance, roughly 400 invested by the party's national investiture committee, and 39 other candidates (including 26 incumbents) completely unopposed by the Ensemble coalition owing to their "constructive" alignment with Macron's policies. Even figures with a significant national profile like former party president Laurent Wauquiez, threatened by the possibility of an RN wave, sought to stay out of the national spotlight and focused on avoiding being subsumed by the tripolarisation of the electorate.