From December 1 to 4, the right-wing party Les Républicains (LR) is organizing a congress to select the candidate who will represent it in the 2022 presidential election. The number of members has doubled in a month (from 75,000 to 150,000) – last-minute vocations or a sweeping up of voters? – and they will choose among the 5 candidates, including Eric Ciotti, a member of parliament and departmental advisor for the Alpes-Maritimes.
By displaying his closeness to political scientist Zemmour on anti-Islam matters and his stance in favor of Vladimir Putin in international politics, his program aims to preserve what he considers to be the country’s values.
In the introduction, he refers to “eternal France” and asserts that “France must remain France.” These somewhat obscure slogans seem to aim at bestowing a messianic role upon himself. It’s a bit heavy-handed, but in an electoral campaign, we know it’s all about “my soap is whiter than yours”!
Eric Ciotti presents himself as fundamentally against immigration and in favor of strengthening state authority “to protect the French and guarantee our collective security in the face of the threats accumulating in a Nation where violence is increasingly pervasive”. The candidate also stands against the current government, assuring that he would make “no alliances with Macronism.”
As he has already mentioned in various interviews, Eric Ciotti would like to “enshrine our Judeo-Christian roots in the Constitution” and “add secularism to the Republic’s motto.”
Regarding his opposition to Islamism, he wishes to “ban the Islamic veil for minors and school chaperones, in public services, at university, and at polling stations” and to prohibit the burkini at swimming pools and beaches.
Concerning immigration, Eric Ciotti wants “migration ceilings to be reduced to the strict minimum”. If he became president, he would want the right of blood restored and the right of soil abolished. In his immigration policy, family reunification would be abolished, “including that aimed at bringing over the parents and siblings of an isolated minor.”
The right-wing politician also wishes to see France exit the Schengen Area and leave NATO.
Eric Ciotti would like to eliminate 250,000 civil servant positions, while noting that the hospital and sovereign public services would be spared by this measure. Furthermore, he wants to abolish the 35-hour workweek and “return to 39 hours paid as 38 in the public service” and allow private companies to “opt out of the 35-hour workweek” as well.
The candidate plans to raise the legal retirement age to 65. However, he assures that “no pension will be below the minimum wage.”
In response to what he terms “the widespread weakening of France”, the LR candidate is planning numerous changes. He would create “a large Ministry of Internal Security including customs officers and prison staff” as well as “3,000 magistrate positions and 3,000 positions for justice assistants or court clerks”. While there are currently 60,794 prison spaces, Eric Ciotti would like to “reach 100,000 spaces” by 2027.
He also plans to tackle drug trafficking and traffickers. Among his proposals for “zero tolerance for drugs”, there are measures such as a 1,000-euro fine for drug use, closing safe consumption rooms, evicting drug traffickers from social housing, and rejecting certain sentence reductions related to drug trafficking.
He also believes that adolescents over 16 “who commit acts of rare violence should be sentenced as adults” and that “family allowances should be withdrawn from parents whose children do not respect the values of the Republic”, although he does not specify what this means.
Among his many proposals, Eric Ciotti often revisits elements from the past. For example, he wants to return to a presidential seven-year term, multiple mandates, a 39-hour workweek, school uniforms in middle and high schools, and energy based on nuclear power with the creation of 6 new EPR reactors and a moratorium on wind power.
