Éric Ciotti

Éric Ciotti (French: [eʁik sjɔti] ^ⓘ or [eʁik tʃɔti] ^ⓘ, Italian: [ˈtʃɔtti]; born 28 September 1965) is a French politician who led The Republicans (LR) from 2022 to 2024. He has represented Alpes-Maritimes's 1st constituency in the National Assembly since the 2007 legislative election. Once a member of The Republicans' right-wing, he was seeking to distance the party from Emmanuel Macron's presidency. He left The Republicans in 2024, and is now the leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party and parliamentary group.

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. 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, but was defeated by centre-right candidate Valérie Pécresse in the second round. 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.

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". On 14 June, a Paris court invalidated the removal of Ciotti from the party presidency. This led to an unprecedented 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).