Eric Ciotti's 'Traitors': The Betrayal That Broke the French Right
They called him the 'Traitor of Nice'. Two years after barricading himself in his party headquarters, Eric Ciotti's gamble has reshuffled the deck of French politics. But who really betrayed whom?
When Eric Ciotti locked himself inside the Les Républicains (LR) headquarters in June 2024, accused by his own political family of the ultimate sin—a pact with the Far Right—the headlines screamed one word: Traitor.
Christian Estrosi, the Mayor of Nice and his former mentor, didn't mince words, comparing Ciotti to Pierre Laval, the infamous Vichy collaborator. The political class was in shock. The "Cordon Sanitaire", that invisible moral wall that had separated the Gaullist heirs from the Le Pen dynasty for decades, had not just been breached; it had been dynamited from the inside.
But as we look at the political landscape of 2026, we have to ask the uncomfortable question (the one polite dinner parties avoid): Was this really a betrayal, or just a brutal moment of clarity?
The Math of Treason
Let’s stop pretending that politics is about loyalty. It’s about survival. Before Ciotti’s "betrayal", the traditional Right was a zombie party—walking dead, polling at single digits, squeezed between Macron’s centrist absorption and Le Pen’s populist surge.
Ciotti didn't kill the party; he performed an autopsy on a live patient. His argument was simple: the voters had already left. He just followed them.
| Faction | 2022 Score | 2024 Score (Post-Split) |
|---|---|---|
| Les Républicains (Traditional) | 10.4% | 6.5% |
| Ciotti's Union (w/ RN) | N/A | 33.2% (Combined) |
| Macron's Alliance | 25.7% | 21.3% |
The numbers don't lie. The "Eric Traitors"—that mocking nickname given to the 60+ candidates who followed him—didn't vanish into obscurity. They retained their seats. They normalized the alliance. The "Republican Front" held them back from an absolute majority in 2024, but the taboo was shattered.
"A traitor is simply a man who left his party before the party left him." — Anonymous LR Deputy
Today, the accusations of "traitor" sound less like a moral judgment and more like the desperate cry of an old guard losing its grip. Estrosi and Pécresse are fighting for the soul of a party that exists mostly in memory. Ciotti, for all his villainous framing, identified the real fault line in French politics: it's no longer Left vs. Right, but Globalist vs. Nationalist.
The Long Shadow of the 'Traitor' Label
The irony? By labeling Ciotti a traitor so aggressively, his opponents made him a martyr for the "forgotten Right". Every time a mainstream media outlet used the word, his base solidified. It’s the Trump effect, translated into French.
👀 Who were the "Eric Traitors"?
So, where does this leave us? The "Eric Traitors" affair wasn't just a summer scandal. It was the end of the Fifth Republic's political geometry. The center is shrinking. The extremes are dilating. And somewhere in Nice, Eric Ciotti is likely smiling at the insults, knowing that while he may be a traitor to his old friends, he was loyal to the new reality.