'You get into politics to be of service to your country and countrymen, not to serve yourself'

Well, we can return now to our top story today, France's conservative Republican Party being plunged into crisis after the party's leader, Eric Ciotti, called for an alliance with the far right National Rally Party. The move reverses a decades long political consensus in French politics that moderate parties should try to work together to keep the far right from power at all costs. French Interior Minister Gerard Dalmanath, for his part, has described that proposed alliance as shameful. Well, I'm joined in the studio now by Joelle Maile. I'm a former French senator with Senator, sorry, with the Republic Party. Thank you very much indeed for being with us here on France 24 today. Do you think that Lire Publican should join forces, forces with the far right? Certainly not. I mean, as you said, we have had a tradition and the centre right of being totally independent from the far right. We are and we have always been a party of values. We are based on a tradition of moderation. I mean centre right, a party of government, a party which always try to stay clear from the extremes, and I am personally utterly shocked and appalled, said the leader. Elected leader of all party decided for himself because it's obvious that his reaction was just a prominently personal reaction because he was afraid for his election in South France and not consulting the leaders of the party. This is something which has never happened. I've been for 36 years in politics as an elected representative and 20 years at the Senate. I've never, ever seen that. And you think that this decision on the part of Eric Ciotti was born out of out of self-interest more than anything else? Absolutely. It cannot be explained any other way. And I'm sorry. When you get into politics, you get in politics for values because you want to be of service to your country, to your countrymen, not to serve yourself. And when there's such a situation, you just fight. You fight for your values, but you don't sign on your own behalf without consulting an agreement with the party that we don't accept some of the policies. I mean, this is a populist party which doesn't want to take into consideration the economic situation. The parties national France wants, you know, to scrape the pensions law, which is so important. We've got to be able to pay for the pensions. France is in a very bad economic situation and you just can't do that. How do you finance the proposals of the National Front and also the stance against Israel and more importantly, the stance which is inspired by Russia? I mean, this is too important. We have a country at war in Ukraine for all values, for all freedoms. And here we are electing a party which is supporting Russia, even if they don't confess it publicly. We know very well the links are extremely important between France and Russia. Asian government. Sorry to interrupt you, but Eric's your team may say that this move, this attempt to build an alliance with the far right is his attempt to save Le Repubica. Le Repubica have been losing popularity over the past decade. Back in 2022, Valerie Progress got just 4.8% of the vote in the first round. What do you say to that argument that this is Ciotti's attempt to save Le Repubica? Well, first of all, he should have consulted his MP because all the prominent MPs don't agree with that policy. I mean, once more, I really do feel it's a selfish decision. But also once more, when you're in politics, it's not because the wind is coming against you that you have to accept it. You've got to fight for your values, you've got to explain and you have to try to convince the electorate. And I'm convinced the MPs who have been good MPs and who have a record of doing their good work can get re elected because the European election is not the legislative election. You cannot base totally your decisions on the results of the European election. The European election showed a rejection, a distrust of Europe, of European bureaucracy. But we've got to stay into Europe. There's no other way forward. We've got to work within Europe and it's something totally different. I really do feel the French voted just to show they were unhappy with some measures of the government. They were unhappy with the European Union as it's working at the moment. But I'm sure, I hope that most French people are going to see light and understand that we have as well a place in Europe to keep. We've got to keep France as a country we can be very proud of a country which is fighting for the right, for the European rights, for a better world and not going to see extremes in such a way. This is very disturbing. And you said that on that Sunday's vote at the European Parliament was largely a protest vote. That's how you see it. However, a recent poll indicates that 50% of supporters of the Republic Camp party do approve of the idea of an alliance with the far right. That's half of all supporters of the Republic Camp. What's your reaction to that statistic? Well, many people in politics want to be in power. They can understand that. So Republicans have been very frustrated when we're talking about 1007 supporters, supporters of the yes, yes, many supporters have been very upset by the loss of the presidential elections in 2017. So many have lost their interest. But you know, I know many Republicans as well, we cannot accept the country to move with a far right and we are going to leave the party. So it's true it's a difficult situation, but once more it is all duty as citizens are politicians to fight for all values and to explain. And there are other things which can be put in place. I know it is difficult with such an overwhelming result of the National Front, but we've got to fight for France and we've got to fight the elections. You know, an election has to be fought for and it has to be explained and people have to explain why they've succeeded in what they've done. And I'm pretty sure they will keep their seats based on what they've done previously. Joel Milam, former French senator with the Republican Party, thank you very much for coming on set and speaking to us here on Daybreak today. Thanks for having me. Our pleasure. Thanks.