(Bloomberg) — Eric Ciotti, the head of France’s conservative Republicains, called for his party to join forces with the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen to take on French President Emmanuel Macron in the upcoming snap election.

Most Read from Bloomberg

“I think there’s a need today to serve the country, which is in danger,” he told TF1 television on Tuesday. He said the party needs “an alliance with the National Rally, with its candidates, an alliance on the right.”

“The country has never been so much to the right,” he added. “It’s waiting for the right.”

Ciotti’s announcement drew immediate calls for his resignation from colleagues within his party, including from Olivier Marleix, who heads the Republicains in the National Assembly.

“Eric Ciotti is only committing himself. He must quit the presidency of the Republicains,” he wrote in a post on X. He added that his party’s candidates would not make arrangements with others.

Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called a new legislative vote, to take place over two rounds on June 30 and July 7, after his group was trounced by the National Rally in European Parliament elections. A Harris Interactive poll of voting intentions published Monday shows Le Pen’s party overtaking Macron’s as the biggest in the lower house, though short of an absolute majority, making alliances key.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.