The leader of France's conservative Republicans party on Tuesday said he backed an alliance with the far-right National Rally in snap legislative elections, triggering a crisis within his own party and fury from the government.
The shock announcement by the Republicans' (LR) leader Eric Ciotti in a lunchtime television interview on Tuesday is the first time in modern French political history that a leader of a traditional party has backed an alliance with the far-right National Rally (RN).
