Marine Le Pen's one key move which could render Emmanuel Macron powerless
National Rally is leading the polls, with French voters casting their ballots on June 30 and July 7.
National Rally (RN) - the party leading the French polls, as the country prepares to vote in Emmanuel Macron's snap election - is in a strong position to alter the make-up of the National Assembly and render the French president a lame duck in the final years of his presidency.
As it stands, Marine Le Pen's party is flying high in the polls and is fresh off the back of a triumphant European election campaign, which saw RN, branded far-Right by its critics, claim twice the vote share of its nearest rival.
According to Politico, RN is leading leading the domestic polls on 28 percent, followed by the radical Left's New Ecological and Social People's Union on 24 percent led by socialist, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
However, if RN want to really render the French president powerless, then it may need the help of like-minded parties.
Le Pen's niece, Marion Maréchal, of the much smaller hard-Right party Reconquête! has called for a coalition of the Right to work together to undermine Mr Macron's power.
However, since Ms Maréchal's statement of intent, the president of the centre-Right Les Republicains has also expressed his desire to unite with RN - a move that could spell disaster for the incumbent French leader.
Eric Ciotti told TF1 television: "We need to have an alliance (...) an alliance with the RN and its candidates."
After Ciotti added that he wanted his "political family to move in this direction", Le Pen heralded his intervention as "courageous".
If a deal between Ciotti, Le Pen and Maréchal is reached, then members of RN, Les Republicains and Reconquête! could work in lockstep to radically constrain President Macron.
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However, Mr Ciotti's decisive move has been met with scorn by Les Republicain figures.
According to Le Monde, Gérard Larcher, the president of the Sénat, said Mr Ciotti "can no longer preside our movement and must give up his mandate of president of Les Républicains".
Olivier Marleix, the head of the Les Republicains group in the National Assembly, shared that sentiment, saying: "Eric Ciotti speaks only for himself. He must leave from the presidency of Les Républicains."
However, Mr Ciotti insisted there was "absolutely no question" of him standing down.
