Éric Ciotti and Bruno Retailleau will compete for the presidency of the French conservative party The Republicans after being the two most voted candidates in an internal election in which some 91,000 members participated.
The winner of the contest between the right-wing Ciotti and Retailleau, representative of the conservative and liberal wing of the party, will be decided next weekend, according to the results announced by the acting president of the Republicans, Annie Genevard.
Ciotti won 42.73 percent of the vote, some 28,000, compared to 22,000 (34.45 percent) for Retailleau. The third in contention was Aurélien Pradié, who won 14,000 votes (22.29 percent).
The turnout was 72.67 percent. «As of tonight, the competition is reopened,» stressed Genevard, who welcomed the «remarkable» turnout. Turnout was 47 percent in 2019.
