The anti -immigration right wing eric ciotti was chosen to lead the French conservatives

The anti-immigration-like arch-conservative Eric Ciotti, who is known to demand a French Guantanamo for terrorist suspects, was appointed the new chairman of the ailing mainstream party of the right republican in France.

The once powerful group, whose roots go back to Charles de Gaulle and the presidents of Jacques Chirac to Nicolas Sarkozy have been set, suffers from a number of election defeats. Her candidate broke in the presidential election in April to only 4.8 percent.

Many of the party's basic supporters have overflowed to support either the center Emmanuel Macron or the chairwoman of the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen, as well as the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam polemist Eric Zemmour.

On Monday, Mr. Ciotti said - for a long time expert from the "Security" party - his main task was to "bring 90 percent of those who went back" by gathering a "firm" right. The Macron camp replied with the statement that his choice would effectively dissolve the rights into the extreme rights.

While the Republicans lost many seats in the National Assembly this year, their 62 MPs play a key role in the French parliament - where Mr. Macron's minority government often needs their support to adopt laws.

Mr. Ciotti beat the rival Bruno Retailleau after a second ballot of the 91,000 members of the party by 53.7 percent to 46.3 percent.

Mr. Ciotti, a member of the southern city of Nice, is known primarily for his uncompromising views on immigration and French identity.

During his application as a presidential candidate for the Republicans for this year's elections, he promised to defend the "Jewish-Christian" France against an "invasion" of migrants. The 57-year-old also proposed a "French Guantanamo" for Islamist extremists.

Before the presidential election campaign this spring he said that in the event of a runoff election he would prefer to vote for Mr. Zemmour - a candidate who claims that France was faced with a "great replacement" of his indigenous population through mainly Muslim immigrants - than for Mr. Macron.

his program suggests "to restore the value of the work, to fight against violence and disorder on the streets, to stop the migration invasion and the rise of Islamism."

He has excluded a formal alliance with the minority government of Mr. Macron in parliament, and it remains to be seen whether he will command the MPs to try to block legislation.

Macron's flagship pension reform

Mr. Macron still hopes that the Republican MPs will help to say goodbye to his flagship pension reform if a draft law is presented to the parliament at the beginning of next year.

The reform would lead to retirement age for most people from currently 62 to 65 years. The unions are already threatening with great strikes because of the move.

Mr. Ciotti has made it clear that he will not support the reform “without conditions”.

In view of the uncertainty, Mr. Macron said on Monday that his government would postpone the presentation of her pension reform plans that had been due this week.

"Several political parties have gone through leadership elections in the past few days and changed their leaders," said Mr. Macron. "It seemed appropriate to postpone the announcement by a few days or a few weeks, and that's why we will not do it on December 15th, but on January 10th."

The step would enable everyone involved to have "a few more weeks" in order to discuss "key elements" of the reform, he added.

France's Green Party Europe Ecology-Les Verts also elected a new chairman named Marine Tondelier this weekend.

Mr. Macron failed in his first term in the reform of the costly and complex pension system in France, after the first suggestions made the unions angry and triggered protests and strikes in traffic shortly before the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemy.

he put the initiative on ice when he ordered a nationwide lockdown in early 2020. After his re -election this year, however, he wanted to get a new, less ambitious Reform Act before Christmas.

The Republicans are also the strongest party in the Senate of the Oberhaus, which gives them the opportunity to rewrite laws.

Mr. Ciotti has also promised to promote Laurent Wauquiez, the former party leader, as the group's presidential candidate for the elections in 2027 if Mr. Macron has to withdraw after two terms.