The leader of the Les Républicains party Eric Ciotti announced on Saturday to dismiss his number 2 Aurélien Pradié, openly opposed to a part of the pension reform yet supported by LR.
“His repeated positions (were) no longer in line with the values of coherence, unity and unity which must guide the Republican right”, justified the boss of the LRs in a press release, criticizing a “personal adventure”, which "cannot replace collective action and the spirit of responsibility".
The crisis had been simmering for weeks and broke out the day after the end of the tumultuous review of the reform at the Palais Bourbon.
While Eric Ciotti and Olivier Marleix, leader of the LR group in the Assembly, have been supporting the government's pension reform project for weeks, which would raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, Aurélien Pradié, who occupied the place of executive vice-president of the party, openly conditions his support for the reform on strict progress on the device of long careers.
The deputy for Lot intends to obtain strict assurances from the government that anyone who enters the labor market before the age of 21 can retire at the full rate after having contributed 43 annuities, without the legal retirement age constitutes a barrier.
If the government seemed to take a step in this direction on several occasions, first by declarations by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, then by remarks in the hemicycle of Olivier Dussopt, Aurélien Pradié like other LR deputies have considered that the guarantees provided by the executive did not completely rule out the possibility for certain people with long careers of having to contribute 44 annuities.
"The only fate that matters is that of the French for whom we are committed. Convictions, it is defended. Relentlessly", tweeted Mr. Pradié on Saturday, a few minutes after the publication of the LR press release.
Eric Ciotti and Aurélien Pradié had scrapped during the elections for the presidency of the party, with the president of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau. After his victory, Eric Ciotti announced on January 18 that he would have a management team including Aurélien Pradié as executive vice-president.
02/18/2023 16:31:33 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
