Aurélien Pradié, dismissed from his position as number two of the Les Républicains (LR) party, denounced, on Sunday February 19 in a press release, a decision "contrary to the requirement of the rally and to the respect of all our members".
Ousted on Saturday by the president of LR, Eric Ciotti, after having repeatedly expressed positions against the current of his party on the pension reform, the deputy of Lot assured to prefer his "freedom of belief to any position ". He also made it clear that he "remains and will always remain loyal to [s]a political family".
Maintaining an intransigent line, in particular on the consideration of long careers, Mr. Pradié threatened not to vote for the reform under consideration in the Assembly, while the leadership of his party seemed to have reached an agreement with the government.
"I will always refuse that the right gradually becomes the conciliatory crutch of macronie", still castigated Mr. Pradié on Sunday, denouncing "political scullery negotiations". “This pension reform remains unfair and ill-prepared. Faced with the government, the French expect strength, justice and respect from Republicans,” he added.
Mr. Pradié infuriated the liberal and conservative wing of the party
The elected Lot, who demanded that a person who started working before the age of 21 did not have to contribute more than forty-three years to leave at full rate, had ended up winning his case with his group on Friday. “That evening we managed to rally all the opposition and part of the majority behind our position. We should be proud of it,” pleaded this champion of a “popular right”.
Mr. Pradié's "repeated positions" were "no longer in line with the values of coherence, unity and unity which must guide the Republican right", justified Mr. Ciotti in a press release on Saturday, also denouncing a "personal adventure" that "cannot substitute for collective action and the spirit of responsibility".
“The only fate that matters is that of the French for whom we are engaged. Convictions are defensible. Relentlessly, "reacted the deputy of Lot in a tweet published a few minutes after the publication of the press release from LR.
With his clear-cut positions and his sometimes rough speech, Mr. Pradié exasperated the liberal and conservative wing of the party, in particular the senators worried about seeing each concession on pensions unraveling a text very close to their own wishes. Its omnipresence in the media has also irritated. "We could not continue with this deplorable spectacle where clown deputies only seek to make shots without ever working on the substance," MEP Agnès Evren told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Mr. Ciotti, who made his decision on Friday evening after polling the group, announced his decision to Mr. Pradié by text message, having been unable to reach him by telephone.
