Aurélien Pradié was disappointed with his gift. So he stayed in his room during his birthday party. The new executive vice-president of the Republicans (LR) shone Tuesday by his absence during Eric Ciotti’s wishes and the presentation of his new team, at 238 rue de Vaugirard. Officially, for obligations in the National Assembly. The deputy of Lot actually tastes little of his new charge. Tipped to be deputy vice-president of the party, he will share the position of number 2 with MEP François Xavier-Bellamy.
A drama. He is not statutorily called upon to replace Eric Ciotti at the head of the party in the event of a power vacation. His entourage accuses the boss of LR of having violated a “deal” concluded between the two men after the LR Congress. The promotion of the turbulent parliamentarian worried internally, up to the close guard of Eric Ciotti. The Lotois is criticized for his taste for demarcation and his relative sense of the collective. The organization chart concocted by the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes thus moderates its power.
This psychodrama can be observed under the microscope. But it collides with the examination of the pension reform, the test of fire for the new president of LR. Apostle of a “responsible” right, Eric Ciotti supports the project and tries to unite a fractured parliamentary group. The Lotois, he makes his little social music heard. As a vote approaches where every vote counts, a grain of sand can derail a train.
Pensions have become Aurélien Pradié’s personal affair. The third man in Congress LR has built his internal campaign on the refusal of the postponement of the legal age of departure, in favor of an increase in the contribution period. He attributes his good score (22%) to this break with the classic discourse of his people. The man wants to maintain this image of herald of a popular right during the examination of the text in the Assembly. “He plays a form of leadership on the left wing of LR”, analyzes a strategist. “He is devoured by the concern for his personal positioning on pensions”, abounds an LR leader. Aurélien Pradié struggles. He does not miss any group meeting and tries to rally his colleagues to his line, hostile to the current government copy. “He has influence”, admits the deputy of the Vosges Stéphane Viry, at the forefront of the file.
The Lotois obtained a first victory. LR deputies will bring an amendment allowing workers who started between the ages of 16 and 20 to retire after 43 years of contribution and not 44 years as planned for some of them in the reform. “A big step passed, he comments to L’Express. We ended up convincing, but there is now the battle to be fought against the government. That changes a lot of things for the future.” In the group, we claim to carry a measure requested by unions and cheaper than expected… While admitting that it gives a little political air to its president Olivier Marleix, under pressure from his impetuous colleague.
Aurélien Pradié plays a curious score here. Attached to his uniqueness, he takes care not to put himself on the sidelines of the LR group. He undertook a long intellectual transhumance, where pragmatism and opportunism merge. During the internal campaign, the MP did not want to hear about age measurement. The amendment voted each year in the Senate on the postponement to 64 years, which inspired the executive? “An old refrain of punishment”, he slipped in December. He rather evoked an extension to 45 years of the contribution period and a removal of the full rate at 67 years. “He who starts work early, finishes early”, he explained to the Echoes.
This intransigence has moderated. On December 19, Aurélien Pradié accepts in a group meeting the principle of postponing the legal age to 63, provided that the contribution period predominates. “64 years is niet”, he lets go at the end of the exchange. Cold in the audience. The ex-secretary general of LR ends up rallying to the measure of the executive, under conditions of social progress on long careers. This plasticity irritates LR. We portray a deputy in a tireless quest for differentiation. “He is devoured by the ambition to be,” says an LR pillar. “He discovers the subjects as he goes along, abounds another. This makes him a man of successive red lines.”
The person concerned rejects any trial inconsistency. “I have not moved a millimeter, he insists. I have always said that the contribution period was greater than the legal age. If it prevails for those who started working early, then the age measurement will be painless for everyone. The ideology of the reform will be jostled.” His concessions would be strategic and would first aim to reassure his colleagues. “We are evolving to find a compromise with the group”, assures the deputy of Pas-de-Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont, a relative.
These bargainings are carried out at the cost of strong internal tensions. Aurélien Pradié maintains strained relations with Olivier Marleix. Their clashes are frequent. The deputy for Lot privately mocks the professorial tone of his colleague, who tries to preserve the coherence of his group. Latest episode, January 17. During a meeting, Aurélien Pradié stops speaking, judging Olivier Marleix not very attentive to his words. “Professor, I’m listening to you,” retorted the deputy for Eure-et-Loir, ironically.
With Bruno Retailleau, it’s worse. The reports of two men, poisoned by the internal campaign, are execrable. The president of the LR group in the Senate has little confidence in his ex-rival and judges that his “popular” line is more about communication than an ideological work. Aurélien Pradié is enraged against the strategy of the Vendéen, who has publicly rejoiced that the government has rallied to the pension reform voted in the Senate for three years. “Tactical madness, he judges. The role of auxiliary is never a role that we remember.”
Aurélien Pradié swears it hand on heart: his strategy is not individualistic, but serves his camp. His pressure on the executive would allow the right not to disappear from the screens during the debates and to reconnect with the popular strata, reluctant to this liberal potion. In a group meeting, he alerts his colleagues to the danger of being a crutch of the executive.
“Let’s not underestimate the political significance of our vote,” he recently said, comparing pension reform to the budget. Its critics see it as an obstacle to unity, in a movement eager to consolidate its status as a governing party. Aurelien Pradié’s strategy will be clarified during the reform vote: political break with Éric Ciotti or unruly alliance. An LR executive: “He oscillates between calibrated rebellion and declarations of goodwill. One day he gets angry, one day he composes.” The coin will fall back by March.
