The leader of the Les Républicains party, Eric Ciotti, announced on Saturday February 18 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 LR in a press release, denouncing a “personal adventure” which “cannot substitute for collective action and the spirit of responsibility”.
The crisis had been brewing 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 conditions his support on the reform to strict progress on the long career system.
Guarantees on 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 constituting a barrier. The government seemed to take a step in this direction on several occasions, but Aurélien Pradié and other LR deputies considered that the guarantees provided by the executive did not completely rule out the possibility for certain people of having to contribute 44 annuities.
“The only fate that matters is that of the French for whom we are engaged. Convictions are defensible. Relentlessly, ”said Mr. Pradié on Saturday, in a tweet published a few minutes after the publication of the LR press release, but unrelated to the announcements.
Already last week, the president of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, had estimated in Le Journal du dimanche (JDD) that Aurélien Pradié should leave his post if he did not vote for the pension reform, as he waved the threat. To the question “Can Aurélien Pradié remain number two in the party?” The senator from Vendée assures that “if he does not vote for the postponement of the legal age, no”.