“I have the feeling that he let himself be locked into the role of the internal opponent and the provocateur”, confides the vice-president of the LR party

“I think Aurélien is a talented elected official, but I have the feeling that he allowed himself to be locked into the role of internal opponent and provocateur at the risk of weakening us all at a time when we are not already not audible. You have to have the frankness to admit it”, confides this Saturday on franceinfo Agnès Evren, MEP and vice-president of the LR party. She was reacting after the announcement of Eric Ciotti to dismiss Aurélien Pradié, number 2 of the party, openly opposed to a part of the pension reform yet supported by LR.

Agnès Evren looks back on what happened Friday at the National Assembly. A thing “pretty exceptional last night”she says before specifying: “In the hemicycle, the government had taken over word for word our amendment which spoke of long careers and Aurélien Pradié was the second signatory of this amendment after Olivier Marleix, our group president.”

The member therefore does not understand the position of her colleague: “His convictions were defended since the amendment was satisfied. Eric Ciotti and Olivier Marleix focused all the negotiations with the government on Aurélien Pradié’s request on long careers. From the moment we obtain satisfaction, is- what we must leave in a permanent flight?she asks. “We won the case and at some point, you have to know when to stop.”

Aurélien Pradié “harms the visibility of our project”

According to her, “Aurélien Pradié was right to point out all the inconsistencies and in particular all the provisions which were unfair”that’s not the problem. “The problem is that it harms the readability of our pension reform project. The problem is that it has multiplied the points of order, that it has been acclaimed by the Nupes and we our objective in the LR, it is not to be applauded by the Nupes but to defend our convictions.

Asked about the possibility of excluding Aurélien Pradié from the party Agnès Evren answers: “There is no question of expelling him from the party. He will not be, it would not make sense. He was just removed from his position as first vice-president.” And the MEP to add: “He has personal ambitions, which is nothing shameful and illegitimate. Today he was sanctioned because it was repetitive and we felt that the message of the Republicans was completely illegible. “