For Eric Ciotti, a good day begins with reading Nice morning. But Friday, February 17, the president of the Les Républicains (LR) party almost spits out his coffee when he discovers the interview given by Aurélien Pradié to the regional daily. The title sets the tone: The government takes Republicans for fools. » Further, the deputy of Lot curries “the discipline with variable geometry” at LR. Inevitably, the local stage, at the head of the right-wing formation since December, takes the criticism for him.
The next day, Eric Ciotti dismissed him from his post as executive vice-president of the party in a pithy press release. “It had been latent for a few days, advances his friend Eric Paugé, deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes like him. Pradié pulled too hard on the rubber band. In the morning, he gives this interview, in the evening he is applauded by the “rebellious” in the Assembly. Eric’s patience has limits as he has sought to integrate it into all discussions on this pension reform. »
At the end of January, on Europe 1, the new right-wing troublemaker said he did not see any « chef » in his political family. The chef in question takes little notice of the comment and lets him know. In a party with a Bonapartist culture, the 57-year-old man has the fault of appearing as a non-presidential president and of keeping the place warm for another: Laurent Wauquiez. How then to assert its authority?
The government will not give him time to change the decoration of his office, rue de Vaugirard. Barely elected president of LR, Eric Ciotti lives “a baptism of fire with a heavy and complex file like that of pensions”, in his words. But he’s not complaining. This cerebral man has been underestimated for too long, reduced to the role of service “right-hander” or former gun-bearer of Christian Estrosi, not to appreciate being at the heart of all negotiations today.
When others dream of the Elysée, he has always imagined himself in Beauvau, Minister of the Interior, first cop in France. At the risk of drawing his own caricature. “He is someone who has forged an image, but he is more open than it may seem”, concedes the leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, his unfortunate opponent for the presidency of the party. ” I feel that the look of my interlocutors changes, entrusts the person concerned to Monde. I had been caricatured in this picture, security, order, but that started to change during the last primary [le scrutin interne à droite pour la présidentielle, en décembre 2021, lorsqu’il était opposé à Valérie Pécresse]. I had shown that I could talk about economics and be credible. »
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