Politics

Aurélien Pradié: The rising star shaking up French politics

Published

2 years ago

April 9, 2023

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Aurélien Pradié has exploded onto the centre stage of French politics after single-handedly scuppering a government vote on pension reforms.

In the space of just a few weeks, the MP has emerged as one of the biggest stars on the national political scene, helped by his youth – he is just 37 years old – his good looks, and his oratory skills. Now, he tells me, he is not ruling out a run for the presidency.

I met Mr Pradié at the biennial county fair in the village of Bétaille, where the centre-right politician grew up.

The département of Lot in south-west France is one of the country’s most rural. Some 15% of the working population here are employed in the agriculture sector.

Despite the cold, relentless rain and muddy conditions, Mr Pradié spent several hours shaking hands, kissing women on the cheek, and tasting locally grown food at the stands. He has rock star status here.

Last month he took a wrecking ball to President Emmanuel Macron’s retirement reform bill by refusing to back his own Les Républicains party’s support for it, despite winning major concessions from the government.

Many of the MPs from his party followed him. It left the government’s centrist Renaissance party without the parliamentary majority it thought it had to pass the bill.

Instead, the government used highly controversial constitutional powers to force the bill through without a parliamentary vote – a move that sparked weeks of often violent protests.

Mr Pradié defied his party leadership again shortly afterwards, choosing to censure the government in a no-confidence vote which would have forced it to resign and scrap the retirement bill.

The government survived by just nine votes. Mr Pradié was stripped of his position as deputy leader of his party for his act of rebellion. He said it’s not the job of his party to become a crutch for President Macron and his Renaissance party, which doesn’t have an absolute majority in parliament.

“I believe in destiny in politics,” he said. “I wasn’t breast fed with the idea I would one day become president, but I want a situation where the French don’t have to continuously choose between candidates that they don’t want.”

The millennial politician’s rapid political rise was done the old fashioned way – door to door, village by village. In his first election campaign he rode a moped as he couldn’t afford a car. He became an MP at the age of just 31 in a socialist stronghold and was easily re-elected last year.

He told me that coming to events like this village fair was essential for getting to know what people are thinking.

“This isn’t about folklore, this is where I pick up things about people’s everyday lives,” he said.

“Having roots in politics is fundamental and what has poisoned political life recently is the disconnection between politicians and the population. Here people don’t lie to you – they tell you what they think and it’s not always easy because they sometimes shout at me.”

His focus, however, is expanding beyond the local. Since 2014 Mr Pradié has gone from village mayor to regional councillor to MP.

Right now he doesn’t speak English, and he knows that as his national and international profile soars that could be a problem. He confided he will start taking intensive English classes in a few weeks’ time.

As we wandered among the food stands and exhibitors, the main subject was the cost of living crisis and the impact on farmers. His blunt way of talking and doing business went down well here.

“When it comes to the retirement reform I think [Mr Pradié] did the right thing, and he made the government fold,” honey producer Philippe Labarthe said. “At least he has convictions and sticks to them. Even if I disagree with him I have to recognise that quality.”

Benoît Jouclar, who runs an agricultural museum, said the MP has a vital role to play locally and nationally. “He is very important for our region, he promotes us and we need young combative people like him in government. He tells the truth and we support him entirely.”

One of the foremost analysts of French southern politics, Laurent Dubois, said Mr Pradié has a window of opportunity to rise further – but it won’t last long.

“He is something new on the scene, but can he last in the long term with something new to offer and prove that he can handle his opponents?” he said.

“His big advantage is his freshness, [but] his biggest challenge is going the distance – especially as what is new in politics often ends up out of date.”

Mr Pradié says he wants to create a new revolution from the right, but he is vague on specifics. “I think one of the big mistakes of the French right is that in recent years it’s been abandoned by the French people,” he said.

“It no longer represents the workers, the French middle class who work hard, who struggle to make ends meet and this retirement reform punishes those who work the hardest. For a while now the right has only talked to a more privileged bourgeois part of society.”

There are just two MPs representing Lot. The other is Huguette Tiegna, from President Macron’s ruling centrist Renaissance party. She says her opponent is simply an opportunist who seized the retirement reform as a way to climb the political ladder.

“I deal with key issues in depth. Pradié likes to talk,” she said.

“It’s a real problem because he’s thinking just about himself, you get the impression it’s all about him and his career.”

Not true, he told me.

“Since I am not from the establishment and have different convictions from them I am accused of being an opportunist who wants to steal the limelight, which is ridiculous when you consider the criticism I have received. If I wanted an easy life I would have taken another approach.

“The right can’t keep pretending everything is all right and sweep the dust under the carpet – if we want to rebuild then there has to be an electroshock,” he said.

“Sometimes collateral damage is the price to pay to rebuild a home.”

Chris Bockman is the author of Are you the foie gras correspondent? Another slow news day in south-west France.

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Politics

‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

Published

1 day ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Politics

Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Politics

Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

Published

2 days ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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