Aurélien Pradié, the “baby Chirac” who shakes LR

PSpring 2008 at the Élysée: the laptop of Nicolas Sarkozy’s political adviser crackles. Online, the prefect of Lot suggests that he look into the registration number of a young 22-year-old prodigy. Which has just knocked out in the cantonal elections a socialist cacique forty years his senior, who was his teacher, by campaigning on Mobylette on this viscerally left-wing Occitan land. The UMP is looking for new faces and Aurélien Pradié soon finds himself at the president’s table, seated alongside Jean Sarkozy, who has robbed him of the title of youngest general counsel in France for a few months. What do “Monsieur le Dauphin”, elected in the wealthy canton of Neuilly-Sud, and this kid from the Causses who grew alone, like a wild grass, have in common? He is neither an heir nor an e…