Since Monday, January 15, the hypothesis of a resignation of the Minister of Education Amélie Oudéa-Castéra is gaining ground according to information from Libération.
The pressure is intensifying around Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. Present this Monday morning in front of the sub-prefecture of Saint-Denis for a visit to the Olympic village, six months before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the new Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympic Games and Paralympics was unable to avoid the fateful question about the controversy in which she has been mired since January 12, around the schooling of her children in private education.
Asked about a potential lie about the absence of teachers in the public, and a statement from a former teacher of the minister’s eldest son contradicting her version, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra finally answered the question asked by the newspaper Release this Monday, despite the Ministry of the Interior’s ban on journalists on site discussing the affair: “I do not want to go any further into the area of ??personal life and private life. There is attacks to which I tried to respond with as much sincerity as possible. We must close this chapter of personal attacks and personal life” she declared. “My husband and I have never prioritized anything other than the well-being of our child,” insists the minister.
According to information from Libération, his “resignation is now on the table” after the daily’s revelations. On the opposition side, calls for resignation are increasing. For Manuel Bompard, deputy and coordinator of France insoumise, the legitimacy of the new Minister of National Education is in doubt: “It was a lie which disqualifies her from continuing to occupy this function”, insisted the insoumise on franceinfo this Monday. Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN deputy for the Somme) speaks to him about a “flagrant crime of lying” at the RMC microphone. Same story with the environmentalist deputy for Yvelines Benjamin Lucas who called for the resignation of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, this morning on BFMTV. He even launched a petition along these lines.
This Monday, January 15, government spokesperson Prisca Thévenot was questioned about this affair which has shaken Macronie since January 12. “I don’t know if she lied,” she conceded. “I am telling you this as a government spokesperson today, but I could tell you this as a former MP or as a committed everyday activist: I would like us to answer the question of how we works on non-replaced hours. I myself am a mother of two children, seven and nine years old and yes, we are faced with these non-replaced hours” she added.
Less than a week after the reshuffle, this affair appears to be a real thorn in Emmanuel Macron’s side. He who had decided to tighten his government in an attempt to give a boost to a chaotic second five-year term, particularly after the tumultuous adoption of the immigration bill, must now face this regrettable unforeseen event. A file which “is part of the reserved domain of the president” according to the Elysée, as reported by AFP. This Tuesday, January 16, he will give a press conference to assert his stature, “re-presidentialize” himself and set the new course after the appointment of Gabriel Attal. Precisely, the new Prime Minister had assured that he would be the “guarantor” of the “absolute priority” given to schools. False start with this first Oudéa-Castéra episode.
As a reminder, the Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games had created the first controversy of the new government of Gabriel Attal. During her first trip, Friday January 12, to a college in Yvelines, the minister explained that she would place her children in a private establishment, the Parisian Stanislas College, renowned for its great conservatism. She justified her choice by the “frustration” that she and her husband had in the face of “lots of hours not seriously replaced” in the public school that her children previously attended. The day after her speech which sparked strong criticism, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said she “regretted” her comments which “may have hurt some public education teachers”. Since then, the controversy has not run out of steam, quite the contrary. New elements have been revealed by our colleagues at Libération.
Could the new Minister of Education have lied? One thing is certain, the former teacher of the minister’s son assured in Libération that she was never absent during the six months of the child’s public schooling. “I feel personally attacked. I was not absent and even if that were the case, we were always replaced. There has never been a replacement problem at Littré which is a small, highly rated school” , explains Florence, a retired teacher. Still according to our colleagues at Libération, only the minister’s eldest son was educated in the public sector, lasting only 6 months in a small nursery section.
Amélie Oudéa-Castera maintains her version on her side. But the private preference of the minister and her husband could be linked to another reason according to the teacher’s testimony: the little boy’s move to the next class. The teacher was opposed to it because of the age of the child who was not yet four years old and according to her it was because the Stanislas establishment agreed to enroll the child in the higher level that Amélie Oudéa-Castera favored the private establishment.
