Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, under fire for the schooling of her children in the private establishment Stanislas, estimated during the ceremony of wishes of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) that “even within Parliament, we would like to make of me the symbol of a privileged caste to be fought, to be destroyed.” The minister finds herself at the center of a controversy triggered by comments on the education of her children in the Parisian private school Stanislas and her declarations on the Littré public school and its “packages of hours not seriously replaced”.
“Mea culpa”
An outing which triggered the ire of several teaching unions and a defense of the minister undermined shortly after by the daily Libération which published several testimonies denying this version. “In recent days, I have evoked, in an awkward manner, an erroneous memory of my mother from 15 years ago. I have hurt people who for nothing in the world I wanted to hurt. Mea culpa,” she said. said.
“I’m telling you this evening, I’m not sure I’ll be able to forgive myself for this mistake one day. It’s a bruise for me, contrary to many of the labels that many people want to stick to me. on my shoulders. The only injunction that I have ever given to myself is not to win (…), to conquer, but to behave like a good person and that is not what that I did.”
“What I discovered about the clumsy, erroneous, faulty evocation of a memory (…) A torrent can burst forth which splashes everything down to the most intimate choices (…) a mechanism which would like sweep away everything that has been built, dirty everything that can be,” she continued in a long defense monologue. “And even within Parliament they would like to make me the symbol of a privileged caste to be fought, to be destroyed. While the only thing I have inherited from my family is the love of a job well done, a taste for effort, a passion for merit. And it’s all that that makes sport my natural environment,” she said in front of an audience who applauded her for a long time at the end of her speech. .
The minister also cited Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Be a Man My Son” which was in her childhood bedroom. “As long as this mandate at the head of this magnificent ministry is entrusted to me, I will do everything to help the children, all the children of the Republic, succeed,” she also added.