Placing children with disabilities in “special establishments”. This proposal submitted by Eric Zemmour this Friday, January 14 has created controversy across the political spectrum, even causing President Emmanuel Macron to react.
Submitted by candidate Reconquest! in the presidential election during a trip to a school in Hauts-de-France on Friday, this idea of putting an end to the inclusion of disabled children in ordinary schools did not fail to react, on the right as on the left.
“Except for people who are obviously slightly disabled, who can enter the classroom. But for the rest, yes, the obsession with inclusion is a bad way for other children, and for these children, who, the poor, are completely overwhelmed by other children”, specified Eric Zemmour during his visit.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, criticized this position in private. “We cannot claim to be in love with France and so deny what we are. A united, humanist nation that does not divide or stigmatize. A nation which, beyond political sensitivities, has always known how to make differences an asset and a strength. Disability was my carte blanche during the debate between two rounds of 2017 (…) Not a week has passed since I didn’t fight, in particular to allow children to go to school. school like and with the others, ”assured the Head of State, according to the revelations of the Parisian.
A unanimous political condemnation
This outing also greatly annoyed Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister in charge of people with disabilities and mother of a daughter with Down’s syndrome, who denounced on Twitter “a miserable and excluding vision”.
Appalled by the miserable and excluding vision that Eric Zemmour carries.
It starts with foreigners and then people with disabilities, how far will it go? He thinks that anything different should be excluded.
It is not the society that we carry! @governmentFR pic.twitter.com/8PwKJzAoFX
— Sophie Cluzel (@s_cluzel) January 15, 2022
Himself suffering from a disability, namely arthrogryposis (which often manifests itself by stiffness in the joints), since his birth, the president of the deputies Les Républicains Damien Abad rose up via a tweet against these remarks judged ” scandalous”, before demanding “a public apology” from Eric Zemmour.
Scandalous remarks by Eric Zemmour on the education of disabled children whom he wants to exclude from school in an ordinary environment. This segregation on all levels is an absolute shame. Yes we must be obsessed with inclusion. I demand a public apology
— Damien Abad (@damienabad) January 14, 2022
In the middle of the electoral campaign, the candidates for the presidential election took a massive stand against this idea. The head of the Republican list, Valérie Pécresse, said she was “scandalized by the brutality” of this proposal, indicating on Twitter her wish to promote inclusion for fragile children.
Outraged by the brutality of Eric Zemmour who wants to exclude children with disabilities from school. He strikes at the heart of their families.
My priority: better inclusion for fragile children, that’s my project. This is my France.
— Valerie Pécresse (@vpecresse) January 15, 2022
For Marine Le Pen, candidate of the National Rally in the presidential election, Eric Zemmour crossed “a red line” with this “unforgivable” attack against children weakened by a disability.
Choosing systematic brutality as a political project is already questionable, but attacking children weakened by a disability is a red line and it is unforgivable.https://t.co/kq9zKexSXI
– Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) January 15, 2022
Yannick Jadot, the EELV presidential candidate, recommended measures aimed at upgrading the profession of Accompanying a student with a disability (AESH).
No excluding children with disabilities. Revaluing the job of accompanying students with disabilities, perpetuating the position of disability referent: some examples of common sense measures to guarantee all children the fundamental right to education. https://t.co/AuVq6oswyq
—Yannick Jadot (@yjadot) January 15, 2022
The candidate of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, presented his program in terms of disability and education, with a strengthening of the educational system and the integration of sign language into the school curriculum to promote the inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing children.
Zemmour wants to exclude students in situations of #disability of the common school. On the contrary, the Future in Common proposes to put the means to allow their schooling on an equal basis with all the pupils. Two opposing worldviews. pic.twitter.com/gLIhKc2tK2
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) January 15, 2022
In a video posted on Youtube on Saturday, the former polemicist regretted that his remarks had “been distorted”, while denouncing a “hypocritical egalitarian ideology” and “cruel and brutal egalitarianism”.
“Wanting to treat them all the same way does not erase inequalities,” added Eric Zemmour in his speech this Saturday.