Jean-Michel Blanquer in Ibiza: Anne Hidalgo tackles “her casualness and her lightness”

“This is the lightness with which he treats his function, teachers and parents of students.” When finalizing the new health protocol for schools, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer was on vacation. As revealed by Mediapart and confirmed to LCI, he was in Ibiza when he gave an interview to the Parisian to reveal its contents, on January 2, the day before the start of the school year. Information that AFP consolidated with the ministry, which added that it was “in a private setting for four days of vacation”. “Whether he was at a distance or not does not change anything”, assured his entourage.

This revelation caused an outcry in the political class. Since Monday evening, calls for resignation have multiplied, on the right and on the left. “This level of contempt and irresponsibility is not acceptable”, tweeted the EELV presidential candidate Yannick Jadot, calling “again to resign” of the minister. A withdrawal also requested from the PS. “The delay in the communication of the protocol was officially linked to the need to stick to the reality of the start of the school year. When improvisation is born from a lie, trust is no longer possible”, said First Secretary Olivier Faure.

Refusing, for her part, to claim the head of the tenant in the rue de Grenelle, Anne Hidalgo did not fail to scratch it on her balance sheet. “We must judge him on his acts as a minister. In his acts as a minister, he showed all his shortcomings, a lot of contempt, lack of respect, both for teachers, parents of students (…) . He’s allowed to take a vacation, but it’s very flippant.”, judged the PS presidential candidate, guest of Elizabeth Martichoux on LCI, Tuesday, January 18. “In addition to this protocol that he wrote, drafted, sent on a Sunday evening, the day before the start of the school year, without anyone being warned or associated upstream, to learn that he did it from Ibiza, that is the lightness with which he treats his function.”

For the socialist mayor of Paris, “it will have political consequences, in the sense that it weakens even more” Jean-Michel Blanquer. “He is weakened by his action which is disastrous for the school, he is weakened by this contempt that he permanently has for teachers whom he does not consider. He is weakened by this protocol, which he made in this lightness, in this very distant relationship, very contemptuous vis-à-vis people who try to find solutions every day (…) Frankly, the most serious situation is that in which he leaves school. That’s what will have consequences”, added Anne Hidalgo.

“After five years, the school has never been so weakened”, she insisted, considering that Jean-Michel Blanquer, “one of the strong men of the government, very supported by” Emmanuel Macron, contributed to “damage the school”. “This minister did not know how to make the right decisions. I hope that the French will draw the consequences at the time of the presidential election.”