Jean-Michel Blanquer again at the heart of a controversy. According to our colleagues from Mediapart, the Minister of National Education was on vacation in Ibiza when he revealed to the Parisian the new – and controversial – health protocol for schools, on the eve of the start of the new school year in January. This information was confirmed on Monday evening January 17 by the ministry, which indicates that Jean-Michel Blanquer “worked remotely”.
The minister had unveiled the main lines of the new health protocol in an interview on Sunday January 2, the day before the start of the new school year, leaving schools little time to organize themselves, which had accentuated the discontent of the teams in the establishments. . He actually did a video interview, “it’s nothing extraordinary,” the ministry told Agence France-Presse on Monday evening.
The minister was “in a private setting for 4 days of vacation”, “whether he was at a distance or not does not change anything”, added the ministry, recalling that ministers are authorized to go on vacation “up to two hours by plane from Paris”.
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Opposition headwind
“The High Council for Public Health delivered its opinion on Sunday at 5 p.m., the protocol is decided in the general framework and it was then declined for schools”, it was specified, to explain the short period of time between the announcements and the start of the school year. “If he had been there, it wouldn’t have come out sooner,” the ministry said.
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On social networks, these revelations did not fail to react to members of the opposition. “Instead of preparing with teachers and parents of students for a return to school under Covid, the minister organized a media stunt with his feet in the sand. This level of contempt and irresponsibility is not acceptable,” pointed out the environmental candidate for president, Yannick Jadot. “#BlanquerDemission”, meanwhile wrote LFI deputies Danièle Obono and Mathilde Panot. “The new protocol in schools announced by the Minister of National Education… from Ibiza… Here is a new big communication error which should not calm the situation”, also regretted Mathieu Orphelin.
Instead of preparing with teachers and parents of students for a return to Covid, the minister organized a media stunt with his feet in the sand. This level of contempt and irresponsibility is not acceptable.
I again demand the resignation of @jmblanquer.
—Yannick Jadot (@yjadot) January 17, 2022
The waltz of health protocols in schools in recent weeks has angered teachers, some of whom went on strike on January 13, a movement widely followed. Several unions have called for a new day of action for Thursday January 20, which could result in a new strike.