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The French Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, revealed in recent days the new anti-Covid-19 protocol to be implemented in the country’s schools, which sparked protests. However, the official is now the center of criticism for having announced the measures when he was on vacation in Ibiza, Spain. While some call for his resignation, the government defends the official.
A new controversy is born within the French Government. This time it is the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, who has been harshly criticized this Tuesday, January 18, for having revealed a new protocol against the coronavirus for French schools during his vacations in Spain.
The web portal ‘Mediapart’ reported that Blanquer was on vacation on the Spanish island of Ibiza when on January 2 he announced, through an interview with the newspaper ‘Le Parisien’, the health protocol to apply in schools upon return from the weekend holidays. of year.
Among those who now ask for his head are leaders of the French left and the teachers’ unions who have staged a series of demonstrations in recent days against the measures imposed by the Government.
Au lieu de préparer avec les enseignants et les parents d’élèves une rentrée sous Covid, le minister organisait un coup médiatique les pieds dans le sable. Ce level of mépris et d’irresponsabilité n’est pas acceptable.
I demanded of nouveau the resignation of @jmblanquer.
— Yannick Jadot (@yjadot) January 17, 2022
Blanquer’s image began to falter since the teachers called for protests over the continuous changes in the health protocol and the lack of material and human means to guarantee classes in the midst of the wave of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Parents and students were also infuriated by the new rules, criticized for their late release and complexity.
“It’s enough. Jean-Michel Blanquer must resign,” said Mathilde Panot, president of the radical leftist group France Insumisa, in a message posted on her Twitter account.
The presidential candidate of the Los Verdes party, Yannick Jadot, also called for “the resignation of Jean-Michel Blanquer”. “Instead of preparing with teachers and parents the return to school under Covid-19, the minister organized a media coup with his feet in the sand. This level of contempt and irresponsibility is not acceptable,” Jadot said.
Blanquer defends himself and the Government supports him
During a session of questions to the Government in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Jean-Michel Blanquer expressed that he had the right to take vacations and that his work for the start of the school year on January 3 had not been compromised by being out of his office. .
After 2 years, I worked 7 days on 7 for the school management of the health crisis.
Grâce au travail de tous, notamment des professeurs, la France a été le pays de l’école ouverte.
J’ai pris 5 days of frozen. In lien chaque jour avec mon ministère au service de l’école: pic.twitter.com/PErsKZWZpR— Jean-Michel Blanquer (@jmblanquer) January 18, 2022
For his part, the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, defended the Minister of Education, assuring that he had not infringed the Executive’s regulations. “The rules established by the Government regarding vacations are that you have to be reachable at all times, in your task. There is no reason to think that this was not the case with Jean-Michel Blanquer,” Attal told ‘CNews’ television.
Now that Blanquer’s position has been weakened by the ‘Mediapart’ revelations, several teachers’ unions, secondary school student associations and a federation of parents have launched a new call to demonstrate on January 20.
“Inevitably, this will further widen the gap that already exists between the minister and his staff,” lamented Guislaine David, spokesperson for SNUipp-FSU, a primary teachers’ union, during an interview with the ‘France Info’ chain. “There really is a gap here between what Ibiza represents and what the classmates experienced daily on the eve of the start of classes,” he added.
With AFP and EFE
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