Controversial remarks by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra: a teachers' union calls for demonstrations “under the windows” of the minister

La ministre de l'Education et des sports se retrouve engluée dans une polémique suite à ses propos sur l'école publique. MAXPPP – Vincent Isore

Following the outcry caused by the comments of the new Minister of National Education on public establishments, the controversy continues to ignite. So much so that several teaching unions have called a strike on January 25.

A stormy start to Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s journey at the head of the Ministry of Education. The day after taking office, the new Minister of National Education and Sports caused an outcry by justifying her choice of having placed her children in a private school, on the grounds that ;a "package of hours were not seriously replaced" in public establishments.

Call for strike on January 25 and February 1

In reaction, the unions are now calling for a strike to denounce the "provocation" and the "contempt" of the new minister. The Fnec-FP-FO denounced an "unbearable contempt" and called for a strike and "demonstrates under the windows" of the ministry Thursday January 25, report our colleagues from BFMTV. 

The National Union of Secondary Education (SNES) and the FSU had already launched a call for a strike for February 1st. A movement also concerns “other trade union organizations”, as explained in a press release published on January 13.

🏅Premier jour, première médaille d'or : celle de la provocation !
Attribuée à Amélie Oudéa-Castera, ministre des JO…et de l’enseignement privé.
➡️https://t.co/vP4dwgGbvQ #Grève1erFévrier #Mépris2024 pic.twitter.com/O7jdIDpgLC

— SNES-FSU (@SNESFSU) January 13, 2024

Originally, the strike had been set up to protest against the working conditions of the teaching staff, but after the remarks of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the list of demands was changed. been revised upwards, in order to point out the "violent charge against public education".

An apology from the minister

The new tenant of rue de Grenelle apologized in a statement sent to the media this Saturday, January 13, saying "regret" to have been able to injure certain public education teachers. 

The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, denounced "the’hypocrisy" of this controversy. "The minister spoke transparently about the choices she made […]. As for the question of unreplaced absences, I find that there is a lot of hypocrisy among certain commentators or certain politicians,” he explained during a trip to Dijon that same day.