Controversies surrounding Amélie Oudéa-Castéra: look back at 12 days of ordeal for the Minister of Education and Sports

Amélie Oudéa-Castera MAXPPP – Alexis Sciard

Polémiques et gros titres, huées, railleries et des syndicats d'enseignants prêts à en découdre : les débuts d'Amélie Oudéa-Castéra à la tête d'un super-ministère de l'Education et des Sports ont ressemblé à un calvaire, dont elle tente d'émerger en faisant profil bas.

A week after his eventful visit to the Littré school in Paris, where jokes and cameras awaited him after his release on the 'packets of hours" not replaced in public school, "AOC" chose discretion Tuesday morning by going to a rural college twenty kilometers from Reims.

No flashy declarations but this comment in front of the students, noted by the Union newspaper: "I know that I haven't not started well, that I made some awkward comments…"

Twelve days after his appointment as head of a ministry bringing together Education, orphan of Gabriel Attal promoted to Matignon, Sports and the Olympic Games, his team says & ;quot;at work".

Hoping to end a sequence which has raised doubts about her future – she herself admitted on France 2 to having considered resigning. During a meeting of Renaissance deputies last week, "some have expressed reservations about it continuing", even though "it' was in the minority", a group executive reported to AFP.

"Since the beginning, some consider that it is poorly fitted", he adds . When she was appointed, on January 11, "AOC" is however the "good student" from the government.

Decided to be "minister fully" while the teachers' unions are taking action are alarmed by the extent of its scope and its real room for maneuver on a subject, education, closely monitored by Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal.

"Awkward remarks"

Everything changed the next day, during his first trip, to a college in Andrésy (Yvelines). Asked about the schooling of her three sons in the prestigious Parisian private school Stanislas, the minister cites "packages of hours not seriously replaced" at the Littré public school where his eldest was briefly educated.

"Lunar remarks" and "social separatism" : the outcry is immediate among the unions and the left. The minister, also mocked for a question to a student about her “sneakers”, attempted to clear the mines 24 hours later. With the AFP, the one who is derided as an incarnation of an elitism "disconnected", says & ;quot;regret" to have " been able to hurt certain teachers". But on Sunday, the fire started again.

In Libération, the former kindergarten teacher at the public school of the minister's son denies having been absent. Monday, January 15, is the crisis: the oppositions are demanding the resignation of a minister accused of "lies". Government spokesperson Prisca Thévenot jumps in: "I don't know if she lied".

Livid, withdrawn during a trip to the Olympics, the minister asks to "close" the "personal attacks chapter". But, as demanded by the unions, she went the next day to the Littré school, amid boos, to present an "apology" to teachers.

The image seriously tarnishes the government renewal desired by Emmanuel Macron but the president defends his minister the same evening during his press conference: she had "reason to be&# 39;excuse" for his "clumsy remarks", he says in front of an assembly where the person concerned listens attentively, stabilo in hand.

"Work accident"

Another front opens the same evening: Mediapart publishes a report from the General Inspectorate of National Education on Stanislas, relating " drifts" particularly homophobic. "AOC" must step up to the plate to ensure that the Catholic establishment is the subject of an "action plan" followed with "rigor".

But she immediately moves away from this hot new issue where there is also a question of a "circumvention" of Parcoursup having concerned in particular her son, according to Mediapart. Monday, she was also caught up by the sports side with the publication of a parliamentary report on the sports federations pointing to her salary "abnormal" when she headed the French Tennis Federation (FFT). A document "militant", she tackles.

In this storm which does not abate, she copes and shows up at work, between meetings, travel and organization of her office – her office director was appointed on Tuesday. She must participate in Emmanuel Macron's Olympic vows on Tuesday. "In politics, what she experienced is called a work accident. There are those who fall and then those who float. She has temperament", said the mayor of Meaux Jean-François Copé (LR) on Sunday.

"I think she can get up again", also judges a Renaissance deputy. With already a new test: the mobilization of revolted unions, Thursday at the call of Fnec-FP-FO for public schools, then on February 1, movement announced in December by four unions on wages and working conditions.