The minister responsible for managing the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games is on the ropes in France. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, head of the Sport and Education portfoliostarred in a TV series follow-up discussions Following his appointment as head of this important ministry on January 11. So much so that this Thursday, his figure found himself at the center of all attention and criticism. busy teachers strike French. This increased pressure for him to resign less than six months before the Olympic event.
When 44-year-old Oudéa-Castéra benefited from a significant promotion with the formation of the new French Government, he could not have imagined the political storm that would ensnare him. He had been Minister of Sports since May 2022 and had not been in the media spotlight except for certain incidents, such as his fight with French Football Federation president Noël Le Graët, who resigned last February. year. However, with his appointment as head of a “macro ministry” consisting of Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympic Games, His personal profile turned out to be a source of controversy.. And this situation was aggravated by the communicative ineptitude of this leader with little political experience.
When he was given the Education portfolio, replacing current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, the suitability of his profile was quickly questioned by an article published in ‘Mediapart’. Prestigious left-wing digital media revealed: The minister’s three children study at the Stanislaus school and institute, an elitist Catholic school in Paris.. The education administration is investigating the expansion of this subsidized center in catechism classes “sexist” and homophobic ideasas well as promoting conversion therapies for gay people. According to a report prepared by four education inspectors last year and recently published in the press, one of the religion classes teaches that abortion “means the voluntary killing of an innocent person.”
clumsy expressions
Oudéa-Castéra added fuel to the fire with her arguments to justify her three children’s departure to the controversial centre. He explained that his eldest son attended a public school in the wealthy 6th arrondissement of Paris, but they decided to switch him “because too many hours (of absent teachers) were not seriously replaced.” However, the teacher who had his son in this school for six months when he was 3 years old contradicted these statements. He said he “wasn’t on sick leave at all” and in fact They took him to a private school because they didn’t want to move up to the next grade in the public school..
Other controversial information added to the feeling that the minister was lying. On the one hand, the fact that one of his children took advantage of a mechanism of the Stanislas Institute for educational control, which is, according to the law, illegal to avoid Parcoursup, the controversial system used in France to decide which university to study at or study at. Students who pass the baccalaureate can take preparatory classes. On the other hand, his three children also received education. men-only classesalthough there were also mixed classes in that school.
This accumulation of controversy has enraged a large segment of the education community, especially in a country where public education is considered a pillar of republican values. “Your comments were embarrassing. Even though the percentage of absenteeism in public education is lower than in private education and other professions, we are always accused of being on sick leave.” Marjorie Tison, 30, a secondary school history teacher, was present at the Paris demonstration and carried a sign reading “Bye AOC, bye Stanislas.”
“He didn’t stop making mistakes”
“I don’t understand how he can devote himself to running the Olympic Games while at the same time he has such a big job in charge of Education,” said Nicolas, 36, another secondary school teacher who was also at the parade. Streets of Paris Rive Gauche. “He didn’t stop making mistakes in a very short time“Laurence, another teacher who is “not affiliated with any union,” added that he would “go on strike for the second time in his twenty-year career in education.”
More than 60 percent of primary schools in Paris were closed due to the strike. This action, followed by 47% of teachers (unions) and more than 20% of ministries (ministries), was the most intense education strike since January 2022. Trade union organizations made a call. another job cut next tuesday. The minister maintained that he “will not resign” despite these pressures. “My starts were not good,” he told the TF1 network on Friday. Earlier in the week he had already accused “a mechanism (…) that wants to turn me into a symbol of a caste of privileged people who must be fought.”
In addition to the controversy over his children’s education in a controversial Catholic school, this minister’s feuilleton has caused rivers of ink to flow about the personal career of this former professional tennis player, who shares the same class at the National School of Management (the incubator of national management). French elite with Emmanuel Macron Senior officials at Carrefour or Axa She is married to the former number two at Société Générale bank and the current chairman of the pharmaceutical company Sanofi. He even complained to a parliamentary committee that his “salary was low” when he earned €500,000 a year as president of the Tennis Federation.
The Oudéa-Castéra case is actually Macron’s “president of the rich“. It’s a stigma the centrist leader has carried since he began his presidency in 2017 and has failed to shake off.