If there is a minister who does not complain about the departure of Edouard Philippe, it is he. Since the reshuffle, Jean-Michel Blanquer has considerably broadened his influence. He jumped in the protocol order: the Minister of National Education occupies the 4th position. He oversees a minister delegate and two secretaries of state – against a single secretary of state previously. He gets along better with Jean Castex than with Edouard Philippe who saw him and sometimes treated him as a potential rival. Above all, the end of schooling in families marks the victory of the republican line that he has always defended staunchly.
The text on separatism “is an offensive law for the Republic and for the rights of the child,” he said to the National Assembly. “The president now adheres to his line, summarizes an intimate. It is undoubtedly an ideological conversion ”. In private, Jean-Michel Blanquer believes he has also won the cultural fight within LREM, where the supporters of an “open secularism”, like the deputy Aurélien Taché, have bowed their heads.
A phenomenon that increasingly affects schoolchildren
The government’s M. Education does not intend to stop there. Tuesday, he will bring together in a seminar all the referents responsible for secularism within his ministry and experts such as the former Inspector General Jean-Pierre Obin, author of the book “How we let Islamism penetrate the school”. On this occasion, he will make public the figures for attacks on secularism and will stress that the phenomenon is increasingly affecting schoolchildren.
At the same time, he recruited the experienced Xavier Chinaud, former political advisor to Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Edouard Philippe in Matignon. Explanations from a prominent parliamentarian: “Blanquer does not want to be rolled in flour a second time”. Last July, his name circulated for the powerful Interior Ministry. “Obviously, it tickled him, slips a relative. But he did not fight for the post either because he wants to be the Minister of Education who will have remained in post the longest under the Fifth ”.
“Reconsider things”
Emmanuel Macron is now seeking to launch him into the deep end of the elections. He pushes him to accept the head of the regional list in Ile-de-France. The person told him no before the summer. It must be said that the fight seems perilous against the outgoing Valérie Pécresse and the left. He has also never campaigned in his life. But the head of state returned to the charge at the end of August. “Reconsider things,” he told her. He put the pressure back on her on September 24, during a one-to-one lunch. In private, the Head of State praises the qualities of Jean-Michel Blanquer: “He is an excellent minister. I am sure he would make an excellent regional president as well. “
Last Wednesday, the Minister of National Education began to give in. During a videoconference with parliamentarians and LREM referents from Ile-de-France, he spoke: “If you want, I can take care of the coordination of the regional program”. The participants applauded this first step. It is, explains Jean-Michel Blanquer, to work on the “credibility” of a list of the presidential majority. Not to decide immediately the question of the incarnation. Clearly, the minister is saving time – at least until December. “He’s a cerebral, Blanquer. He is interested in the substance first and the project, recalls one of his friends. And then nobody knows what the health situation in schools will look like. Imagine that the classes are closing again. He doesn’t want to know the fate of Ms. Buzyn. “.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr