“It is not because he was not there that he was not at work”, assures the office of the Minister of National Education.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
The controversial interview of Jean-Michel Blanquer in the newspaper The Parisian, to announce a new health protocol in schools on the eve of the start of the new school year, on January 2, was in fact carried out while the Minister of National Education was on vacation in Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain, has learned franceinfo from the ministry, Monday January 17, confirming information from Mediapart.
“Just because he wasn’t there doesn’t mean he wasn’t at work, he wasn’t connected and away from what was going on”, assures the cabinet of Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. “The minister is working, just because he would have been in the office does not mean that it would have changed things, he says. The team was there and he was permanently in contact with us by teleworking.
In the midst of the fifth wave of Covid-19, the ministry therefore claims that the minister’s vacation had no impact on the late implementation of the protocol, which was subsequently lightened by Jean Castex. “The symbol is terrible, notes all the same on franceinfo the general secretary of the SNES-FSU union Sophie Vénétitay. Of course, everyone has the right to take a vacation, but here we were on the eve of a very special start of the school year.
“We were all waiting to know how we were going to go back to school and we discovered that in fact the minister was thousands of miles away!”
Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the SNES-FSU unionat franceinfo
While several unions launched a new strike call on Thursday January 20 in schools, colleges and high schools after last Thursday’s large-scale movement, “this revelation feeds the fracture and the feeling of contempt that many personnel in the National Education may have”, believes Sophie Vénétitay. “Jean Castex was our interlocutor last week. There, that will not fix our relations with the minister.”