New government: Pap Ndiaye, the surprise of the team

He takes the head of the biggest ministry of the State. At 56, Pap Ndiaye succeeds Jean-Michel Blanquer in Education and Sarah El Haïry in Youth. “I may be a symbol, that of meritocracy, but perhaps also that of diversity. I take no pride in it, but rather a sense of duty and responsibility”, says Pap Ndiaye. He was until then director of the Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris.

Born of a Senegalese father and a French mother, he is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, has a history degree and is a professor at Sciences Po. In 2005, he co-founded the Representative Council of Black Associations in France (Cran). “He is a teacher and we need people like him”, believes Louis-Georges Tin, former chairman of this council. But Pap Ndiaye has sometimes had controversial remarks, as in 2020 on the French police. Its profile contrasts with that of its predecessor.