(Paris) “Pitiful”, “unforgivable”: Éric Zemmour attracted a general bronca on Saturday, after denouncing “the obsession with inclusion” of children with disabilities and defending “specialized establishments” to educate them, before denouncing qualify his words.
Posted yesterday at 1:14 p.m.
Friday, during a discussion with teachers committed to his cause in Honnecourt-sur-Escaut (North), the far-right candidate explained “thinking that we actually need specialized establishments, except for people with slight disabilities obviously “.
“As for the rest, yes, I think that the obsession with inclusion is a bad way for other children and for those children who are, the poor, completely overwhelmed by other children. So I think we need specialized teachers who take care of it, ”he said.
Secretary of State for Disability Sophie Cluzel lambasted on Twitter on Saturday “a pitiful statement”. “Very angry” on BFMTV, she criticized a “miserable” and “exclusive” vision of disability.
“Of course it’s complicated, but it’s really an honor for France to be able to educate these children with others, among others,” she added.
According to the Minister, 384,000 students with disabilities are educated in “classic” establishments, up 20% compared to 2017, and 80,000 children and adolescents are welcomed in “specialized” medical-educational institutes (IME). .
The leader of the LR deputies Damien Abad, himself with a disability, denounced “scandalous” remarks by Éric Zemmour and “segregation on all floors”.
“Yes, we have to be obsessed with inclusion. I ask for a public apology, ”he launched on Twitter.
The candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, for her part considered it “unforgivable” to “attack children weakened by a disability”.
“My project is more inclusion for fragile children”, engaged Valérie Pécresse on the sidelines of a trip to Greece, castigating “the brutality” of Éric Zemmour’s remarks.
Same tone of the candidates on the left: “He is as always in excess, violence and insult”, slammed the now declared candidate Anne Hidalgo, Jean-Luc Mélenchon castigating “a vision of the world opposed” to his. And the communist Fabien Roussel said he was “repelled by the proposal” by Éric Zemmour, comparing it to an “apartheid society”.
“Take care of it better”
The reactions were also strong in the associative environment: the national president of the Association for adults and young people with disabilities Jean-Louis Garcia was moved on BFMTV by what he considers to be “segregation”, a “setting apart “, while the president of SOS autisme France Olivia Cattan was “indignant” at remarks deemed “discriminatory” and a “misunderstanding” of the candidate Zemmour on the subject. Both refer to the 2005 law which guarantees equal opportunities for children with disabilities. Like the National Association for the Integration of People with Motor Disabilities (ANPIHM) which also denounces a lack of specialized resources.
The president of the Association for taking disability into account in public and private policies (APHPP) Matthieu Annereau, who is also a local LREM elected official and blind, estimated that “the exclusion of 12 million people disabilities in France mentioned by Mr. Zemmour (was) deeply nauseating”.
Faced with the bronca, the former polemicist explained himself and nuanced his remarks on Saturday morning in Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne). “Of course, there are cases where putting them in an ordinary establishment is a good thing, because it allows them to progress, to socialize. And then there are other cases, real, more numerous than we say, where it is a suffering for these “disabled” children.
“What I meant was that I don’t want the obsession with inclusion to deprive us and lead us to neglect the need for specialized institutions,” he continued. “I think it’s an ideological position, as always. We decided it was best to put everyone together. Me, I think not”, “not to put them away, but to take better care of them”.
The presidential candidate called for “taking into account the particular cases” of each child, with possibilities of “bridges” between “specialized establishments” and “ordinary”.
At the beginning of the evening, he published a video message in which he denounced “diverted remarks” by “politicians” guilty according to him of “lies” and “hypocrisy”, attacking “the ideology egalitarian” who “diverts equality to deny particular cases”.