The high school student future scandal

JM Blanquer he manipulated minor high school students by paying them a large subsidy to support his policy? This is the question posed by the articles in Médiapart, on financing, and Liberation, on manipulation. Left-wing deputies demand a parliamentary commission of inquiry. Several teachers’ unions are calling for “full transparency”. A high school union announces that it wants to file a complaint and two others demand sanctions including the resignation of the minister. JM Blanquer is ironic and speaks of a political conspiracy without answering the facts.

A union pitted against other unions

Marie Piquemal’s article in Liberation on November 21 gives a new color to the revelations of Mediapart. Mediapart has shown that the high school union Avenir lycéen received € 100,000 in subsidies from the Ministry of Education which were used to pay for meals and overnight stays in luxury establishments. What Liberation shows is much more serious. The daily tells how “the idea of ​​creating this high school organization germinated on Rue de Grenelle to serve the minister’s communication and above all to break off any dialogue with the high school unions”.

According to Liberation, at a time when hundreds of high schools were occupied to fight against the reform of the high school and the bac, the ministry began negotiations with the UNL, another high school organization. And then came the press releases from Avenir lycéen which the minister used to show that high school students were with him. And stop the dialogue with the UNL.

Rectors accused

Two rectorates are now accused by the testimonies of former leaders of Avenir high school student or members of CAVL collected by Liberation. In Créteil as in Orléans Tours, the rectorate would have rewritten the CAVL press release. The Snes Fsu also expressed doubts, as early as 2018, on a statement from the CAVL written in terms which already give them to think that the administration has got hold of it. All these press releases call for an end to the blockages.

In December 2018, an elected representative from Orléans Tours received advice from the rectorate to use the hashtag #avenirlyceen. But it was three days later that the Avenir lycéen association was created. At the origin of the association 4 people including Maxence Duprez, responsible for Youth with Macron de Paris, hired 4 months later as project manager at the ministry.

The entourage close to the minister also

Liberation calls into question Jean-Marc Huart, former Dgesco and current rector of Nancy-Metz, who would have accompanied the construction of Avenir lycéen from A to Z. It is hard to see him doing this without the approval of the minister and his head of cabinet, currently rector of Paris.

A co-founder of Avenir lycéen, spokesperson for Youth with Macron de Lyon, Nathan Monteux, affirms that “nobody has manipulated us” and that “at no time has anyone in the Ministry of National Education used our movement”. The former treasurer of Avenir high school, questioned by Mediapart for the use of grants, speaks of “militant journalistic conspiracy” and “parliamentary masquerade”. He considers the testimony of the former president of Avenir lycéen by a disappointment in love. It is class !

Unions cry scandal

Several unions reacted to the Liberation article. “All transparency must be done”, writes the Snes Fsu, who considers that “the first elements are serious and affect the very foundations of democracy and the values ​​of the Republic”. The Snes “demands an independent administrative investigation”. Sud Education denounces “a scandal” and considers that “the question of the resignation of Minister Blanquer must be asked”.

Among other high school unions, the UNL announces its intention to file a complaint against the Ministry of National Education. The MNL demands the resignation of JM Blanquer and JM Huart. The FIDL denounces “the total deviation of the trade union cause” and speaks of a scandal.

Blanquer: a no deal

Jean-Michel BLanquer was briefly questioned on this affair on RTL on the evening of November 22. “If you look closely there is a lot of sauce and not much rabbit,” he says. “We can see that Mediapart and Liberation are trying to make a deal out of nothing”. And to recall that he has requested an investigation from his services. He accuses LFI of being behind these articles and of being “pyromaniac firefighters” themselves manipulating high school students.

LFI, Communist and Socialist deputies have tabled a motion for a resolution to create a commission of inquiry into the activity of the Avenir lycéen union. Jean-Michel Blanquer is due on Tuesday November 24 to answer questions from deputies. It is surely there that will take place a decisive moment for the future of this scandal.

Francois Jarraud

The Liberation article

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