Respect for secularism: “National Education negates itself as soon as it moves away from its founding republican principles”, according to Jean-Michel Blanquer – Public Senate

In office for an entire five-year term, Jean-Michel Blanquer holds the record for longevity under the Fifth Republic at the head of the Ministry of National Education. Three years ago, he was in office during the assassination of Samuel Paty and it was in this capacity that the Senate commission of inquiry into the treatment of threats and violence against teachers interviewed him, this Tuesday. Without dwelling on the facts which are the subject of legal proceedings, the High Assembly wishes to concentrate on “the procedures and safeguards tending to prevent the repetition of these tragedies”, recalled the president of the Committee on Culture and Education, Laurent Lafon (centrist).

The former minister first recalled that upon taking office in 2017, he focused on the fight against attacks on secularism and its corollary, “the phenomenon: no waves”, by creating the Council wise men of secularism, and by setting up a crisis unit within its ministry, intended to raise all security issues. “All this may seem natural in hindsight. It wasn’t. Already there were criticisms of my security mindset, the excessive priority I gave to these questions,” he wishes to emphasize.

The Council of Elders of Secularism subsequently created reference standards for national education by publishing a vade mecum on secularism. “At the same time, we created Republic values ​​teams at the level of each academy […] teams capable of intervening in the field when called by establishments […] during the fateful week which preceded the assassination of (Samuel Paty), at each stage, this team was mobilized […] The principal of the college had been imbued with these rules and accompanied Samuel Paty in filing the complaint,” he recalls.

Death of Samuel Paty: Jean-Michel Blanquer responds to criticism of the investigation by the General Inspectorate of Education

Senator LR, Jacques Grosperrin mentioned the comments of Samuel Paty’s sister interviewed a month earlier. Mickaëlle Paty had highlighted the content of the report published by an inspection mission on the attack against her brother, “Only three teachers were interviewed out of the 51 who make up the teaching team, versus 4 representatives of the parents of the students, thus reversing the balance of power”, she was surprised, before noting the speed of writing the report, “completed or botched in 15 days”.

The case is currently being brought to court, the president of the law committee, François-Noël Buffet (LR) invited Jean-Michel Blanquer to respond with “caution”. “If we have elements of disagreement, we must compare this report with other elements of the investigation. Without going into details, I would like to urge everyone to be cautious about the interpretations that are made in this matter. The expression that National Education has abandoned Samuel Paty is a subject that must be looked at very closely […] I ask that we look at this with serenity and objectivity,” he replied.

After the assassination of Samuel Paty, Jean-Michel Blanquer launched what he called the “system of 1000”. “We trained 1,000 people who in turn became trainers of trainers across the country.”

Mickaëlle Paty had just returned to training in respect for the secularism of teachers in the Inspés. “Having worked with certain trainers in Inspés who themselves have already strayed into open secularism, necessarily transmit open secularism […] there is completely different treatment in higher education where the 2004 law is not applied,” she denounced before the Senate, insisting on the fact that “the new generation of professors did not have the same notion secularism than their former colleagues.

“Everyone wants to be more of a victim than their neighbor”

“I do not claim that we have arrived at this homogeneity of culture and reflex. But this homogeneity is essential […] I was as far upstream as possible. I denounced certain things that could happen in universities which have an impact on our professors […] National Education negates itself as soon as it moves away from its founding republican principles. They are not intended to vary considerably over time, they have always been the same since the 1880s. Secularism has not changed in meaning either,” he said.

A reference to his fight against “wokism”. “Indeed, it is a cultural matrix issue. We are lucky to have a Republican matrix […] We need to no longer have the software of victimization as the software for reading reports in society […] everyone wants to be more of a victim than their neighbor. This escalation of victimization is the key to understanding many attitudes,” he explained.

Finally, several senators raised the possibility of automatic functional protection for threatened teachers. “Functional protection is quite systematic. It is not automatic. Moving from systematic to automatic would be a good development,” he considered.