A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #346 - Spotlight, Oudéa-Castéra Affair They are the separatists! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The first public appearance of the new part-time Minister of National 
Education was the occasion for a nightmarish exit for the new Attal 
government. Its disdain displayed in such an uninhibited manner for 
public schools and public teachers is the mark of a bourgeoisie which 
makes community relations and social separatism an art of living. ---- 
The scene has already entered the pantheon of the worst political 
outings. The day after her appointment to the Ministry of National 
Education to replace Gabriel Attal, appointed Prime Minister, Amélie 
Oudéa-Castéra was questioned by Mediapart about her children's schooling 
at the very select Collège Stanislas[1]. This private Catholic 
establishment has previously stood out for the excellence of its 
baccalaureate results (100% pass and honors in 2022) and its preparatory 
classes for the grandes écoles, and is one of the most popular 
establishments among the bourgeoisie. Parisian.

The minister then launches into a tirade, prepared, as confirmed by 
Ilyès Ramdani, journalist at the political pole of Mediapart[2], which 
is only an attempt to impose political storytelling: "I will briefly 
tell you this story[...]". The objective was to encourage the 
identification of as many people as possible by summoning elements which 
are as much teacher-bashing as civil servant-bashing (necessarily always 
absent) while putting themselves on the level of the millions of parents 
who are worried for the future of their children: "And then the 
frustration of his parents, my husband and I, who saw lots of hours that 
were not seriously replaced, we were fed up like hundreds of thousands 
of families who at one point made a choice to seek a different solution."

A skillfully maintained class contempt
Fortunately, there are still journalists for whom information is not 
limited to serving the soup to the powerful and very quickly the 
evidence of dissimulation and lies of the minister accumulated: her son 
was only in school for a few months in the public, part-time, in a small 
section; her son's teacher denying that there were "lots of hours that 
were not seriously replaced"; she and her husband chose single-sex 
education for their children... The minister's communication became more 
absurd day by day, to the point of asserting that she had not lied but 
that "the reality proved him wrong"! Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has risen to 
the level of Emmanuel Macron in terms of the contempt expressed towards 
the working classes.

The Castéra couple is not a French family like so many others. We are 
here in the heart of the media-political-financial elite, so often 
mentioned but rarely unmasked (it knows how to be discreet). Amélie 
Oudéa-Castéra graduated from Science-Po Paris, ESSEC, and finally ENA. 
If she begins her career at the Court of Auditors, she will quickly go 
to practice in the private sector, much more lucrative, at AXA first, 
then at Carrefour, she is also present on the boards of directors of 
several companies and integrates even Medef. Her husband, Frédéric 
Oudéa, is a former advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy at the Ministry of the 
Budget, former general director of Société Générale from 2008 to 2023 of 
which he was CEO between 2009 and 2015, and current chairman of the 
board of directors of the pharmaceutical laboratory Sanofi since May 
2023. Let us add that Amélie Oudéa-Castéra is the niece of the political 
columnists Alain Duhamel (BFM TV) and Patrice Duhamel (general director 
of France Télévisions), niece of the columnist Nathalie Saint-Cricq 
(France Télévisions) and cousin of journalist Benjamin Duhamel (BFM TV). 
Mediapart does not hesitate to speak of the Castéra couple as a "paragon 
of French elites".

A report left on the minister's desk

The private establishment in which the Castéra couple educate their 
children is a Catholic establishment which promotes conversion therapy 
for homosexual people (banned in France), which denies contraception 
other than "natural", which advocates differentiated education according 
to the kind - the Castéra children study in single-sex classes! - and 
which requires girls to wear "correct" outfits in order not to attract 
attention and to "respect themselves". Let us remember that the 
part-time minister's missions include the fight against gender 
stereotypes at school. The numerous infractions of this prestigious 
establishment were also the subject of an internal report from the 
General Inspectorate of National Education commissioned by Pap Ndiaye, 
but which Gabriel Attal chose never to make public[3]. Without doubt 
Gabriel Attal, a former student of another private but secular 
establishment, the École Alsacienne, another place of the elite[4], also 
located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, did not Did he not want to 
offend an establishment where the "crony" of the economic bourgeoisie 
sends their children to school? Class consciousness is still well 
developed in the bourgeoisie.

The "Stanislas affair" falls all the worse for Macronie as it comes a 
few weeks after another private religious establishment, but this one 
Muslim, was also the subject of an inspection report. General of 
National Education, the Averroès high school in Lille. In one case a 
damning report silenced. In the other, a report in which no 
recommendation is suggested... but the prefect who will use it to notify 
the end of the agreement with the State[5]. While we will learn that 
Stanislas is offered a higher hourly allocation than comparable public 
establishments and that he obtains supralegal subsidies from the 
Île-de-France Region[6]. Two weights, two measures...

Bourgeois and reactionaries hand in hand
Behind the Oudéa-Castéra case and the Lycée Stanislas there is a whole 
system of inter-privileged people who live on public funds while 
praising free enterprise, and practicing separatism the art of life. 
Nothing in the Stanislas high school is in agreement with the law 
reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic, known as the 
separatism law. Obviously this was not aimed at the bourgeois community, 
willingly fundamentalist Catholic. The cover of the racist and 
reactionary rag - the title of which must be understood as an 
anti-sentence -, Current Values, from January 25: "Why we must save 
private schools", clearly shows who are the supporters of these projects 
of school segregationism.

Contrary to what Current Values asserts, this is not a school war but 
indeed a class war. If the "free school" as those who only dream of 
barracks schools like to call it is a choice that belongs to families, 
it should not be made with public funds. From now on, let us demand the 
deregulation of Stanislas and call for an end to public funding of 
private establishments. What public schools need is not a part-time 
minister, contemptuous of the values of equality and freedom, but 
resources commensurate with the needs of all students.

David (UCL Savoies)

To validate

[1]In fact a school complex, owned by a limited company, which educates 
children from nursery school to preparatory classes.

[2]In the open air, "Oudea-Castéra, Stanislas high school: how Mediapart 
investigated", on the Mediapart.fr website

[3]"Oudéa-Castéra affair: Mediapart publishes the report on Stanislas 
hidden by the ministers", Mediapart, January 16, 2024.

[4]"The Oudéa-Castéra couple, paragon of French elites", Médiapart, 
January 15, 2024

[5]"Between the Stanislas and Averroès high schools, "the inequality of 
treatment is obvious", interview with Pierre Mathiot", Mediapart, 
January 24, 2024.

[6]"An investigation opened into the Stanislas private school for sexist 
and homophobic insults", Le Monde, January 19, 2024.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Affaire-Oudea-Castera-Ce-sont-eux-les-separatistes
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