“Casuality”, “lightness”, “disconnection”. The teaching unions do not have words harsh enough to describe Jean-Michel Blanquer’s vacation in Ibiza, Spain, at the very beginning of January, in the midst of an epidemic upsurge. “Sunday before the start of the school year, the staff were already on deck to handle calls from colleagues and parents of sick children”, points out Guislaine David, spokesperson for the SNUipp-FSU.
The Minister unveiled the new lines of the protocol in The Parisian, Sunday January 2 at the end of the followingnoon. A meeting (which was initially only available to subscribers) which he conducted from his vacation spot, revealed Mediapart, Monday, January 17. For Guislaine David, these holidays “discredit the action” by Jean-Michel Blanquer, who deals with the crisis “with lightness” : “in this period, he had to be exemplary”.
“Everyone has the right to take a vacation, but the symbol is terrible. A minister who claims to want to stick as close as possible to reality, we had not imagined that it meant being several thousand kilometers away! », abounds Sophie Vénétitay. For the Secretary General of SNES-FSU, “It’s quite incredible that no one in the government saw the problem posed by this stay”.
“It’s not serious”
Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of SE-Unsa, is no more tender: “This revelation illustrates the minister’s real distance from the emergency situation for the school: leaving his services to the outposts but commenting from afar, without forgetting to play politics. » Catherine Nave Bekhti, secretary general of Sgen-CFDT, does not hide her annoyance either: “The Minister has not taken the measure of the challenges of the impact of the health situation on the functioning of the education system and on the work of national education personnel. » For Jean-Rémi Girard, president of Snalc, “It’s not serious given the gravity of the situation. Let’s not forget the main problem: the staff had to apply the new evening directives for the next day.
This revelation is an opportunity for SUD-Education to ask, once once more, for the resignation of Jean-Michel Blanquer. “This is an additional reason for the staff to go on strike on Thursday”, says Jules Siran, its federal co-secretary.
Jean-Michel Blanquer’s vacation once once more put all the unions in agreement, as they now advance in dispersed order following the unitary mobilization of January 13. The FSU, FO, CGT and SUD are calling for a new day of action on Thursday January 20, but not Unsa, Snalc or Sgen-CFDT.