Why France's beleaguered education minister is the 'symbol of a privileged caste'
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has been under huge political pressure after her appointment as education minister; firstly following Mediapart's revelations that she has educated her own children at a private school, and then after her subsequent comments about state schools. As part of her political fightback the minister has attacked what she sees as a campaign against her, and rejects suggestions that she belongs to a class of wealthy people disconnected from the reality of most people's daily lives. Yet as Mathias Thépot reports, her many links with companies on the French stock exchange, the CAC 40, from which she has pocketed hundreds of thousands of euros, do not help her case.
DuringDuring a speech to the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français (CNOSF) last week the minister for education and sport Amélie Oudéa-Castéra issued a “mea culpa” over her disparaging comments about the Littré state primary school in Paris where she briefly educated her eldest son. “I did not react well,” she confessed, saying she had allowed herself to be influenced by her “memories as a mother”. (See Mediapart's story on those disparaging comments here.)
