That of Elisabeth Borne apart, it is her appointment that has caused the most ink to flow in the foreign press since the announcement of the composition of the government, Friday, May 20. Pap Ndiaye, Minister of National Education, that “enrages the right”notes in Germany the Southgerman newspaper : “For Emmanuel Macron, the appointment of the historian symbolizes a renewal in a government for the rest very conventional.”
The discontent, as well as the “openly racist comments” on social networks caused by the appointment of the historian who studied the black condition in the United States then in France, is, according to the daily, revealing of the conflicts which cross France. “The right accuses him of compromising with identity theories from the United States and thus attacking the values of the Republic. But it is enough to listen to Pap Ndiaye or to look at his work to understand that these accusations do not hold water. Because the man, explains the center-left newspaper which met Ndiaye for the first time in 2018, “is nothing provocative. The 56-year-old historian does not indulge in radical theories or thundering declarations. When this renowned intellectual interferes in a debate, it is to try to build bridges between the different parties.
Calm tensions down
If his appointment is so divisive, it is also, believes the Southgerman newspaper, because it constitutes a 180 degree turnaround compared to its predecessor, Jean-Michel Blanquer. The latter has, among other things, distinguished himself by his anti-woke commitment within the government, recalls for his part the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The conservative daily recalls the fall of 2020 when, after the assassination of Samuel Paty, the Minister of National Education castigated “Islamo-leftism” in French universities, the Minister of Higher Education Frédérique Vidal going going so far as to request an investigation into the phenomenon. At the time, writes the HE DOESEmmanuel Macron, much criticized, had appointed Pap Ndiaye at the head of the National Museum of the History of Immigration, “to ease tensions”. What about today? “Does Emmanuel Macron hope to reconcile with the intelligentsia and left-wing teachers who did not vote for him?” Frederique Vidal and Jean-Michel Blanquer, “become the Turk’s heads of this electorate”, in any case had to leave their place, notes the German daily.
This is also what the Times from London. The British daily talks about a “signal sent by Macron to the electorate on the left, as legislative elections are being prepared where the main threat to the presidential party comes, precisely, from a coalition of left-wing parties”.
Structural challenges
Even beyond the legislative elections, the question arises. “With Ndiaye, Macron seeks to send a message of diversity and integration”, certainly, esteem in Spain The reason : More “How, within the same government, will cohabit Pap Ndiaye and personalities already known to the presidential party renewed in their functions, such as Gérald Darmanin in the Interior or Bruno Le Maire in the Economy?”
Because we must not forget that behind all the agitation of this weekend, Ndiaye is now at the head of one of the largest ministries, underlines The Guardian in London, and that the challenges to National Education are enormous. “France has one of the most unequal education systems in the developed world. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a child born and educated in a disadvantaged neighborhood is less likely to rise out of its socio-economic background than in most other developed countries.”
It is this same reflection that leaves the HE DOES not very optimistic about Pap Ndiaye’s action at Grenelle. The daily summarizes:
“It is Emmanuel Macron’s memorial policy, and the symbolic significance of this appointment that propelled the historian into the government. He has no experience in politics. The Ministry of National Education has a reputation for being unmanageable – other intellectuals have experienced this before him, notably the philosopher Luc Ferry – and Pap Ndiaye will have to navigate between many pitfalls: the reality on the ground, the salaries of teachers, the level of students… The latest shock was caused by young Ukrainian refugees, whose level in mathematics is much higher than that of French people their age.”
And the HE DOES to conclude with a little optimism: “His mission at the ministry takes on the air of ‘mission impossible’.*”
*In french in the text