Several resignations from the first meeting of the parenting commission launched by the government

2023-12-11 13:40:24

Barely installed, the scientific commission on parenthood desired by the government, co-chaired by the child psychiatrist Serge Hefez and youth specialist Hélène Roques are going through strong turbulence. From its first meeting, Monday December 11, several of its members announced their resignation. They are the sociologist specializing in parenting Claude Martin, the research director at the CNRS Agnès Martial and the family sociologist Irène Théry. In question: the presentation, the day before, in the weekly La Tribune Sundaydetails relating to the outlines of their mission from the Minister of Solidarity and Families Aurore Bergé, of which they had not been aware before.

“Agnès Martial, Claude Martin and I arrived with a text explaining the reasons for our resignation. We regretted that the work to come would be placed under the aegis of repressive methods”indicates to Monde Irène Théry, deploring “the confusion between politicians and researchers”.

Several elements fueled the « malaise » felt by the resigning scientists. They relate to both form and substance. Firstly, on the method, these specialists recognized in their respective fields of research were moved by the fact that this commission was set up urgently, with a summons for the first meeting received barely a week before it was held. But it is indeed the publication, in La Tribune Sundaythe interview with Aurore Bergé, accompanied by a survey on parental authority and an article on the role of the commission, which provoked their “dismay”.

Questions about their role

The weekly specifies that the commission’s roadmap should “concerning options for supporting overwhelmed parents, resolving family conflicts, dealing with violence and addictions among young people”. The resigners were shocked to see that their work was presented by Aurore Bergé as a response to the riots that occurred after the death of Nahel M. on June 27 in Nanterre, following a police shooting.

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While they imagined working over the coming months on the current conditions of exercising parenthood with a view to enlightening the government in the development of a future public policy, the discovery of the fact that the minister was at the same time starting a “parenting tour of France” questions them even more about their role.

In her interview, Aurore Bergé details the punitive measures envisaged against parents and already taken by the government, such as the implementation of “community service for defaulting parents”. She specifies that the commission, composed of “demographers, magistrates, child psychiatrists, philosophers” aura “six months to make concrete proposals to meet the challenges of parenting today”. Difficult with such a start.