Elected deputy for Pyrénées-Atlantiques in 1986, François Bayrou was appointed Minister of National Education in the cohabitation government of Edouard Balladur in 1993, and was deeply influenced by François Mitterrand. “Such an eloquent stutterer, such a firm centrist, such a secular Catholic, François Bayrou will one day be a formidable candidate in the presidential election,” the socialist president declared to journalist Alain Duhamel (Libération, 2012). In 1995, L’Express tried to understand the style of this young man who would become Prime Minister 30 years later.
“A conflict must be useful, it must serve as a booster. A fortnight ago, when I spoke of a major consultation on universities, no one heard me. Now, they listen to me.” This was how François Bayrou confided, a few days before the demonstration which saw angry students march through Paris on November 21. The Minister of National Education’s method is the same wherever he goes: use a weakness or a setback to bounce back better. Already, during his failure on the Falloux law, he took the opportunity to put forward proposals which led to the “new contract for the school”. Even today, he hopes to take advantage of university discontent in order to repair injustices. By putting opinion on his side. And to tell the truth: we have never before seen a minister make public the map of universities, from the richest to the poorest.
In these times of budgetary rigor, Bayrou’s room for maneuver is not gigantic. While the needs are endless. “We have allowed the gap between universities to widen,” he says, “at a time when anxiety grips young people. Hence their consumerist demand which is grafted onto a deeper anxiety.” The files were therefore laid out, all the university presidents received Rue de Grenelle, and each informed of what the other obtained. It remains to define the future of the students with those concerned. “The solution is not selection,” says the minister. “I will never close the door to a young person who wants to hang on. But we must provide guidance, tell the truth about blocked channels!” An operation that Bayrou le Béarnais, a fan of dialogue, wants to carry out by giving better representation to the students, who have become a real social body.
“Music is more important than words”
The Bayrou method applied to politics is also a kind of judo. The smallest of the major parties of the majority, eternal complement but never leader, the CDS (which will change its name during its re-founding congress in Lyon on November 24) wants to rely on its position as an obligatory ally to grow. Jacques Chirac needs centrists to broaden the base of the majority. Alain Juppé is counting on this family – although initially so balladurian – to marginalize the PR rebels and secure allies in the context of his competition with Philippe Séguin.
François Bayrou, fooled by nothing, took advantage of the equation to establish himself as number 1 of the UDF in the government, and as one of the two François of the confederation, hence his visit to Léotard, to the PR, as a sign of brotherly competition. The future major center wants to embody alternation within the majority in the event of a withdrawal of the RPR. Finally adapting to the Fifth Republic. And identify a leader who can claim the highest positions. “I have time,” said Bayrou. “It takes five to ten years to form a party. And I’m younger than everyone.”
If he wants to be loyal – “The center has no right to hesitation” – he claims to build a more humanist movement than the rest of the majority. Has he not already succeeded in burying the Chiraquian idea of a referendum on schools? In Lyon, at the CDS congress, representatives of Jacques Delors will be present. Raymond Barre will speak. Francis the reconciler will open the doors to all those disappointed in politics. “Music is more important than words,” assures this former teacher. But no one in a democracy is safe from false notes.
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