GOVERNMENT. While the government is in full recomposition, the most important ministries are coveted. At National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer should not be renewed and in the corridors we breathe the name of Gabriel Attal.
The Ministry of National Education, one of the most important in government, is waiting to know the name of its next head. While Elisabeth Borne was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron on Monday May 16, she is already working with the Head of State to form his government, starting with key positions. Jean-Michel Blanquer has held the reins of the ministry since 2017 and has gone through several areas of turbulence during his mandate, if he does not expand on his personal ambitions, the minister considers his renewal unlikely. But if not him, who? No one can put forward a name with certainty but some rumors are circulating and the name of the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, has come up several times. It is said to BFM TV that for this new five-year term a political profile is expected to hold the portfolio of National Education and thus decide with the technical personalities and already from the sphere of education who have succeeded each other in the position.
The appointment of ministers and the presentation of the new government should take place in “a few days” according to various media, the time to finalize the organization chart and to carry out the tax audits of the personalities approached by the High Authority for the transparency of public life ( HATVP). The Dispatch from the South promises, however, the announcement of the composition of the government by Alexis Kohler, the secretary general of the Elysée before Friday, May 19.
Will Jean-Michel Blanquer be reappointed to National Education?
By holding the role of Minister of National Education for five years, Jean-Michel Blanquer broke the ministry’s longevity record. Before him, Christian Fouchet had spent four years at 110 rue de Grenelle, from 1962 to 1967. unions have regularly castigated discussions “at a standstill” with politics. Little chance therefore that Jean-Michel Blanquer will return. “It’s never defined in advance these kinds of things, but it’s most likely that I won’t transplant”, he himself estimated on Wednesday May 11 on RTL. Too many events have marked his mandate, firstly the reform of the baccalaureate with the introduction of continuous assessment for the exam, but also the difficulties encountered in adapting the school during the two years of the Covid-19 epidemic, the repeated but never satisfactory changes in health protocols and finally this escapade to Ibiza at a time when National Education was going through a crisis.
Faced with all this turbulence, the technical profile of Jean-Michel Blanquer is not enough to stay. However, as soon as he arrived in government, the minister knew the workings of National Education. He was rector of two academies, that of Guyana in 2004 and that of Créteil in 2007, and in the meantime he held a first position in the government: deputy director of the cabinet of the Minister of National Education, Higher Education and of Research in 2006. Before his arrival at the head of the Ministry of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer was also Director General of School Education in 2009 then Director of the Graduate School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (Essec ) from 2013 until 2017.
Gabriel Attal promoted to Minister of National Education?
The youngest of the executive and current government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, appears in the list of those who should remain in government. His good and loyal service could be rewarded with a promotion and perhaps the direction of a ministry at only 33 years old. The rumors of the corridors evoke an appointment as Minister of National Education, a post on which Gabriel Attal would indeed have an insistent look according to Le Figaro. The current Secretary of State to the Prime Minister would not be the only one to pull the rope according to the Dispatch from the South who is careful not to put forward other names but he would occupy the place of favorite according to BFM TV. The continuous news channel, always well informed when it comes to reshuffles, indicates that a more political than technical profile would be sought to take over from Jean-Michel Blanquer. A box ticked by Gabriel Attal who already knows the Hôtel de Rochechouart for having been there from October 2018 to July 2020 as Secretary of State to the minister in office, Jean-Michel Blanquer.
What are the other names mentioned for the Ministry of National Education?
Few names have been put forward to manage the National Education portfolio, a sign that the executive knows how to keep secrets but above all that the ministers themselves are not involved in the discussions before the final adjustments to the organization chart. The media like Release and Le Figaro report some confidences according to which Bruno Le Maire and Olivier Véran, two ministers and heavyweights of Emmanuel Macron’s first term, would also be in the running to swap Economy and Health for National Education. Yet the renewal of the two ministers is far from being a certainty according to RTL in particular for Olivier Véran who risks leaving his mandate with a “Covid-19” label on his forehead… the aftermath of a pandemic which shook the past five-year term.
Who are the previous Ministers of National Education?
Called Ministry of National Education since June 3, 1932 under the presidency of Albert Lebrun, then under the Third Republic, this administration has seen a good number of ministers. However, during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, Jean-Michel Blanquer remained in office for five years. A longevity record. But who were his predecessors?
- François Bayrou (May 18, 1995 – June 2, 1997)
- Claude Allègre (June 4, 1997 – March 27, 2000)
- Jack Lang (March 27, 2000 – May 6, 2002)
- Luc Ferry (May 7, 2002 – March 30, 2004)
- François Fillon (March 31, 2004 – May 31, 2005)
- Gilles de Robien (June 2, 2005 – May 15, 2007)
- Xavier Darcos (June 18, 2007 – June 23, 2009)
- Luc Chatel (June 23, 2009 – May 10, 2012)
- Vincent Peillon (May 16, 2012 – April 2, 2014)
- Benoît Hamon (April 2, 2014 – August 25, 2014)
- Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (August 26, 2014 – May 17, 2017)
- Jean-Michel Blanquer (May 17, 2017 – May 16, 2022)