Jean-Michel Blanquer, beast of the left wing of the majority

He is one of those ministers who quickly get into the habit of irritating – or at least embarrassing – their parliamentary majority. Yesterday was Jean-Pierre Chevenement with the Socialists, when the Mayor of Belfort occupied the Ministry of the Interior. Today is Jean-Michel Blanquer. The standoff of the Minister of National Education with the stirring deputy La Republique en marche Aurelien Tache has caused trouble, forcing both to position themselves, to choose a camp. Including within the government.

This kind of hullabaloo annoys the bulk of the LaREM troops, who want above all to preserve their "diversity". Some readily admit their "embarrassment" to the debate that is behind the mano a mano between the former rector of the Academy of Creteil and the deputy of Val-d'Oise. The one dealing with secularism, integration and Islam, subjects thatEmmanuel Macron expects to approach soon through public speaking.

"The innuendos are problematic"

"Blanquer and Tache are two people with very different ideas, I want to say that they have extremist positions", summarizes with BFMTV.com Jean-Francois Cesarini, elected in the Vaucluse and signatory of a forum on the which, in the wake of a speech by the Head of State on the subject, caused a stir during the month of September.

"If I stick to what Blanquer said on Sunday about the veil, namely that he does not intend at any time to forbid wearing it during field trips, I have nothing It is in the innuendo that the problems arise ", continues the MP.

A battle of words, then. Nothing harmful on paper. "I think it's going to be quick enough, this case," slip another elected LaREM. The problem is that it's not the first one. The word "irreconcilable", once invoked by Manuel Valls to synthesize the massive disagreements between two sides of the left on economic issues, it is likely to prevail among walkers on communitarianism?

"One feels that Blanquer, he would like to extend secularism to all public space, extracurricular, etc. So we have on one side a very legalistic vision and on the other side that of Tache, very Anglo-Saxon, consistent to say that the community mix, let everyone do as he wants, it's cool, if one day he saw a veiled woman at a tax office, it would not shock, "decrypts Jean-Francois Cesarini, who defends for his share a "secularity of neutrality". "I do not have to choose between Blanquer and Tache," he adds.

"He would have liked to vote Ciotti amendment"

And the former socialist to evoke the episode of "the amendment Ciotti", last February. In the middle of a parliamentary debate on the draft law on the school of trust, led by Jean-Michel Blanquer, the deputy Les Republicains des Alpes-Maritimes defended several amendments aimed at hardening the text. One of them, taken up by the Minister before finally being rejected, resonates particularly with the news of recent weeks:

"When accompanying students on school outings and trips, the wearing of signs or dresses by which parents of students ostensibly manifest religious affiliation is prohibited."

The content of this amendment, whatever one may think of it, will have proved premonitory given the recent controversy around the CIPF, a union of parents of students defending the right of Muslim mothers to wear the veil during field trips. An Islamic veil that Jean-Michel Blanquer believes is "not desirable in society", therefore. "I think he would have liked to vote Ciotti amendment," says Jean-Francois Cesarini.

Minister "very exposed"

For Jean-Francois Eliaou, defender of a very rigorous vision of secularism, opposed to communitarianism, this Blanquer-Tache debate is "that of a minority against another minority". "The minister is very exposed, then he gets hit by his colleagues Cedric O and Sibeth Ndiaye … He got upset, it's normal," said the elected Herault, who continues:

"I do not identify the group with Aurelien Tache or Fiona Lazaar (MP also from the left wing of LaREM, editor's note). They have a role of whistleblower, it's good to have that. On the other side, Blanquer has a vision of the school a little 'Third Republic', it protects the institution for which he has responsibility. And then we must consider our electorate, rather in the center-right on issues of secularism. It is not forbidden to play politics. "

Asked about the sanctions demanded by the Minister of Education with respect to the member for Val-d'Oise, a majority pillar regrets "a bad answer to a bad comparison". That, done by Aurelien Tache at the Point, to say that the National Gathering recovered "the words of Jean-Michel Blanquer". The tenant of the rue de Grenelle is not helped by the fact that his main supporters – former MEP Aurore Berge, Secretary of State Marlene Schiappa – are not the most appreciated personalities of the movement. On the contrary.

"The number of times you want to say 'shut up', Tache …" sighs despite a member LaREM in view, who defends the Minister tooth and nail. And to develop:

"What Aurelian conceals is that France is not his constituency, in deep France his words are seen as a provocation, and Blanquer's concern is that his post that cleaves in. We are almost in philosophy. "