Emmanuel Macron and Frédérique Vidal in 2020. -
AFP
A way to put an end to the controversy launched by the Minister of Higher Education Frédérique Vidal?
Emmanuel Macron has an “absolute attachment to the independence of teacher-researchers,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday, thus distancing himself from the investigation requested by Frédérique Vidal on “Islamo-leftism” at university.
Frédérique Vidal announced on Tuesday that she had asked the CNRS "for an assessment of all the research" taking place in France, in order to distinguish what is academic research and what is activism.
Sunday evening on CNews, she had pointed to "Islamo-leftism" which, according to her, "gangrene society as a whole and the university is not impermeable", citing in particular "research on post-colonialism" .
"In universities, there are people who can use their titles and the aura they have, they are in the minority (...) to carry radical ideas or to carry militant ideas", she said, provoking criticism from university presidents and reactions on social media.
Refocus the debate on the essential
Asked about the president's support for this approach or not, Gabriel Attal kicked in, responding: "The priority for the government is obviously the situation of students in the health crisis, it is obviously the possibility of 'providing financial support to students in difficulty is obviously to allow students who so wish to be able to gradually return face-to-face to university ”.
The important thing is the deployment of these measures on the ground and for Frédérique Vidal, "his priority is that", he insisted.
Tuesday, the Insoumise deputy, Bénédicte Taurine, had denounced "witch hunts worthy of another regime" and "a police force of thought".
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