Paris (AFP)
Jean Castex announced on Tuesday that he was assigning two deputies to "draw all the consequences" of the controversial decision of the Constitutional Council to censor "immersive education" in regional languages, voted as part of a bill in the 'Assembly.
"I am going to entrust two deputies with a mission, the results of which I am expecting in a few weeks so that all the consequences of this decision of the Constitutional Council can be drawn," declared the Prime Minister, questioned by several elected officials during the questioning session at the government in the Assembly.
"Following which, with the Minister of National Education and on the basis of the recommendations thus formulated, I will receive all the representatives of educational establishments in regional languages", he added, after having was questioned by the LREM deputy of Côtes-d'Armor Yannick Kerlogot.
According to Matignon, the name of the two rapporteurs has not yet been decided.
The Constitutional Council partially rebutted last Friday MP Paul Molac's bill in favor of regional languages, by censoring the immersive method at school, that is to say teaching carried out for a large part of school time in a language other than the dominant language.
The Sages also censored the use of diacritics such as the tilde (~) in civil status records.
Elected from the Eastern Pyrenees and himself a Catalan speaker, Mr. Castex assured the deputies that there was "no opposition between these regional languages and French, the language of the Republic".
"The regional languages, I say it in front of your assembly, are a chance for the French Republic", he insisted.
The Prime Minister also welcomed the "major advances" according to him allowed by the decision of the Constitutional Council, including the validation of the creation of a school package for private schools providing education in regional languages.
The "Molac law" was adopted by Parliament on April 8 after a surprise vote by the Assembly which ignored government opposition.
Against the choice of Prime Minister Jean Castex and the majority groups, the referral to the Constitutional Council on an individual basis, by 61 members of the majority, had aroused strong tensions among the elected "marchers".
Also questioned on Tuesday, the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer for his part wanted to deliver a "message" of "outstretched hand", in particular to schools such as the Diwan establishments in the Breton language, "structures which may think that ' they run a risk as a result of this decision ".
"We will look with them to see how we can move forward," he added.
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