France's Macron replaces embattled education minister in cabinet reshuffle

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00:00 Here in France there's been a second government reshovel in less than a month since Gabrielle

00:04 Attal was appointed as the country's youngest ever Prime Minister. This time though just a few tweaks

00:10 to the cabinet which tilts to the right, the most notable change being the replacement of Education

00:15 Minister Amélie Oudier-Castarrat. AOC as she is known in her inner circle, a former tennis pro,

00:20 was on thin ice days after her double appointment as Sports and Education Minister. After a number

00:26 of controversies and gaffes came to light, analysts say some by her own doing. We'll get a sense of

00:32 that, we'll bring in in fact right now Marc Perelman who is our French Political Affairs

00:38 Editor. Marc, so we got a new broom sweeps clean in Office for Education at a busy time but

00:43 this replacement, been a long time coming. Yes absolutely, this was supposed to be a second wave

00:50 of announcements in the government. There were several ministers appointed nearly a month ago

00:55 and now we were just waiting for a list of junior ministers but this got much more complicated

01:02 because the new Education Minister went from gaffe to gaffe, she misspoke, she didn't explain

01:09 exactly. There was a controversy about sending her kids to private schools which was felt as

01:16 as an insult by public education teachers and unions and then she gave explanation after

01:23 explanation despite being told by the Prime Minister to essentially shut up and work and so

01:29 her position, she couldn't stay there clearly and so she was ousted yesterday night as Education

01:37 Minister. She is not ousted from the government because she keeps the Sports Minister in a year

01:43 while the Olympic Games but nevertheless she is replaced by Nicole Belloubet who was Emmanuel

01:51 Macron's first Justice Minister. She was ousted after a reshuffle a few years ago not because of

01:59 problems and so on but she's brought back because she's seen as a steady hand, someone who will be

02:04 able to talk to the world of education where there are lots of problems. Teachers complain that

02:10 they're not being paid enough, that they're not being considered enough so they're hoping to turn

02:15 this very stormy page of one month of a Minister who's really been in dire straits and couldn't

02:21 save her position. So Emmanuel Macron, the President wants to turn a new leaf, move forward

02:26 with his big education plans and people listening might think well an Education Minister whose

02:31 children went to private school why is that necessarily a big issue but you hit upon a key

02:34 issue there, it's about her explanation of it. I think in the first place didn't she say this

02:38 was because the Paris State School was about absenteeism amongst the teachers which didn't

02:43 turn out to be quite the case it seems. No, she was caught essentially lying because she said you

02:48 know I took my kids out of public schools because the teacher didn't show up enough and actually

02:54 some reporters went and found the teacher of her youngest kid at the time who said no no no no I

03:00 was there all the time I remember perfectly the kid, the parents and the parents decided to take

03:07 her out of school because I wanted the kids to do the same class again because he was not mature

03:12 enough so she was caught essentially lying and adding insult to injury this was seen as an assault

03:20 on public education which is sacred here in France and as also a way of reviving some fights in the

03:28 past between private education and public education not something Emmanuel Macron needs at a time

03:34 when his popularity is low and he's struggling with other issues we've seen farmers protesting

03:40 and there are many other issues. To that point though then what becomes what comes next because

03:45 there are big big reformers planned within schools and also we've got the European elections looming

03:51 ahead what does that mean for his party right now where the government's heading? Well what also

03:56 happened during those few weeks which were supposed to be very very standard you know

04:01 procedure to appoint junior ministers was one of his key allies the centrist leader François

04:06 Bayrou who really helped propel him to the Elysee Palace was cleared at least partially

04:14 there's an appeal from an investigation into possible misuse of European parliament

04:21 funds and so he was seen as someone who would get an important ministry however the negotiations

04:30 went awry and François Bayrou blasted Emmanuel Macron he said you know he was going in the wrong

04:37 direction this was too much to the right this was not what the essence of Emmanuel Macron

04:42 when he was elected neither left or right so essentially saying that Emmanuel Macron was

04:48 becoming a right-wing politician that this was not acceptable this is not a good omen because

04:53 Emmanuel Macron according to the polls his party is not faring well in the forthcoming European

04:58 parliament election scheduled in June and having cracks within his own ranks is not something you

05:05 need so this is a very very complicated period it took a lot of time for Emmanuel Macron to find a

05:11 prime minister a government now he has a full government he's hoping that he will be able to

05:17 turn the page and finally focus on reforms and the campaign for the upcoming parliament elections at

05:23 at the European level.

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