JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Demonstrators in front of Sciences Po Paris, April 26, 2024.
POLITICS – The return to normal at Sciences Po Paris is taking shape, after the agreement reached on Friday April 26 between the management and the students who blocked access to the campus to defend the Palestinian cause. But on the right and the extreme right, the compromise found is rejected, seen as a “surrender” facing students and their political supporters, particularly rebellious ones.
The Sciences Po press release is ” ashamed “castigated on CNews the LR deputy Pierre-Henri Dumont for whom the management “wallowing before the demands of an extreme left minority totally ideologized by Madame Hassan, Monsieur Mélenchon and the deputies of France Insoumise.”
He is outraged both by the absence of sanctions against the mobilized students and by the organization of a current debate next week to discuss the demands of the demonstrators, in particular on the school’s partnerships with Israeli institutions. “It’s pure madness and it’s time to call the end of recess”claims Pierre-Henri Dumont, former student of rue Saint-Guillaume, for whom “the government must regain direct control of the establishment”.
“Put under supervision” and resignation of management demanded
In the Senate, Stéphane Le Rudulier is also calling for a “put under guardianship”when the group’s boss Bruno Retailleau believes that the “Science Po management has once again demonstrated its inability to fight against the extremists who are disrupting the lives of thousands of students with the use of anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas slogans. »
Max Brisson denounces a “pitiful capitulation” on the same line as Florence Portelli, vice-president of the party and the Île-de-France region.
The elected representatives of the National Rally share the same indignation. “Sciences Po has become an open-air ZAD plagued by Islamo-leftism in the heart of Paris. Faced with this observation, the management finds nothing better to do than to lie flat on its face in front of the far-left anti-Semitic factions. writes Thomas Ménage, deputy for Loiret. Its counterpart in Aude Frederic Falcon accuses management of having “negotiated with Hamas allies in France” and calls for his resignation.
If the government considered that the presence of France Insoumise elected officials, including their European candidate Rima Hassan, was a matter of “instrumentalization”the Minister of Higher Education thanked management after the blockade was lifted. “Sciences Po Paris must remain a place of study, respect and serene debate”reacted Sylvie Retailleau on social networks.
Satisfied with the management’s announcements, student members of the Palestine Committee told AFP that no new occupation was “planned at the moment”. Since the resignation of Mathias Vicherat involved in a domestic violence case, Sciences Po has been administered interim by Jean Bassère. Behind the scenes, several names of political figures are circulating to take over the leadership: the former five-year ministers Macron, Aurélien Rousseau, Clément Beaune or Rima Abdul Malak or even Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of Education under Hollande. The final choice is expected by mid-September.
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