Whether they admire her or denigrate her, all the people who have one day crossed paths with Amélie Oudéa-Castéra agree on one point: the new Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games are of the caliber of fighters. That’s good, she’ll need at least that to get out of the quagmire in which she got herself entangled after her controversial speech about the schooling of her children in the very controversial Stanislas private school (6th arrondissement of Paris) . In a few words, pronounced in a very calm voice (her trademark), the minister of the new Attal government alienated the powerful EN unions and the entire opposition, by achieving the feat of making the appointment of Rachida Dati to Culture almost anecdotal.
“She will get through this because she was strongly supported by the President of the Republic and until then, she had performed almost flawlessly in politics,” relates Gaspard Gantzer, former head of communications for President François. Holland. She was right to apologize, even if she was a little late in doing so. After all, even Emmanuel Macron did very well after his appointment to the Economy in 2014, with the story of the illiterate women at the Gad slaughterhouse which was a huge miss. »
It must be said that, when it comes to starting with a fanfare, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (45 years old) is hitting her mark a little, she who had been thrown into the deep governmental bath just eight days before the fiasco of organizing the League final champions at the Stade de France, May 28, 2022.
“A sacred baptism of fire which served him well for the future”
“It’s true that she has quite muscular introductions,” smiles Thomas Remoleur, who participated in the appointment of AOC at the head of the association Rénovons le sport français in 2018. Afterwards, the Stade de France, it’s different, concretely she had nothing to do with it. It fell on her, even if she may have made some unfortunate comments. But as she learns quickly, I don’t think we’ll take her there again. »
AOC had especially made the mistake of confirming the false accusations of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin about the “30,000 to 40,000” Liverpool supporters who came to the area around the stadium with fake tickets. “She finds herself overnight bombarded alongside the Minister of the Interior, a political heavyweight and number 2 in the government. When he says to you “you say that”, well you say that… It’s quite a baptism of fire which served him well in the future,” one of his close friends wants to believe in off.
“Even if Darmanin and UEFA were even more criticized than her at that time in Liverpool, she triggered enormous anger,” says British journalist John Lichfield, who compared her last year to Marie-Antoinette. on the Politico website. She tried to make up for it by proposing to the club to invite Reds supporters to an England rugby team match during the World Cup in France. But it only made his image worse because it’s typically the major mistake of someone who hasn’t bothered to take a cultural interest in Liverpool. We only live there for football, and there is very marked opposition to rugby there. »
“She sent a signal to all the federations”
For the rest, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has handled her first steps in the political world rather well, since taking office following the departure of Roxana Maracineanu in May 2022. Member of the executive committee of the French Football Federation, Eric Borghini met the minister for the first time on September 15, 2023, when she visited the Malpassé-Corot district, in the 13th arrondissement of Marseille.
“She did not come to create a buzz by showing that she was not afraid of going to the foot of buildings in the northern districts,” he explains. No, she was there discreetly, without media around, to pay tribute to the social actions of the FC Malpassé club. She showed how approachable she was. And she’s a real pro: she knew all her files perfectly. » And particularly those of the FFF and the FFR, who occupied a good part of his first months of mandate at the Ministry of Sports, when the two presidents found themselves at the heart of various and varied scandals which would ultimately cost them their place .
She is a woman of action, who was decisive in ousting Noël Le Graët and Bernard Laporte, continues Eric Borghini. She did not hesitate to attack the presidents of the two most important sports federations, in particular by triggering an audit of the FFF. She thus sent a signal to all the federations. »
The two elephants thought they were as unbeatable as they were all-powerful, suggesting here and there that they had seen quite a group of Sports Ministers pass by and that it was not the youngest one that was going to disturb them. AOC, however, did not flinch. Renaissance MP, Céline Calvez comments: “She handled it in a super courageous way. The feds live in closed circles and I find that this environment is perhaps the most violent that I have experienced in politics in general. Despite this, she said to herself: “It’s hard, I’m going to take a beating, but I’m going.” She’s a competitor. It also proves his courage. The pressure must have been very strong, however. »
“A huge hard worker with pretty tough management”
If she knows how to handle pressure, she, the former high-level tennis player (French champion in under 14 and under 16 years) who became an enarque, the minister does not refrain from putting her on those who work alongside him. “Her great quality is to master her files like the back of her hand,” a former collaborator from the time when AOC was general director of the French Tennis Federation (2021-2022) tells us. But she is also ultra-demanding and she makes it known. »
“The key word is determination,” explains Thomas Remoleur. With it, if we produce a document, it must be impeccable, unassailable and as fair as possible. She spent days and nights writing our report on governance in French sport. A report which, normally, in an association of this scale, could have been completed in five days. With her, it took fifty. She lifted us all up. Afterwards, you have to follow it, you have to be able to support this type of personality. »
This was not the case for all FFT employees, after his appointment to the position of DG following the election of Gilles Moretton as president. Which Moretton had carried out a major spring cleaning, with no less than 112 more or less forced departures (according to an investigation of Mediapart). These were led in part by AOC, who was the day-to-day manager of the federation, the president being mainly on the move in a representation role.
She was hired to do a little cleaning, that was her role, we knew it, confides a federal employee who wishes to remain anonymous. She’s a huge hard worker with pretty tough management, which can be a little violent. She works on her subjects thoroughly, she has her own vision of things and she is not necessarily open to discussion. She can have quite an infantilizing speech and I have seen people cry in front of her. At a meeting, I heard her say, “Even first graders could understand the problem.” It’s always nice, these types of scathing remarks…”
She had applied for the Ministry of Sports in 2017 with Macron
Another of his former collaborators at the FFT, who also prefers to speak in off, is much more measured regarding his passage to the federation. “I have not observed any mass departures linked to his arrival,” she assures. In its operation, it shares healthy standards with its teams. She is so hardworking and she understands all the sporting issues so quickly that it did not surprise me to see her subsequently chosen for a ministerial post, with the Paris 2024 Olympics in her sights.”
A position that she had coveted for a long time, she who had, without political experience but not without daring, already applied for the Ministry of Sports with Emmanuel Macron in 2017. If her profile had not been selected for at the time by the president, it was only a matter of time. Aware of its lack of notoriety, and faithful to its way of operating, AOC has built a defined road map. After failing to take charge of the general management of the organizing committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, AOC therefore takes charge of the Rénovons le sport français association, co-founded by Thomas Remoleur.
“In three years, no one will talk about her anymore”
“The association grew little by little and gained recognition in the French sports community, which gave it visibility and a platform to express itself and carry out projects,” he notes. She was regularly interviewed in the media. The federations and the ministry could ask him for his opinion on this or that subject. It was the start of his career in French institutional sport. » Ditto at the FFT where, internally, “we knew that his stint was a springboard position for the Ministry of Sports”.
Usually so little coveted, serving mainly to place former high-level athletes without real knowledge of political mysteries, the Ministry of Sports is today in the hands of someone who does not want to leave it any time soon. No offense to Bernard Laporte, who was ironic on January 11 during a meeting with the readers of Free Midday : “I was in this position before her. In three years, no one will talk about her anymore. » A few hours later, AOC found herself propelled to the head of this super ministry that we have been talking about so much for nine days.