If he is not the man for the job according to opposition critics, Olivier Véran, in any case wants to be "the pater familias".
To justify the pace of the vaccination campaign, the Minister of Health has unearthed an old expression of French law.
"We are managing the stocks, I would say, as a good father," he replied on Monday to a caregiver.
A provision that has disappeared from the texts because of its sexist nature.
Visiting the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris on Monday evening, Olivier Véran once again recalled France's strategy in terms of vaccination.
“Tonight, around 27 centers have vaccines and have been able to start vaccinating caregivers and by tomorrow evening and Wednesday […], there will be a hundred hospitals that will offer vaccination to their caregivers. , as well as to city caregivers, ”announced the Minister of Health.
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Doctors' call for faster vaccination
A "gradual ramp-up", justified by the management of vaccine stocks carried out "with due diligence", as the doses "arrive", assured the Minister to a doctor who had come to be vaccinated.
If he wanted to reassure, Olivier Véran especially aroused a flood of reactions, in particular on the use of this expression, disappeared from official texts for more than 5 years.
“As a good father… I know that we are entering the 20s, Olivier Véran, but it's the 2020s, not the 1920s!
", Writes for example the president of the Young Radicals on Twitter.
As a good father ... I know we are entering the 20s @olivierveran but it's the 2020s, not the 1920s!
https://t.co/SPxMW99F4g
- Doriann Maillet-Praud (@D_MailletPraud) January 4, 2021
The deputy @olivierveran voted in 2014 to abolish the term "Good father"
LAW n ° 2014-873 of August 4, 2014 for real equality between women and men https://t.co/KDYiv0y1vZ https : //t.co/9aHNxgayAI
- FM LAMBERT (@fm_lambert) January 4, 2021
What did the minister mean?
“Maybe the twist is a bit awkward.
I do not know exactly why he chose that one, what is certain is that he wanted to recall the government's prioritization strategy, ”slips a member of his cabinet, questioned by the Parisian.
An amendment voted in 2014
The expression, historically refers, "to a prudent, attentive, reasonable person, concerned with the goods or interests entrusted to him as if it were his own".
Entered into the Civil Code in the early 1800s, it was, for example, used as part of a rental contract.
The beneficiary of a lease was thus "bound to use the item rented with due care".
But considered sexist, an amendment made it disappear in 2014. “This expression attributes to the man, father of a family, the quality of being a good manager.
It's pure discrimination, a gender stereotype.
Moreover, being a good father or mother is above all to forge an emotional and educational bond with the children.
It is completely different from the capacity to manage a public or private heritage ”, had then underlined the deputy EELV, Brigitte Allain.
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"The expression good father has since been replaced by a more neutral adverb, which no longer conveys any stereotype based on sex as reasonable or even reasonably," notes lawyer Anthony Bem.
But it has not completely disappeared from everyday language, however, and comes up regularly on budget matters, particularly in local communities.