“There is a great atmosphere!
Jokes a macronist to set the scene.
The scene caused a lot of talk in the government ranks.
It takes place just before the Council of Ministers.
Jean-Michel Blanquer is "visibly very upset, very upset", according to a witness, when he arrives at the Elysee Palace this Wednesday, January 12 in the morning.
In the room where a handful of his colleagues are already patient before the weekly meeting begins, he is rushing towards the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
Behind the scenes, tension has been mounting on the health protocol in schools for several days.
According to his confidences to a relative, Blanquer is outraged by the feeling "of having to carry everything on the shoulders while the health situation is complex".
In the anteroom of the Ambassadors' lounge, "he spoke to Olivier Véran in a confused manner about an article evoking their conflict during the meeting last Friday", reports a present.
His colleague then asks him to lower his tone.
"Listen, Jean-Michel, you need to calm down"
The two men move away in the idea of not making a scene in front of their colleagues.
But the Minister of Education does not take offense.
"He continued to speak super loud," said a minister.
He then reproaches, among others, Olivier Véran for not having sufficiently defended him during a question to the government.
"We will have to remain tightly knit, it will rock," he intends to him.
To which Véran answers in substance, according to a witness: “Listen, Jean-Michel, you have to calm down, we have to unite.
We have to hold out in the media storm, but we have to calm down.
"
“It was not a clash, but a frank explanation, as we can often have.
We've had some like that before.
We didn't yell at each other, we just explained, ”Blanquer said for his part to a relative, at the end of the Council of Ministers.
“It was very hot,” however blows one of his colleagues.
In the closed session of the Council of Ministers, Emmanuel Macron wished to express his support when evoking the "strong fatigue and understandable weariness in schools": "I thank the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education for the pragmatic decisions that have been taken.
We must continue to listen and support teachers and parents, with efficiency, kindness and listening, ”said the president.
A meeting in which Jean-Michel Blanquer was not very talkative ... "He did not open his mouth," says one of his colleagues.
