When she arrives on the steps of the Hôtel de Rochechouart on Monday, September 23, to take up her new position as Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, dressed in a beige satin jacket and black pants, knows she is being examined. Her first public speech has not yet taken place but a controversy has already arisen over the election of this Renaissance deputy, chosen from among the 11my constituency of French people abroad since 2017, to succeed Nicole Belloubet.
His profile outside of national education has shaken the entire educational ecosystem, from the teachers to the managers of Rue de Grenelle. And it only took a few hours after his surprise appointment to Michel Barnier’s government, on September 21, for everyone to discover the digital traces of his former consulting activity for expatriates who hired domestic workers in Singapore, where he settled in 2005.
On the website of the company she founded in 2009, Help Agency, which helps in the hiring and training of domestic workers, mainly of Filipino origin, we find recommendations such as: “avoid emotion and pity”, “keep calm”, “keep the right distance: explain that you can’t act like her because you don’t have the same culture”, ” to assistant whoever feels humiliated becomes ungovernable; “She will seek to change her family.” Or again: “Employees who have only met local families, Chinese for example, tend to be more flexible, more attentive to instructions and, for the most part, have developed a great sense of “Asian” service. »
“Founded” unions
Among teachers union leaders, we say “scared” and we are already anticipating a minister “offline”. “He arrives after four ministers in eighteen months, at a time when the school is going through a very serious crisis, and his resume is that of someone who comes from another world. The gap is huge: how could they think she could be the right person? », asks Sophie Vénétitay from SNES-FSU. “We have the impression of someone who not only knows nothing about the subject, but also whose values seem very far from public service and the ethics of the State”also sighs an inspector general who wishes to remain anonymous.
Those around Anne Genetet say that these controversies “slide over it”, and those close to him rather highlight his past as a doctor and his volunteer activities with immigrant populations during his years in Singapore. In any case, the minister was especially discreet during her first week on rue de Grenelle, where “swallowed the files”, according to those around him.
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