When she arrives on the steps of the Hôtel de Rochechouart, Monday September 23, to take up her new role as Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, wearing a satin beige jacket and black pants, knows she is being scrutinized. Her first public speech has not yet taken place but, already, a controversy has emerged about the choice of this Renaissance deputy, elected from the 11e constituency of French people abroad since 2017, to succeed Nicole Belloubet.
His profile foreign to national education has thrown the entire educational ecosystem, from teachers to executives at Rue de Grenelle. And it only took a few hours after his surprise appointment within the government of Michel Barnier, on September 21, for everyone to unearth the digital traces of his former consulting activity for expatriates recruiting domestic workers in Singapore, where she settled in 2005.
On the website of the company she founded in 2009, Help Agency, which helps with the hiring and training of domestic workers, mainly of Filipino origin, we find recommendations such as: “avoid emotion and compassion”, “keep calm”, “keep the right distance: explain that you cannot act like her because you do not have the same culture”, ” a helper who feels humiliated becomes unmanageable; she will seek to change families.” Or again: “Employees who have only known local families, Chinese for example, are often more flexible, more attentive to instructions and have for the most part developed a great sense of “Asian” service. »
“Founded” unions
Among teacher union leaders, we say “scared” and we are already anticipating a minister “disconnected”. “She arrives after four ministers in eighteen months, at a time when the school is going through a very serious crisis, and her CV 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 it, but whose values also seem very far removed from public service and the ethics of the State”also sighs an inspector general, who wishes to remain anonymous.
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Those around Anne Genetet say that these controversies “slide on her”, and those close to him rather highlight his past as a doctor and his voluntary activities with migrant populations during his years in Singapore. The minister was, in any case, particularly discreet for her first week at Rue de Grenelle, where she “swallowed the files”, according to those around him.
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