Claude Allègre, former Minister of National Education under Lionel Jospin, died this Saturday, January 4 at the age of 87.
Former Minister of National Education Claude Allègre died Saturday in Paris at the age of 87, his son announced to AFP.
Academic, geophysicist, head of the list of the left in the 1992 regional elections in Languedoc-Roussillon (Jacques Blanc won), Claude Allègre – who also has paternal ties to Prades-le-Lez and maternal ties to Ceilhes, between ‘Hérault et Aveyron – occupied rue de Grenelle from 1997 to 2000, when Lionel Jospin, of whom he is a close friend, was Prime Minister.
“We have to degrease the mammoth”
After three weeks in his post, he released a sentence about National Education which would remain famous and set things ablaze: “We have to degrease the mammoth.”
The starting point of a long conflict with the teachers, embellished with other shocking sentences. “Teachers have four months of vacation and, in addition, they take their training leave for schooling” he said for example, also more or less assimilating national education “the red army”. Without forgetting the contested figures and considered far too high that he had put forward to stigmatize… the rate of teacher absenteeism.
A long-time member of the Socialist Party, Claude Allègre joined Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. He was also known for controversial positions on climate change.
Swiss
