The wait – much shorter than in the summer of 2024 – to know the name of the new Prime Minister is over. It is François Bayrou, current president of MODEM (Democratic Movement) who will have the difficult task of appointing the future ministers of National Education and Higher Education. Who is he? Where did he study? Diplomeo looked back on his journey.
From the world of education to politics
François Bayrou was born in Bordères in 1951, a town where his father was once mayor. This commune in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is located right in Béarn, a region dear to the new Prime Minister since he campaigned for the protection of regional languages. He also speaks Béarnese fluently.
The head of government has gone far in his studies, despite a stuttering which declared itself quite early in his life. After successfully mitigating this problem, he gets his baccalaureate in classics in 1968a year ahead of his comrades, then integrates a literary preparation in Bordeaux. He will continue his studies in classic letters to then obtain aggregation.
With his agreg in his pocket, François Bayrou will become a teacher at just 24. However, his political commitment will quickly establish itself as an obstacle in his professional life. Assigned to the Léon-Bérard college in 1982, he provoked the anger of his colleagues – because of his political beliefs – and then obtained his transfer to another establishment. Finally, in 1984, he became advisor to the President of the European Parliament before running as a deputy for the 1986 elections.
A long-term commitment for the centrist party
Between two jobs as a professor, François Bayrou began his political life by becoming pen of the Minister of Agriculturefrom 1979 to 1981, then mission manager of the President of the Senate between 1981 and 1982. However, his commitment began from the age of 14in 1965, when he joins the CD partyfor Democratic Center. He will also support Jean Lecanuet against General De Gaulle, the same year.
It was in 1982 that everything accelerated for the new Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron. Elected general councilor of the Pyrénées-Atlantiqueshe combines this position with that of deputy of the department, in 1986. A position he will hold until 2012.
François Bayrou will establish himself in a new kind of team: the renovators. It is a small group made up of rising personalities from the center and the right. At the time, there were politicians like François Fillon and Philippe de Villiers. However, divergences d’opinions will lead to the end of the renovators whose objective was to create a new large right-wing party.
From minister to future president?
François Bayrou has big ambitions. After having been the pen of a minister, he himself occupied this position, National Education, from 1993 to 1997, under the presidency of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac. Among the projects he will carry out, we find a reform of the Falloux law, with the desire to no longer cap subsidies to private establishments. A proposal which will not pass before the Constitutional Council.
Despite everything, François Bayrou will be at the initiative of numerous measures well known to the general public: higher education reform with the establishment of an operation by semestersredesign of the high school with the establishment of the S, L, ES, STMG sectors… It is also to the new Prime Minister that we owe the introduction of modern languages – and English – from primary school.
The ambitions of the new head of government do not stop there, since he running for president in 2002. However, the politician will have been more marked byslap affair than through his ideas. Indeed, having surprised an 11-year-old child picking his pockets, François Bayrou then slapped him in the middle of a meeting. This gesture divides, with some voters believing that it demonstrates the firmness that the State does not know how to have today.
The rest is history: François Bayrou will run in all the presidential elections between 2002 and 2012, without managing to reach the 2nd round. However, he does an alliance with Emmanuel Macron for the 2017 election. Support which is renewed in 2022.
The new Prime Minister’s projects
Now appointed Prime Minister, François Bayrou has the heavy task ofunite a National Assembly without a majority. It will have to bring together the center as well as the Republican left or right. The objective? Unite around a project and above all a common budgeta source of major conflict leading to the dismissal of the previous government.
On the subject of national education, François Bayrou will have to appoint a minister who masters the complex scope of this theme. Having himself served as a professor and Minister of National Education, we can only hope that he invests time and resources on this subject.
In terms of higher education, the new Prime Minister will also have to think about Parcoursup’s successora much-criticized guidance platform. Finally, he will also be responsible for respond to the discontent of universities whose budgets have been significantly cut in recent months.
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