VIDEO. Criticized for having turned her back on two teachers during her trip to Mayotte, Elisabeth Borne speaks

Elisabeth Borne, the former tenant of Matignon (2022-2024), appointed almost two weeks ago, was quickly at the heart of a controversy.

Traveling to Mayotte at the beginning of last week, an island devastated in mid-December by a deadly cyclone, the Minister of Education was criticized for having abruptly interrupted an exchange with two teachers expressing their dismay at the inaction of the State in this French territory, relates in particular Le Figaro. Without a word of explanation, she would have turned her back on them.

The images of this scene were quickly relayed on social networks by teaching unions and opposition parties, denouncing the “technocratism” of an Élisabeth Borne judged “sans compassion”. Faced with this media storm, the minister responded by affirming that it was a video “truncated” and who “does not reflect” the content of the exchange.

“I am leaving this sequence because I am expected and late for an exchange that I must have with National Education staff”she told BFMTV.

“The exchange should have ended”

Cornered by criticism, Élisabeth Borne ended up recognizing a “error” in its management of the incident: that of “not having said ‘goodbye’” to the two teachers. She added that she should have explained that she had to leave “because (she) had colleagues of their own, trade union organizations who were waiting for (her)”. This behavior, which she admits is abrupt, is according to her linked to the constraint imposed by the ministerial agenda. “The exchange should have ended”she concluded.

Despite her mea culpa, the minister said she “shocked” par “exploitation” of this incident and “a few seconds of an exchange” isolated who, according to her, “suggested that (she) would not be aware of the difficulties of Mayotte”. She also rejected the recurring accusations of “lack of empathy” brought against her.