After a month of controversy, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra left national education on Thursday February 8, replaced by Nicole Belloubet. The former tennis player was never able to forget her initial misstep: her comments, the day after her appointment at rue de Grenelle, on public school and the schooling of her children in a private Parisian establishment, had sparked the anger of the teaching staff.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra is therefore demoted to her original ministry. In sport, we call it a return to basics. The minister returns full time – and in full force – to the sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) files that she knows by heart, her comfort zone, the one where she built her political legitimacy.
The former general director of the French Tennis Federation falls back on her support, of which she knows there are many in the sports movement. This is evidenced by the open letter to the educational community published at the end of January by around fifty federation leaders, who defended “AOC”, a minister described as “effective” and “up to his role”.
The initiative was, however, little appreciated by Matignon, who had instructed the ministry, through the director of sports, Fabienne Bourdais, to remind the signatories, including many national technical directors and state executives, of their duty of reserve.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was also on conquered ground, on January 30, during the – very politicized – greetings ceremony of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee in a packed amphitheater. The minister, who then felt “within family”, according to a close friend, took the opportunity to settle some scores, castigating those who, including within the National Assembly, would make her “the symbol of a privileged caste to be slaughtered.”
Embodiment of State leadership in the Olympics file
Appointed Minister of Sports and Olympic Games in May 2022, “AOC” had, in this first position, weathered storms, notably the fiasco of organizing the Champions League final at the Stade de France, barely eight days after unpacking his boxes at the ministry.
She had also pacified a deeply divided sports ecosystem when she took office; restored weight to a ministry often relegated to second place in the government. To her credit, she could also claim to have won her standoffs with Noël Le Graët and Bernard Laporte, pushing the two powerful presidents of the football and rugby federations, mired in repeated scandals, to resign.
According to many actors – public or private – of the Paris 2024 Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was able to embody the leadership of the State in the Olympic file, even if it meant offending the historic partners of the Games, such as Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris – the two women hardly like each other. She also managed to assert herself during interministerial meetings or arbitrations.
Finalize preparation for the Games
Back at the ministry located on avenue de France (13th arrondissement), Amélie Oudéa-Castéra will be able to devote herself to finalizing this file for the preparation of the Games, on which she demonstrated “very great rigor”, was keen to underline the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, Thursday evening by commenting, on France 2, on government appointments.
Another subject which will be among the minister’s priorities: the development of the elements of a framework law for sport which she has called for by the end of the year.
His mastery of the files and his work capacity, judged above average and which all stakeholders recognize, will be particularly useful to him during the 2025 budgetary arbitrations to provide the necessary means for the ambition of this legacy law for the Games . On the condition that she is still a minister at the start of the school year: the success of the JOP could be, on this question, the justice of the peace.
And driven out of rue de Grenelle, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra is now weakened. It will no longer be in a strong position to try to generalize 30 minutes of physical activity at school, a system which has still not met with the expected success, particularly among teaching staff. However, she made it one of the flagship measures of her mandate at the Ministry of Sports.
