Emmanuel Macron is interviewed, Monday, September 4, the day of the start of the school year, by journalist and youtubeur Hugo Travers, the host of the “Hugo decrypts” channel. In this live interview on YouTube and TikTok devoted to “the future of young people”, the President of the Republic was questioned in particular on mental health, the environment, inequalities and education.

During the interview, the Head of State notably “congratulated” the Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, for the announcement of the ban on wearing the abaya at school, a week before back to school and said not to stigmatize anyone. “It’s a subject where you have to be intractable and clear and we will be now”, he continued, adding “that it is not the most important subject”, as denounced by trade union organizations. of public education.

Uniform “experiments”

He positioned himself “rather” in favor of “experiments” and an “evaluation” of the wearing of school uniforms, the outlines of which will be specified “in the fall”, as announced by Gabriel Attal Monday morning.

“I am in favor of the experimentation, evaluation approach”, he said, after recalling that originally it was “rather for each establishment to manage the thing” but that the question now took on “proportions crazy” in the public debate.

“There is the uniform and there is also the unique outfit. Without having a uniform, you can say ‘you put on jeans, t-shirt and jacket’”, he argued. “The issue of unique dress is in my opinion more acceptable, may seem a little less strict from a disciplinary point of view,” he added. “It regulates a lot of subjects (…) 1/ secularism and 2/ a little the idea that we have of decency, that is to say we don’t want outfits that are too eccentric”, he said. he again pointed out.

Regarding the fight against bullying designated as “major cause of the 2023-2024 school year” by the Ministry of Education, “we are in the process of passing a law which this fall will be voted (…) which will allow to keep cyber stalkers away online by banning them from networks for six months…” he said during the interview.

Asked about the climate emergency, Mr. Macron confirmed the presentation of his “ecological planning” strategy by Elisabeth Borne in “a few days” and the announcement “tomorrow” of a school renovation plan. The president also said he was “in favor” of a measure facilitating access to trains similar to the German model, which offers unlimited access to public transport for 49 euros in order to encourage users to abandon more polluting individual transport.

More information to come.