The State “will not cut its subsidy” to Sciences Po Paris, declared Tuesday April 30 the Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, the day after the announcement by Valérie Pécresse of the “suspension” of funding for the region Ile-de-France. Last week, the establishment was the scene of blockades and mobilizations in support of the Palestinians, sometimes punctuated by tensions.
The provisional administrator of Sciences Po, Jean Bassères, says he “regrets” this announcement by Valérie Pécresse in an interview with Le Monde published on Tuesday. “The Ile-de-France region is an essential partner of Sciences Po, and I wish to maintain a dialogue on the position expressed by Ms. Pécresse,” he adds.
“We have a contract of objectives and means of performance currently under discussion, we have leverage to discuss with Sciences Po,” said Ms. Retailleau on France 2, evaluating State funding for Sciences Po. Paris at 75 million euros.
“No anti-Semitic remarks”
Asked about the suspension of disciplinary procedures announced on Friday April 26 by management against students involved in these actions, the Minister of Higher Education repeated that it only concerned a single sanction, “linked to the ‘invasion of the staircase leading [to the offices of] management’. There were then “no anti-Semitic remarks” and “no violence” was committed, she added. “There will never be a question of a sanction linked to anti-Semitic remarks being lifted,” clarified Sylvie Retailleau. And “there will be no suspension of collaboration with universities in Israel,” she said, referring to one of the activists’ demands.
Jean Bassères also tells Le Monde that he “does not plan to give up” Sciences Po’s academic partnerships with Israeli universities, and says he is “ready to explain [his] position”. While the government intervened in March after a pro-Palestinian mobilization in the establishment, the provisional administrator ensures that he “felt no interference from the public authorities towards [him] or towards the institution”.
