Roger Chudeau is seriously considering sending flowers to Brigitte Macron. The deputy of Loir-et-Cher, former social adviser to François Fillon, delighted in reading the Parisian, Thursday, January 12, in which the wife of the Head of State says she is in favor of wearing school uniforms. “I wore the uniform as a student: fifteen years of navy blue skirt, navy blue sweater. And I lived it well. It erases the differences, we save time – it’s time-consuming to choose how to dress in the morning – and money – compared to the brands”, declares the first lady. Coincidence or necessity, this release comes on the same day that Roger Chudeau’s bill (PPL) on the subject was examined in the National Assembly.
Thursday, in fact, the RN had a parliamentary niche, which allows it, once a year, to submit its texts to the entire national representation. An unprecedented opportunity for Marine Le Pen to show that her training is capable of proposing measures that are a priori consensual (such as on the possibility for parliamentarians to visit nursing homes impromptu) or transpartisan (with the introduction of proportional representation, or the wearing of the uniform, therefore). Measures which had no chance of being adopted, according to the president of the RN group herself, who admitted “not to think that her PPLs are voted”. “I see parties more attached to the defense of sometimes shabby political interests rather than to the interests of the French,” she said the day before, questioned by the Association of Parliamentary Journalists.
But the political blow was however too good not to be seized: the marinist deputies decided to see in the words of Brigitte Macron an indirect support for their bill. “I find it hard to believe she didn’t know there was a PPL on the uniform issue, it’s not serious. She’s an honest and elegant woman”, gargles Roger Chudeau. “I take note of this agreement from Madame Macron, like that of many French people on this subject”, declares Marine Le Pen more soberly. A political reading rejected en bloc by the cabinet of Brigitte Macron and by the Elysée. “Brigitte Macron absolutely did not have the RN bill in mind, she had not prepared this question”, swears an adviser to the executive, who recalls that the subject also has the support of several members of the majority. .
The first lady was however, reluctantly, present in all the speeches of this particular parliamentary contest. When Roger Chudeau declaims in his deep ORTF-style voice the reasons for his proposal – “No more rivalries, ford-wars, petty rackets. The school becomes once again the Republican sanctuary”, criticizing both “generalized confusionism”, ” Tiktok”, “the dizziness of countless requests” and “the Trojan horses of deconstruction” – the former academy inspector concludes by congratulating himself: “We had the unexpected reinforcement of Brigitte Macron, I think we can overcome our divisions!” In the Lepenist ranks, incongruous “Thank you Madame Macron!” burst out and even a “We want Brigitte”, when Minister Franck Riester takes the floor, replacing his colleague in education Pap Ndiaye, whose last minute absence was noticed on the benches of the hemicycle.
“Madame Macron is free to vote Le Pen. But I want to say it here: she has no democratic legitimacy”, recalls in the hubbub the deputy LFI Paul Vannier. Just before him, the marinist Julien Odoul had quoted the first lady at length, before discussing one of the main reasons, according to them, for the adoption of the uniform: “the fight against Islamic fundamentalism”. “How many Qamis, Abayas, Islamic veils will it take to rearm a republican and secular school?” Wonders emphatically the one who, in 2019, created a national controversy by asking a school guide to take off her veil, in the middle of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council.
Is it the support of the wife of the Head of State? Concern for consistency? The desire to no longer ostracize the far right? Deputy Maxime Minot (LR) supported, on behalf of his group, the PPL on the uniform of Roger Chudeau, to the applause of elected sailors. “I have never had any problem voting for a PPL, wherever it comes from,” said the deputy from Oise.
If they were added to the votes of the RN, the handful of votes from the deputies Les Républicains (as well as the non-registered Emmanuel Ménard) did not change the situation: the Lepéniste proposal was rejected by 105 votes against 91. Much more than a question of skirts or navy blue sweaters, the advisability of maintaining the sanitary cordon and the place to be given to the RN in the institution were at the heart of the debates.
