From school uniforms to developing the train for greener transport, Emmanuel Macron addressed specific issues for young people on Monday in an interview with cameraman Hugo Décrypte. This is what can be taken from his statements.
The Head of State also justified the prohibition, decided by his government, of wearing the abaya In schools. These long dresses are especially worn by some Muslim students. “From kindergarten to high school, the school is secular. This means there is no place for religious symbols,” Emmanuel Macron declared on Monday.
“I do not stigmatize anyone,” he continued, telling himself “so that all the children of the Republic are in school.”
“Who stigmatizes? The people who push the abaya,” Emmanuel Macron continued before the cameraman Hugo Décrypte, evoking a “religious choice” to qualify the use of this garment.
Another dress issue in schools: the uniform. In line with the announcements of the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, Emmanuel Macron said “so that we look and experience” this measure.
“There is also the unique outfit. Without having a uniform, you can say: ‘you wear jeans, a T-shirt and a jacket'”, he illustrated. This “single team” may “seem a little less strict from a disciplinary point of view,” said the Head of State.
Gabriel Attal said he was in favor to uniform experiments “if the educational community of an establishment” requests it, noting that this already occurs in certain establishments abroad. This Monday, the minister affirmed that the conditions of such an experiment would materialize “in autumn”.
• Go “twice as fast” to reduce emissions
“We must completely change the course and nature of our efforts” to fight global warming, Emmanuel Macron acknowledged on Monday. The President of the Republic stressed that, as pointed out in June by the High Council for Climate“in the five years ahead, we must go even twice as fast” in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to meet France’s climate targets.
Last June, the High Council for Climate asked the executive “recognize the urgency” and expedite the drop in emissions, which is still “insufficient”. The independent body tasked with evaluating the country’s climate strategy believes that France was overwhelmed by the climatic events that hit it in 2022. With its belated heat wave, The summer of 2023 is the fourth hottest measured in France. since 1900.
• Towards an unlimited subscription to regional trains?
To deal with this situation, Emmanuel Macron wants to “electrify practices”, and this “in all places where fossil fuels are used”. He was also in favor of an unlimited train subscription per region, since Germany was able to set it up. “I asked the Minister of Transport to launch, with all the regions that are willing to do so, the same device,” Emmanuel Macron declared on Monday.
The Head of State also stated that “the objective is to move towards the greatest possible public transport, especially in urban areas”. It must present “within a few weeks” the map of the “metropolitan RER” that will be deployed in the coming years. Some cities, like Bordeaux, are already working on this issue.
• “Students planting trees”
Emmanuel Macron also set a goal on Monday for every high school student in France to plant a tree, starting this year in sixth grade.
“I want that this year we have from sixth grade, that we begin to have students plant trees,” said the head of state.
He considered that this year it will not be possible “for all sixth grade students”, but he hopes that eventually we will have “this generation where each university student will have planted their tree”, to “help” meet the objective. One billion trees planted in ten years.
Source: BFM TV
