Read morePap Ndiaye defended himself on Friday against accusations of wanting to "dilute" the Council of Wise Men on Secularism and announced the appointment of a new member, a historian close to Samuel Paty, after criticism from the sister of the murdered teacher. "This council had no legal existence, I am giving it one. "This is the Council of Wise Men on Secularism and the Values ​​of the Republic," the Minister of Education declared on France Inter. "My goal is both obviously to ensure a firm secularism - and I am not going to budge from that line - but it is also to make sure that secularism is loved," he added. "We must therefore also reflect on the values ​​of the Republic, which are linked to this question of secularism. "Fighting against discrimination, fighting against racism or anti-Semitism, is in reality strengthening secularism," he explained. "So I am not diluting anything at all, I am strengthening, ensuring and legally solidifying a Council." The minister also announced the appointment of a new member to this Council, who will "join him in a few weeks." "This is Christophe Capuano, one of my historian colleagues, an academic," professor of contemporary history at the University of Grenoble-Alpes and president of the jury for the Samuel Paty Prize, created in homage to the professor and which rewards the work of middle and high school students. "He was also a close friend of Samuel Paty," he stressed. Last week, Pap Ndiaye installed a remodeled Council of Elders of Secularism, whose scope of reflection he expanded to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination, as well as gender equality. He also announced the appointment of five new members, including Alain Policar, a sociologist and political scientist, associate researcher at Cevipof, who had notably criticized those who make "secularism a weapon against religion," raising concerns about a possible change in the Council. In a column published on April 15, entitled "Let's not assassinate secularism," Samuel Paty's sister, Mickaëlle Paty, and Jean-Pierre Sakoun, president of Unité laïque, an association that defends a firm and militant vision of secularism, criticized an "assumed ideological choice to assassinate secularism." secularism" and a Minister of Education who is "neither secular nor universalist." The Ministry of Education confirmed in a press release on Friday the appointment of Christophe Capuano as a member of the Council, specifying that he was replacing Jean-Eric Schoettl, former Secretary General of the Constitutional Council, who resigned from his duties. In an article published this week by the newspaper L'Opinion, Mr. Schoettl considered that the Council of Elders had "up until now defended a simple and firm conception of secularism in schools", but that this line, "held by Jean-Michel Blanquer", "is no longer held, it is no mystery, by the current Minister of Education". Those who "see secularism as an old-fashioned thing, a straitjacket" have "recovered", he added, considering that "this state of mind" seemed to him to be "shared" by "some of the new members". “I personally feel too weary and too pessimistic to wage war,” he said. 21/04/2023 17:11:10
        Paris (AFP) – 
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