On BFMTV, David Lisnard defends community service for school students and parental responsibility
A guest on BFMTV and RMC's Face à Face on Tuesday 13 October, the mayor of Cannes, Nouvelle Énergie's candidate for the 2027 presidential election, was questioned on the school students' anger, education, the excuse of minority and the budget. The interview opened with an exchange about his late arrival at the studio. Translated from French.
Translated from the French original. Lire en français
The mayor of Cannes is pursuing his campaign on Paris television sets. On Tuesday 13 October in the morning, David Lisnard was the guest of Apolline de Malherbe's Face à Face, on BFMTV and RMC. The declared Nouvelle Énergie candidate for the 2027 presidential election, who also chairs the Association of French Mayors, was questioned on the school students' anger, the social crisis and the 2027 budget, on the very day of act five of the school students' mobilisation.
On the damage committed during the blockades, David Lisnard defended individual responsibility. According to the account published by Rupture, he proposes that the young people responsible carry out community service work, as he says he does in Cannes. And when minors are not held responsible, their parents must bear the cost of the damage: they pay when they are solvent and, when they are not, a deduction can be made from the benefits they receive.
The mayor of Cannes also judged the French education system to be at the end of its tether. He calls for another system to replace Parcoursup, for a baccalauréat refocused on an upgraded final examination and a common core of education, summing up his line in one formula: education must be liberalised.
Excuse of minority, budget and a right-wing primary
In the excerpts broadcast by BFMTV, David Lisnard also said he wanted to review the excuse of minority for young vandals. On the budget, he targeted the finance ministry, declaring that the deep state in France is Bercy, the ministry's seat. The interview also covered, according to TV Mag, the students' demands, Édouard Philippe, cutting state spending, the rise of the extremes and the hypothesis of a right-wing primary.
The school students' mobilisation formed the backdrop to the interview. It also affects Cannes, where three schools had moved to remote teaching during the blockades at the start of the month. Nationally, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, estimated on Tuesday morning that around 200 schools, out of some 3,700, could be closed, and demonstrations were announced in around thirty towns.
A late arrival that opened the interview
The most commented sequence, however, remains the opening of the programme. Apolline de Malherbe noted that her guest had arrived just before going on air and that the start of the interview had been pushed back to 8:31 a.m., recalling a previous late arrival two or three years earlier. The mayor of Cannes replied with a joke about making oneself desired, before explaining, according to HuffPost, that he had been following the start of term and the situation in his city, in contact with the teams on the ground, the municipal police and the cleaning teams.
The excerpt was mocked by several political opponents, including the Communist senator Ian Brossat, HuffPost notes. For David Lisnard, who is seeking to impose his liberal line on the presidential campaign, the episode will remain a studio anecdote, far from the substantive subjects addressed afterwards during the interview.
