A week after requesting the intervention of the police on the night of April 24-25 to put an end to a student occupation called by the Sciences Po Palestine Committee, the school's provisional administrator speaks publicly for the first time on the subject of this demonstration in support of the Palestinian people. On Friday, April 26, Jean Bassères negotiated a compromise with the students, putting an end to a new occupation. In an interview with Le Monde, he responds to the critics who accuse him of having "given up on everything" to an "agitating minority," as Prime Minister Gabriel Attal puts it.

On Friday evening, we were in a rather exceptional situation. Personally, I was convinced that if the police had intervened at Sciences Po, it would have been a difficult operation that would not have put an end to the blockades. It's true that I had made the opposite decision two days earlier, as the context seemed very different to me. The alternative was therefore to find a negotiated solution based on a compromise that might also enable the mobilized students to make commitments beyond the very issue of occupation. This was the narrow path I chose.

The students have made a commitment that there will be no further disruption to classes, exams or school life. But I naturally remain cautious. If this commitment is not kept, consequences will have to be faced. Calling in the police on Wednesday evening was a difficult decision, and one that is contested by a significant part of the academic community. I did so knowing the risks involved and being convinced that the intervention would not jeopardize student safety. The risk was that the occupation would be maintained over the long term.

I've read and heard a lot of inaccurate things about these negotiations. I would like to stress that the suspension of referrals to the disciplinary section applies only to the events that took place between April 17 and 19, when students were noisily demonstrating in the staircase of the school's presidential and administrative office. I have decided to suspend the referrals for events that are therefore not of any significant gravity.

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