This first establishment of a network of non-mixed private Catholic internships financially supported by the conservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin raises concerns. One hundred and sixty political, union and university personalities thus oppose the opening of the private school-lycée baptized “Académie Saint-Louis” in Sologne, in an open letter addressed to the authorities, dated Tuesday and consulted on Friday July 11 by the France-Presse (AFP) agency.
“In the name of the protection of youth and the non-school character of this establishment, in the name of respect for the fundamental principles of our Republic, in the name of the fundamental interests of the nation, we ask you to oppose the opening of the Saint-Louis Academy”claim the 160 personalities and 30 signatory organizations.
This first project was to be created in September 2025 at the Domaine de Chalès, located in the town of Nouan-le-Fuzelier (Loir-et-Cher). The investigation period of the short file since April 18, had specified the rectorate to AFP. The rector, the prefect and the public prosecutor, recipients of the letter, have three months to oppose the opening of the establishment, in accordance with the law.
“Risk of indoctrination of insured students”
A few days before the deadline, the authors of the text, including former Minister of Education Benoît Hamon, the ex-candidate with the presidential election and current leader of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel or the secretary general of the CGT, Sophie Binet, “A risk of indoctrination of insured students” and point “A political academy at the service of an ideology”. They also castigate students’ supervision by older, a “Type of operation implicated by the 1995 inspection report concerning the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, for the violence it generated”.
“Based on the traditionalist values of the Catholic religion”the education charter adopted by the Saint-Louis Academy “Pretend to integrate in republican principles”underlines the letter. On the spiritual level, “Freedom of conscience simply does not exist. The term “secularism” does not appear at any time ”.
“The assumed choice of Pierre-Edouard Sterin to weigh on the electoral process by providing his fortune provides a serious damage to a fundamental interest of the nation: democracy” is also mentioned, while the founder of the Smartbox gift box company, a conservative catholic assumed and exiled in Belgium, diversifies initiatives to influence French political life in recent months.
In a statement sent in March to AFP, the Saint-Louis de Chalès academies said “Registering in the tradition of establishments of excellence”saying that« To assimilate this collective ambition to any political ideology is an ignorance of what an educational project is ”.