Patrick Mottard admits to feeling uncomfortable when young Leonarda, freshly expelled and presumably still emotionally affected, started discussing the importance of school and the necessity of republican integration. It seemed too good to have not been suggested.
The administrative investigation report seems to confirm these doubts. In fact, the young girl missed 21 half-days of school since the start of the term (78 last year), which is more than two weeks of absence within a month and a half of classes. Of course, the parents likely hold significant responsibility for this situation, as the report also states that Leonarda regularly slept away from home.
Given the family atmosphere, it’s very likely that the initial discourse was suggested by some well-meaning but very naive association leaders. However, I am increasingly convinced that generosity and naivety, especially in this context, are contradictory.
As an elected official, I am regularly approached by foreigners in precarious, difficult, and sometimes dire situations. I take pride in having resolved a number of these cases (in good cooperation with the Prefecture services, which are more open than generally thought). But before intervening, we always take the precaution of verifying the person’s situation by our own means. Recently, it turned out that the person recommended to us was a drug dealer with multiple convictions. Another time, we discovered that the poor distressed lady in fact was prostituting her daughters.
This verification work has allowed us to maintain credibility, which we can then use to serve causes truly worthy of it.
Before rushing headlong into the Leonarda affair, media, association activists, and… “responsible” politicians would have done better to adopt this cautious attitude, which is by no means the opposite of generosity but indeed a guarantee of its success.
