Discover the winner of the regional eloquence competition in Aveyron, selected for the final which will take place in Albi

De gauche à droite : Tgaïs Raoul, Louice Schlaeineintzaüer, Ethan Thorel, Thibault Aublé et Éléonore Garcia. DDM

The Groupe Dépêche Foundation's Regional Eloquence Competition will hold its finals in early February in Albi. In the meantime, the last selection stage took place on Monday, January 27 in the afternoon at the Monteils high school in Rodez. Among the participants were students from the Jeanne-d'Arc high school in Millau.

“In 2004, during a tsunami in Asia…” It is shortly after 2 p.m. and Eléonore Garcia from Millau is the first to launch into the Aveyron stage of the regional eloquence competition, the last before the final in Albi on February 7.

The competition, supported by the Occitanie Regional Council and the Toulouse and Montpellier academies, is aimed at second and first year students from the region's high schools. It aims to develop their ability to think collectively, write in groups and speak in public on topics related to law, freedoms and responsibility. For this 17th edition, high school students were invited to explore the vast theme of “Humanity”, with all its richness and paradoxes. Thus, since October, students have been working on pleadings with the help of their teachers. In January, the territorial selections began to decide between the finalists.

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The Aveyron selection took place yesterday at the Monteil high school in Rodez, with a place in the final up for grabs. Among the participants, the Jeanne-d’Arc high schools in Millau and La Découverte in Decazeville each presented two candidates. For its part, the Quercy-Périgord hotel trades high school in Souillac (Lot) was represented by a student in the first year of vocational training.

Highly talented pleadings

So it was Eléonore Garcia from Millau who began. During her pleading, she approached humanity from the perspective of courage and solidarity, particularly evoking the poignant example of the 2004 tsunami in Asia. She also highlighted a humanity full of paradoxes, mixing a dark inclination towards selfishness and an incredible capacity to create “bridges where there are gaps.”

For his part, Ethan Thorel, from the La Découverte high school in Decazeville, delivered a profound reflection on human duality, capable of the worst as well as the best. This committed vision joined that of Thaïs Raoul (Decazeville), who defended the necessary idea of ​​joining forces to build a better world, despite injustices and trials, such as the Bataclan attacks or the war in Ukraine. Louice Schlaeineintzaüer, from the Souillac high school, broadened the debate by highlighting the progress and challenges of humanity, which in the face of excessive anthropization, will have to act to balance “humanity, animality and plant life”. This perspective has joined the call of Thibault Aublé, from Millau, and his ode to difference for a humanity where diversity and progress would coexist.

Under the gaze of master François Zimeray and Michaël Delafosse

Finally, Louice Schlaeineintzaüer convinced the jury with the depth of his speech and won this first stage. The 15-year-old, living in Creysse in Dordogne, will therefore be in Albi for the grand finale. An intoxicating experience that should not, however, distract him from his ambition to open a restaurant at the end of his studies. On February 7, the many candidates of the regional eloquence competition of the Groupe Dépêche foundation will be judged by a jury chaired by François Zimeray, lawyer at the Paris bar and former ambassador for Human Rights.

The edition is also sponsored by Michaël Delafosse, professor of history and geography and above all mayor of Montpellier and president of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole.

Created in 2008, and chaired by Marie-France Marchand-Baylet, the Groupe Dépêche foundation is the first corporate foundation with a social and educational vocation, resulting from a regional daily press group. Its key programs are: active scholarships, the regional eloquence competition and the masterpiece prize.

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