Strike disturbs government Emmanuel Macron In the full campaign of the 12 and 19 June legislative elections. Is it about teachers? From healthcare workers? Experienced railroad agents? No, from discreet French diplomats. For the second time in history – the first happened in 2003 – ambassadors, consuls and other employees of the Quai d’Orsay are holding a work stop this Thursday. In recent years they have been protesting the repression of diplomatic troops and the heavy loss of diplomacy’s human and economic resources.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a decree published in the official bulletin on April 17, in the middle of the campaign for the runoff of the presidential election. approved suppression of two elite diplomatic bodies: plenipotentiary ministers and foreign affairs advisers. Until now, they were the only high officials with the task of occupying embassy positions. The Centrist Executive justifies this measure, incorporated into a wider reform of the civil service, by the need for greater mobility in the careers of senior officials. But his opponents fear he favors carefully chosen appointments of ambassadors and consuls based on political or personal affinities.
Risk of “professional diplomacy disappearing”
Despite affecting 900 of the 13,700 officials in the State Department, the reform sparked real outrage. this monitoring strike important was expected. At least 10 ambassadors, including Oman, Kuwait or Cyprus, have expressed their willingness to attend, along with consuls, senior foreign officials and a large number of junior officials. Even in recent days, the hashtag #diplo2metier has proliferated on Twitter, and in these hashtags they have expressed their reasons for supporting a quitting job or claiming their diplomatic profession.
“We are at risk” the death of our professional diplomacy. The professions of the Quai d’Orsay are learned in the long run, especially through the proliferation of experience abroad and in difficult positions”, a group of 500 mostly young people of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mobilized together with the various trade unions.
With the reform, the top categories of officials who will hold ambassadorial posts will disappear, and “body of state administrators“. This will bring together all kinds of senior officials (government delegates, finance inspectors, etc.) who will be encouraged to move from one ministry to the next and from the private to the public sector.
“It is vital to abandon reform, because it will profoundly change the diplomatic corps. the best positions will be appointed for non-diplomatic reasons. “There is a huge risk of politicization,” argued former French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, who was known for opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In fact, Macron had already sparked controversy in 2018 by wanting to appoint Los as consul. An appointment from Angeles to the writer and his friend Philippe Besson is finally thwarted by the unrest that arouses in the Quai d’Orsay.
“bad relations” with ambassadors
Faced with a wave of criticism, the Macronist Executive defends himself by reminding that the prestigious opposition from the East will not be suppressed and ambassadors will continue to be appointed by the Foreign Minister. It also sent a softening signal. Appointment of new minister Catherine ColonnaHe is a diplomat by profession and in recent years has served as an ambassador in London.
While controversial reform is the typical neoliberal measure to deregulate a group of officials, some of its critics see it as a highly political goal. “Obviously, its aim is not to create an already existing mobility between ministries. This shows above all. Bad relations between the Elysee and the Quai d’Orsay“, an ambassador explained in remarks to digital ‘Mediapart. Macron had already harshly criticized ambassadors in a speech in August 2019 in which he condemned the “deep state” – traditionally very obedient – to his attempts in international politics, such as his stance on dialogue with Putin opposed
In recent years, the concentration of French foreign policy in the hands of the president and his advisers has increased to the detriment of the Quai d’Orsay. With 178 embassies and 88 consulates, France has the third largest diplomatic network in the world, after only the United States and China. But lost 53 percent of his soldiers in the last three years. Most of this cut has occurred since 2010.
This decline in resources and the sense of abandonment of ambassadors occurred at the same time that France’s influence in the world was waning. The decline was exemplified by the succession of failures in international policy that Macron suffered by going from Mali to Lebanon, Syria or Libya. And now this strike is breaking out in the midst of the war in Ukraine and the last term of the French presidency of the European Union. Admittedly, it’s an inappropriate moment for the centrist leader.