“I find this story very surprising. Imagine what a controversial press might say after the appointment of such a profile in a foreign embassy”, asks Laurent Bigot, former sub-prefect and diplomat. In the usual waltz of appointments at the head of prefectures and embassies, one name made him wince: that of the prefect Jean Mafart, director of European and international affairs at the Ministry of the Interior until August 21. If he has not yet obtained the approval of the local authorities, the senior official should soon pack his bags for the French Embassy in Lusaka, capital of Zambia. However, in February 2022, his name was mentioned in an article by the chained duck as being linked to a case of drug trafficking and criminal association.
Heard by the investigators, his home searched, Jean Mafart kept his duties in Beauvau until it was announced this summer that he would be part of the 2023 vintage of new ambassadors. “I gave everything I knew to the investigators and I did not commit any offence. I find myself involved despite myself in the activities of a loved one, while I was in Brussels, when I no longer saw him and I knew nothing of his activities”, defends the person concerned. In the wake of the affair, this appointment nevertheless caused a stir in the small world of senior officials. Xavier Driencourt, former French ambassador to Algiers and ex-inspector general for foreign affairs, believes that this case could be the symptom of a greater deviation. “The sign that we would move towards either political or complacent appointments”, fears the diplomat.
Cautious turn
The case comes indeed at a pivotal moment for the administration: the first effects of the reform of the senior civil service carried out in 2021 were unveiled in the middle of the summer. On July 13, two regional prefects, twenty-six metropolitan department prefects, three overseas prefects and five delegate prefects were appointed. In the following weeks, these newcomers were followed by arrivals and replacements at the Quai d’Orsay. A movement of “unprecedented magnitude”, to use the words of the Ministry of the Interior, which follows the abolition of several “grand corps”, these statutes which until now governed the functioning and recruitment of the prefectural, diplomats and the General Inspectorate of Finance.
Besides the case of the prefect sent to Zambia, there are other surprising profiles. The entrepreneur Thibault Lanxade, former vice-president and former member of the executive council of Medef, becomes prefect of Indre. Lydia Guirous, former spokesperson for the Les Républicains party, has been appointed prefect delegate for equal opportunities in Gironde. Marilyne Poulain, former leader of the CGT, for her part, takes a similar position as delegate prefect in Strasbourg.
Specific profiles
The profiles of the nominees mark a cautious shift in the Ministry of the Interior. “We can clearly see here that there is a desire to seek, beyond the spheres related to each former body, profiles more foreign to the functions, with a manifest desire for diversification”, analyzes Olivier Renaudie, professor of law public at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Among the new arrivals in the “prefectural”, there is the former ambassador to Brussels Claire Raulin, who became prefect of Lot, or Michaël Galy, appointed prefect of Nièvre, who was the director of the regional university hospital center in Strasbourg.
With the reform of the senior civil service, the long paths that required climbing the ladder before becoming prefect no longer exist: a finance inspector can, in theory, become prefect, then ambassador, then director of central administration. This new career mobility also intends to make room for personalities who are not at all civil servants, as illustrated by the appointments of Marilyne Poulain or Lydia Guirous. “Even if it is only a handful today, there has clearly been a desire to name a few atypical profiles”, observes Olivier Renaudie.
Supervised prefects
Marilyne Poulain was a member of the management of the CGT – she resigned in July 2022, alerting in particular to the place of women in the organization. She is a figure in the fight for the regularization of undocumented workers and has notably exchanged several times with Gérald Darmanin on the immigration bill. For those around him, there is no tension between his commitment to undocumented workers and the function that the one who is described as “very republican” will now occupy. “It is a position that requires knowledge of the field, of the fight against discrimination and of access to the law”, we note. As prefect delegate for equal opportunities, the former trade unionist must above all “embody proximity”. Supervised by the prefect of the Grand Est region, she will not, for example, have to issue expulsion orders from the territory. “The equal opportunities prefects have essentially social vocations”, confirms Olivier Renaudie.
The same goes for the former spokeswoman for LR Lydia Guirous, whose appointment in Gironde has outraged some left-wing elected officials, who were moved in particular by her recent positions on the summer riots. Now defending her “neutrality”, this communicator, long engaged with Nicolas Sarkozy, ensures that she does not see any inconvenience in her lack of career in the administration before taking office. “I had a political commitment in the past which was very much linked to the defense of the Republic, she explains. I do not have the classic course, but it is intimately linked to equal opportunities.”
The wrath of diplomats
Although unprecedented, these movements do not move Christophe Mirmand, prefect of the Paca region and president of the Association of the prefectural body. “The prefectural is a secular function, resulting from the reforms of the consultant, who has always been able to adapt to major reforms, has always welcomed within it a variety of profiles, he recalls, placid. This is what makes her wealth.”
Even before the reform, the Head of State had power in this area, allowing him to choose various profiles that he could elevate to the status of prefect or ambassador. “It has always been done, confirms Bernadette Malgorn, the first woman to be appointed regional prefect in 1996, and former secretary general of the Ministry of the Interior. In the 1980s, Jacques Chérèque, who was number 2 in the CFDT, was appointed prefect delegate to the prefect of Lorraine to take care of the file of industrial reconversions.When I was secretary general of the Ministry of the Interior, we also recruited as prefect Pierre N’Gahane, who was the dean of the economic faculty [de l’université catholique] de Lille.” These external appointments also existed among diplomats. After having been director of cabinet for Lionel Jospin at Matignon for five years, Olivier Schrameck was appointed, in 2002, French ambassador to Madrid.
At the Quai d’Orsay, the new appointments and the reform they reflect are however rather poorly received. The former corps of diplomats – which went on strike to protest against its abolition in the summer of 2022 – perceives this 2023 vintage as a political signal. “The president has always been able to appoint ambassadors at his discretion since de Gaulle, points out former ambassador Olivier Da Silva, CFTC union representative at the Quai d’Orsay. Political appointments have always existed, but those of today create a atmosphere.” He cites as an example the former Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, appointed on July 26 ambassador, permanent representative of France to the Council of Europe.
Risk of “deprofessionalization”
“With this reform, we risk, as in the case of Pap Ndiaye, who is an example of an appointment of convenience, to see the birth of a politicization of the diplomatic corps”, grinds Xavier Driencourt. Wind standing against the reform, the former ambassador in Algiers sees coming a risk of loss of quality of our diplomacy. “The difference between the prefecture of Lot and that of Strasbourg is that in the north you eat cooking with butter and in the south, cooking with oil, he quips. But, if you are abroad, it’s not the same thing! Being an ambassador in Japan is different from being in Brazil or Niger. These changes require adaptation. Diplomacy is a specific profession, different from that of the prefectural or general inspectorates.”
According to Xavier Driencourt, the reform could thus have consequences at the level of the senior civil service in general. “In a few years, we will realize that the profile of the diplomatic corps will have changed, he predicts. We will have fewer specialists, because we will have appointed for reasons x Or there friends in positions of diplomat, ambassador or prefect.” This fear is shared by another former diplomat, François Heisbourg, now special adviser to the president of the Foundation for Strategic Research: “We risk going towards a form of deprofessionalization of the prefectural and diplomatic bodies, which are two great pillars of the sovereign.” He observes that the external appointments are for the moment “not numerous”, but says he is “very worried” for the future. “That will happen in the years to come? When everyone can fit their friends and girlfriends? asks the former diplomat. We have to face the facts: this reform has made it much easier to abuse the system.”