It won’t happen right away. The appointments of the directors general of the national police (DGPN) and the national gendarmerie (DGGN), vacant since the end of September 2024, are once again postponed. The successors of Frédéric Veaux (DGPN) and Christian Rodriguez (DGGN), both of whom retired, were first expected last week, then the announcement was postponed to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday October 23. But the appointments “will undoubtedly take place at the following Council of Ministers”, indicates has West France a source close to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, stressing that “consultations are continuing”.
According to The World, this second postponement was decided on Monday October 21 following an interview between the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau. One name is in dispute for the post of DGPN: that of Alexandre Brugère, now ex-director of the office of the previous tenant of Place Beauvau, Gérald Darmanin, to whom this political profile is very close. The new Minister of the Interior is reluctant to endorse the name chosen by his predecessor.
Since the dissolution and the long quest for a new government in the absence of a majority in the National Assembly, these appointments have become politically complicated. In this new configuration, Emmanuel Macron no longer decides on appointments alone. For positions such as those of the heads of the police and the gendarmerie, which are highly sensitive, the Head of State and Prime Minister Michel Barnier must come to an agreement, according to an unwritten rule, recalls AFP.
A shortlist of seven names on the police side…
Bruno Retailleau auditioned several candidates for both positions. DPGN side, as indicated The Worldhe thus received on October 7 Alexandre Brugère, appointed prefect at the age of 35, in September 2022. Two days later, the Minister of the Interior this time summoned the prefect of Isère, Louis Laugier, to first approached to take the head of the gendarmerie. The same day, October 9, Fabrice Gardon, head of the Parisian judicial police and member of the inner circle of the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, was also received. Two days later, the prefect of Alpes-Maritimes Hugues Moutouh was also summoned for an interview.
Other names are circulating in this position, such as the prefect of Gard and former national director of the Judicial Police Jérôme Bonet as well as Eric Jalon, director general of foreigners in France (DGEF) and former member of Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet at the Interior or that of Frédérique Camilleri, former police chief in Marseille and current state representative in Essonne.
…And five on the gendarmerie side
For the gendarmerie, the names of generals Hubert Bonneau (commander of the gendarmerie region of Brittany, commander of the gendarmerie for the Western defense zone), Xavier Ducept (commander of the gendarmerie region of Ile-de-France, commander of the gendarmerie for the defense and security zone of Paris) and Tony Mouchet (director of operations and employment of the national gendarmerie) are frequently cited, as are those of Major General André Pétillot, who acts as interim General Christian Rodriguez, and General Bruno Arviset, director of human resources of the National Gendarmerie.
In the union ranks, the delays of the executive are starting to weigh. Eric Henry, spokesperson for the Alliance union, thus believes of the World that “a shortlist that changes every day and sometimes several times a day does not give a very positive image of a sovereign ministry responsible for the security of the French.”