With each national drama, its start. The disaster of 1870 led to the creation of the Free School of Political Sciences. That of 1940, the birth of the National School of Administration (ENA). Emmanuel Macron, who hammered “We are at war” at the start of the health crisis of 2020, is placed in this historical dramatization by announcing the abolition of the ENA, on April 8, 2021: “As in 1945, we are living through a historic moment. Seventy-five years ago, our country, exhausted, emerged from two wars with the immense challenge of reconstruction before it. ENA was created. We have structured our senior public service. In 2021, our country is facing a historic pandemic. Our duty is to know how to answer them with the same sense of history. ”
1is January 2022, the National Institute of Public Service (INSP) officially replaces the ENA. And the birth of the institute is the epilogue of a period marked by a very particular dramaturgy. The twists and turns, the tensions, the tragic have certainly not spared its course. And it is, by this aspect as by others, emblematic of the five-year term which is coming to an end, a concentrate of macronism. Moreover, the foundations have been laid in 2017. “I don’t want the state to create administrative“ castes ”, with all-mapped out careers, then declares the candidate Macron. I want to strengthen the meritocracy within the State itself, to promote the best and the most committed, and not just those who had the academic qualities required at a given time to come out well ranked. “ And that’s why, ” Yes “, it is necessary to eliminate, after the ENA, direct access to large bodies (Council of State, General Inspectorate of Finance, Court of Auditors) and promote the field.
Matignon’s last attempt
Everything is there, in germ. Emmanuel Macron at the annuity in horror. The good marks obtained at the ENA cannot decide a whole career, definitively separating those who enter the big corps (the “boot”) at 25 years old, and the others. He himself noticed it at the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF). He entrusts it to those to whom he speaks about his reform: the State does not have to offer “A parachute for those who have failed in the private sector”. But the IGF, in the words of a former budget director, “It’s as if you always had a warm room at your parents’ house”. Emmanuel Macron resigned in 2016 because, he says, you have to know “Take your risk”.
Large bodies therefore know they are in danger. But several of theirs are in Matignon. The then Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, was a State Councilor, like his chief of staff, Benoît Ribadeau-Dumas, and Marc Guillaume, secretary general of the government, dismissed in July 2020. The 1is February 2018, Matignon pulls a card out of his sleeve: young people destined for large bodies will be assigned for a time to priority government projects. It is a pledge, a last attempt to save the system.
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