Re-elected President of France, Emmanuel Macron takes office this Saturday (7) in a ceremony at 11 am local time (6 am in Brasilia), for the 12th term of the so-called Fifth Republic, which began in 1959.
Since then, after Charles de Gaulle, eight men have ruled the country, half of whom have something in common: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1974-81), Jacques Chirac (1995-2007), François Hollande (2012-17) and Macron himself, at the Élysée Palace since 2017, studied at the National School of Administration (ENA).
Something that sets the current president apart from his predecessors in this matter, however, is the fate he has given to the institution — Macron promoted a reform that closed the ENA last year.
The traditional school, created in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, was responsible for the training of high French civil servants. Macron’s two prime ministers, Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex, and three of Chirac’s four prime ministers – Alain Juppé (1995-97), Lionel Jospin (1997-2002) and Dominique de Villepin (2005-07) also visited. — as well as several parliamentarians and important figures in French politics.
In addition to initial training for those seeking a public career, which was offered in Strasbourg annually to around 100 students with at least a degree, there were also masters and specializations. There and in the capital, short courses were also given to senior officials who had already entered their careers.
This selective bias generated criticism of ENA, seen as a private club that offers lifetime membership to initiates — the students came mainly from influential families and started to attend a world full of opportunities.
Given the influence that the institution has always had on the state, some say that France has been ruled by “enarques”, as the graduates from there are called, reinforcing the lack of diversity among civil servants. In an article published in the French newspaper Le Monde last year, Pierre-Louis Rémy, honorary inspector general for social affairs (and himself an “enarque”), acknowledged the problem.
“Today, in fact, the positions proposed upon leaving the ENA are all located in Paris, except for those in prefecture and diplomacy. And a good number of former students never leave the capital during their entire career,” he wrote.
It was in this context that Macron announced the closing of the ENA a year before the presidential election, on April 8 of last year. In place of the school, the Public Service Institute (ISP) was created, as part of what the president called a “deep revolution in the recruitment” of civil servants, with the aim of democratizing opportunities and creating a more transparent and efficient environment.
The idea was to import a business logic. Graduates would have to move further, starting in regional positions to gain experience at the base before taking on “direction, control or judgment” positions. Promotions would then be based on performance and availability to travel and move around the country, rather than just years of experience.
The reform was not peaceful, however. This point generated criticism among former students heard by the newspaper L’Express, who questioned: who would accept to work for several years receiving between € 50 thousand and € 60 thousand (R$ 267.8 thousand to R$ 321.4 thousand) a year while colleagues receive € 200 thousand (about R$ 1 million) in the private sector, in banks? To the Sudouest portal, the alumni association shared what they called anger and sadness at the change, which they clearly disapproved of.
The reactions were not enough, in any case, to prevent the closure of activities on December 31, 2021 —​​the ISP officially opened its doors on January 1 of this year. However, the question remains whether the institute would just be the ENA with a new guise.
For Rémy, for diversity to materialize in the public sector, it is necessary to go further and implement reforms that leave the State less rigid and include an active management of people, “which demands infinitely more will and courage than the simple closure of ENA “.
The Presidents of the Fifth Republic
- Charles de Gaulles (1959 to 1969)
- Georges Pompidou (1969 to 1974)
- Valery Giscard d’Estaing (1974 to 1981)*
- Francois Mitterand (1981 to 1995)
- Jacques Chirac (1995 to 2007)*
- Nicolas Sarkozy (2007 to 2012)
- François Hollande (2012 to 2017)*
- Emmanuel Macron (since 2017)*
* Attended ENA
