Paris (AFP)
Emmanuel Macron undertook to shake up the prefects by orchestrating a large waltz at several times, anxious to have in each department relays to ensure the execution of the reforms until the "last mile".
This is a significant tension: after the Council of Ministers last Wednesday, 13 appointments took place with the prefects.
Another wave could intervene Friday, including the expected promotion of the new Director General of the National Police, a post which should not escape the prefectural body, according to concordant sources. Or "the most important movement of the past 15 years", they say in the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, stressing the hand of the Head of State in these choices.
"The president has invested heavily and personally in this wave," confirms a familiar from the Ministry of the Interior. "These movements had been blocked since the summer. The president had considered that the proposals made by the ministers (Christophe Castaner and Laurent Nunez, note) did not suit him and asked them to meet all the young prefects and sub-prefects in view to rejuvenate and integrate women ", again deciphers the same source.
In fact, of the three people appointed prefects last Wednesday for the first time, two are women: Françoise Taheri (51) in the Orne and Cécile Dindar (41), delegate prefect in the Rhône. And with the arrival of Josiane Chevalier, so far in Corsica, at the head of the Grand Est, three women are now in charge of the regions. Brittany and New Aquitaine are respectively under the authority of Michèle Kirry and Fabienne Buccio.
This renewal also sends political messages to the right, with spotlight: Franck Robine, former chief of staff of François Fillon in Matignon and sent from Martinique to Corsica; Thierry Coudert, formerly cabinet director of Brice Hortefeux in Beauvau and adviser to Paris under the UMP label, which from Eure to Seine-et-Marne doubles the number of inhabitants under his responsibility; or Stéphane Rouvé, hitherto without territory and appointed in Aube, after having been chief of staff to Mr. Hortefeux also.
Eager to move a highly codified institution, the executive also warned by the voice of Edouard Philippe, Thursday, before the prefects gathered in Beauvau: "An undeniable success can justify promotions faster than + the order of the table +" . "Continuing careers are no longer the only model," said Matignon.
- "Musical chairs" -
Enough to cringe a body already shaken in recent months by the dismissal of the prefect of Paris Michel Delpuech police and the prefect of the Rhône Henri-Pierre Comet.
"The break in advancement to seniority has not only delighted. Some have understood that their turn would pass," observes a former prefect.
But rather than a sweep, these changes are akin to playing musical chairs. Far from the revolution of summer 1967, with around 40 movements among the prefects and 80 among the sub-prefects.
However, they reflect the concern to apply the reforms "to the last mile", says a close to Mr. Macron. The head of state had threatened upon his arrival in 2017, then again last May, to massively replace the recalcitrant senior officials ... for limited effects for the time being.
The president "wants men and women who are fully aware of the government's roadmap", hammered in his entourage by evoking a "desire to impulse". But no "politicization", especially three months before the municipal elections, we also swear.
"I do not believe that anyone can seriously think that the appointment of prefects can have the slightest consequence on the municipal. This is to confuse the Third Republic and the Fifth," said a senior official.
A prefect close to the government insists, however: "We must not be mistaken about the casting, otherwise the government will suffer." A philosophy which will also prevail over the next appointments of ambassadors, we still warn in the presidential entourage.
grd-leb-JRI-jmt / ib / swi
© 2020 AFP