Paris (AFP)

Roxana Maracineanu managed to stay in government, but at the head of a delegated ministry of Sports and attached to National Education, an evolution desired by some, a "relegation" for others, which will in any case pose the question of his means.

Several names had circulated to replace the former world champion in swimming and her team swore to have no guarantees until the last hours before the announcement of the team of Jean Castex.

Finally, Roxana Maracineanu remains in government, but must accept a delegated ministry, placed under the perimeter of a large portfolio of National Education, Youth and Sports, entrusted to Jean-Michel Blanquer.

"We have the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris-2024, but we are losing a full-service ministry. This is the beginning of the dismantling of the Ministry of Sports," lamented, reacting to AFP, the former minister Sports Marie-George Buffet (1997-2002).

A "relegation", tweeted in turn the deputy Génération.s Régis Juanico. For him, the idea "may seem attractive on paper" but "under the tutelage of a juggernaut, the risk is that of dilution".

On the contrary, the boss of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) Denis Masseglia, sees his wish granted, he who pleaded a week ago yet this rapprochement to build "essential synergies" and "bet on youth". "A full-service ministry is useless (if the budget is low). It flatters the minister's ego, that's all," he said.

- logical sequence -

This scenario, already experienced under the Fifth Republic when Roger Bambuck was Secretary of State for Sports to the Minister of National Education Lionel Jospin (1988-1991), was in any case announced, the "youth and sports" missions in the territories to be transferred to the fold of the rectorates.

This development is also part of the logical continuation of the creation of the National Sport Agency, in 2019, the new body created to better involve the players in sport (local authorities, sports movement, businesses, State), especially for the high level management, entrusted to Claude Onesta, while grants to amateur clubs are gradually entrusted to the federations.

For two years, Roxana Maracineanu has accompanied the reforms, which have seen her ministry shrink in her powers. She also had to manage the crisis of the technical sports advisers (CTS), these 1,600 agents of the State who intervene in the federations, considered as the linchpins of the French sport but threatened with suppression in a note from Matignon who had leaked three days after taking office. Twenty-two months later, their fate is not officially settled, even if a radical reform project seems abandoned.

- a law -

Roxana Maracineanu was able to assert her authority when an unprecedented scandal of sexual violence in French sport arose at the start of the year. She demanded and obtained the resignation of the irremovable president of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG), Didier Gailhaguet, thus putting pressure on the federations to take the subject seriously.

During the health crisis, several players in sport recognized its action so that the economic sector of sport benefited from the same aid as other sectors. But the stopping of the 2019-2020 seasons, decreed by Edouard Philippe at the end of April, was considered premature by part of pro football, France becoming the only country of the "big 5" not to finish its championship. A few days earlier, Roxana Maracineanu had dropped this premonitory sentence: "sport will not be a priority in our society. It is not a priority today in the decisions that are taken by the government".

Henceforth, its main challenge will be to put on the parliamentary agenda, before the end of the quinquennium, a law "sport and society" long promised but always postponed, to allow to encourage leisure practices, to put more democracy in federations and to strengthen ethics in sport.

On this path, there is also the Tokyo-2020 Summer Olympics, the last step before Paris-2024. New high-performance manager Claude Onesta has warned that France, 7th in the medal table at Rio-2016, is on a "downward curve". Failure would no doubt also have a political cost for the woman who won the silver medal in Sydney in 2000.

© 2020 AFP