Paris (AFP)

Farewell to the "Enarques": as he had promised after the "yellow vests" crisis, Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that he was going to "abolish the ENA" to replace it with an "Institute of public service" and reform the career of senior officials, for a more open, more diverse and more agile State.

We will no longer see 25-year-olds propelled into positions of high responsibility: PSI graduates will first have to spend several years in operational functions in the field before being able to access management positions, explained the chief. of the State, itself enarques.

"The president does not want people who would never have exercised before" come "from the top of their thirties to deliver sentences and distribute good and bad points", underlined an adviser.

The prestigious National School of Administration, which since 1945 has provided the country with its highest leaders, including four of the last six presidents, had become the symbol of a self-government in power - "enarchy - which fuels resentment and suspicion. .

On April 25, 2019, Emmanuel Macron had created a surprise by announcing the abolition of the ENA and the end of the large bodies (Council of State, Court of Accounts, Inspectorate of Finance, Mines, Bridges etc.).

In front of the 600 executives of the senior administration gathered by videoconference for the State Managerial Convention, he said Thursday that the new ISP would provide the common training base for all student administrators of the State.

Whether they are prefects, ambassadors, rectors or directors of administrations and major bodies.

The ISP will have to "select less socially determined profiles," he said.

It will integrate a core curriculum for 13 public service schools.

It will be "a profound revolution in terms of recruitment," said the head of state.

We must "reconcile our fellow citizens with the top of the state and, in doing so, with public action," added Emmanuel Macron, very attached to this reform and often very critical of the administration.

He repeatedly denounced his "corporatism" on Thursday.

ISP will also be the continuing education center for senior civil servants.

"I want that by taking inspiration from the War School model, we can plan a career meeting before reaching eminent responsibilities," he continued.

According to a ministerial adviser, "many errors in the five-year term have been linked to a poor functioning of the administration. This reform aims to repair these problems in the long term, because the pressure cooker of yellow vests still exists".

Daniel Keller, president of the association of former students of the ENA, criticized on BFMTV "a panic reaction in view of the elections which are approaching".

"It is populism that throws the senior civil service to graze," he lamented.

On February 11, Emmanuel Macron had already insisted on the need to open the access routes to prestigious schools of the administration to young people of modest origin.

Diversity in the public service is one of the pillars of the agenda in favor of "equal opportunities" that the president has been seeking for several months to promote despite the Covid-19 crisis.

- "Bureaucracy" -

The reform will go further since it provides for an in-depth reorganization of recruitment, teaching and the method of classifying students.

The new institute, which should remain in Strasbourg, will be brought together with other schools of high administration and academia, as advised in February 2020 by Frédéric Thiriez's report on the future of ENA.

Much of the reform will be included in an ordinance to be passed by June 7.

Emmanuel Macron also pleaded for an increase in the salaries of senior officials, very far from those of business leaders, a subject on which he called for "a democratic debate".

Created in 1945 by General de Gaulle, the ENA, which selects some 80 students per year, is regularly criticized for its elite training "above ground".

In the opposition, Damien Abad, the leader of the LR deputies, declared himself "in favor of the abolition of the ENA because, despite the quality of its students, it produces an immobile contact and disconnected from the base".

But Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of LFI, on the other hand blasted a "supreme diversion" by Emmanuel Macron "to give food to the official instead of the rich".

© 2021 AFP