The traditional French foreign ministry on the banks of the Seine is not known as a hotbed of rebellion.

At the moment, however, there is a seditious mood in the Quai d'Orsay.

Many diplomats are going on strike this Thursday to protest the "systematic weakening of the State Department".

In an open letter in the newspaper Le Monde, more than 500 foreign service officials expressed their "anger" at France's decision to forego "professional diplomacy" in the future.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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The anger of the high civil servants says a lot about Emmanuel Macron's approach.

The President secretly had the decree published in the official journal “Journal Officiel” over the Easter weekend, drawing a line under the traditional corps diplomatique.

Diplomats (“conseillers des affaires étrangères”) and civil servants with the rank of ambassador (“ministres plénipotentiaire”) should no longer exist.

Those who remain are allowed to retire.

From 2023 onwards, the entire junior staff is to be integrated into a general top civil service corps.

As "all-rounders", these officials are then to be deployed everywhere, whether in the French provinces in a prefecture or at an outpost.

Macron argued that in this way diplomats could no longer wait like rentiers for their next dispatch.

The diversity of professional fields will also be strengthened.

The reform is also justified with the abolition of the elite cadre factory ENA.

criticism from many quarters

Macron simply ignored the negative statement by then Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The goal is an Americanization of the foreign service, which should give the president greater discretion in the selection of ambassadors.

Even Macron supporters like longtime French ambassador to Washington Gérard Araud were shocked.

"Career diplomats will be sent to Burundi as ambassadors," said Araud, "Rome or London will be reserved for friends." Ambassador Michel Duclos of the Institut Montaigne think tank said: "France cannot become the only large country without a diplomatic service."

Macron's former Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau criticized.

"I understand the concern.

Diplomat is a profession that has to be learned,” said Loiseau.

Former Foreign Minister Michel Barnier called the reform a "mistake".

"Efficient and influential diplomacy is under threat," Barnier said.

The former chief diplomat Dominique de Villepin also expressed his outrage and predicted a loss of competence.

Macron is ushering in the end of a centuries-old tradition that has produced world-renowned diplomats.

French was once the diplomatic language.

The new Secretary of State Catherine Colonna, herself a career diplomat, has not yet commented.

It will not have escaped her notice how many leading diplomats are breaking their guard and rebelling against the reform.

The head of the European department, David Cvach, rejected the accusation that the diplomats lack social diversity and diverse professional backgrounds.

His team is "far from those stereotypes," Cvach tweeted.

Hundreds of diplomats are protesting against the reform under the hashtag “diplo2metier”.

Among them is the German exchange diplomat Marie Malo, who describes it as a "great honor" to be part of the "great French diplomacy".

A personnel exchange had already been agreed in Paris in February 1986.

Since the signing of the "international law agreement" between the Federal Foreign Office and the Quai d'Orsay, hundreds of German diplomats have got to know everyday work in the neighboring country.

But Macron paid no attention to this agreement either, just as he did not seek any suggestions for good practices in the Federal Foreign Office.

The reform appears to be owed to a personal feud against the State Department.

During the ambassadors' conference in Paris at the end of August 2019, he accused the diplomats of acting like a "state within a state" ("deep state").

The reason for Macron's anger was the reluctance of diplomats in view of his policy of rapprochement with Vladimir Putin at the time.

He still likes to turn down warnings from the Quai d'Orsay.