“Questioning our loyalty to France offends and hurts me. I do not experience this double belonging as a handicap, but as an asset” : cooperation attaché at the French embassy in Libya, Sid Rouis is one of the few, within the French diplomatic apparatus, to openly denounce the intention of the National Rally (RN) to ban binational French to access the most important positions “sensitive” of the civil service. The promise is “terrifying”says this Franco-Algerian, former number two in the office of Yamina Benguigui, Minister Delegate in charge of Francophonie under François Hollande. Sid Rouis was born in Algeria. He arrived in France in 1983, as part of a family reunification procedure. His position is all the more notable since he is not a civil servant, but a contractor for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “I have everything to lose. We have to kick the anthill”he justifies, well aware that he risks a sanction for violation of the duty of confidentiality, and runs the risk of not seeing his contract renewed.
The RN may well minimize the scope of this approach, but the shockwave it is causing is real within the French senior administration. Promised insistently by Jordan Bardella in the lightning campaign for the first round of the legislative elections on Sunday, June 30, the measure has sparked lively exchanges this week during the debates between the leaders of the three camps in the running. “It’s infamous and ridiculous”, judged Emmanuel Macron, Friday June 28. Marine Le Pen herself had to rebuke an RN deputy who had attacked the dual nationality of the former Minister of Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. “A few dozen positions are affected”explained Tuesday the RN candidate for the office of prime minister in the event of cohabitation, without specifying what he means by ” sensitive “Or “strategic”. “You want to put a Franco-Russian in charge of a nuclear power plant? Doesn’t this pose a subject of national interest to you? »Mr. Bardella tried to plead.
The argument may seem curious coming from a party now keen, in the midst of the Ukrainian war, to forget its proximity to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It does not help to reassure staff holding two passports. “We must not fall into the identity trap set by the RN, but start from the principles of equality and non-discrimination”judges a French diplomat, with a Latin American passport – she prefers to remain discreet about the country concerned.
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