Louis de Raguenel, edited by Ugo Pascolo
modified to
06:52, April 19, 2022
A decision that goes badly with the ambassadors and the Quai d’Orsay. Less than a week before the second round, the Official Journal has just announced the extinction of what is called the body of “foreign affairs advisers”. There is therefore no longer a “diplomatic corps” in France, strictly speaking. A decision that was taken a few months ago by Emmanuel Macron during the presentation of his civil service reform.
The end of specialization in the great bodies of the State
The diplomatic corps will therefore join a new entity of “state administrators”. People who will be diplomats, prefects, or even magistrates of the Court of Auditors. Clearly, it is the end of specialization in the great bodies of the State.
As a direct consequence, a senior civil servant may be successively appointed prefect, then ambassador and councilor of state. With the end of the diplomatic corps, Emmanuel Macron wants to sound the death knell for “state rents”. A system which allows, according to the Head of State, to have the quasi-assurance of a good career all his life, within the same body, according to the exit classification of a competition passed to 25 years.
The Official Journal publishes the abolition of the Diplomatic Corps. France will therefore be the only major Western country without professional diplomats. A story of several centuries comes to an end. The door is now open to American-style nominations.
— Gerard Araud (@GerardAraud) April 18, 2022
“Diplomacy is a profession”
What looks like a small revolution led by the Élysée is badly perceived at the Quai d’Orsay: until now, the career of a diplomat took place within the diplomatic corps in a progressive manner according to the increasing job changes. But this well-honed mechanism, which gave pride of place to experience, gave Emmanuel Macron the impression of not having the hand, even if he had the possibility of appointing whoever he liked every Wednesday in the Council of Ministers.
A centuries-old story ends with the abolition of the Diplomatic Corps. By dint of caricaturing diplomats, we forget that diplomacy is a job, an experience, knowledge, a tradition, a pride in serving France.
— Gerard Araud (@GerardAraud) April 18, 2022
Hence the discontent of this body, starting with that of the current French ambassador to Ukraine, who did not hesitate to relay the tweet of Gérard Araud, himself a former representative of Paris in Washington: “Diplomacy , it is a job, an experience, knowledge, a tradition and a pride to serve France.”