Discreet French diplomacy goes on strike against a Macron reform

A strike makes the government of Emmanuel Macron uncomfortable in the middle of the campaign for the legislative elections on June 12 and 19. Is it about the teachers? From health workers? The seasoned railway agents? No, from the discreet French diplomats. For the second time in history – the first took place in 2003 – the ambassadors, consuls and other employees of the Quai d’Orsay organize a work stoppage this Thursday. They protest against the suppression of the diplomatic corps and the heavy loss of human and economic resources of diplomacy in recent decades.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was a decree published in the official bulletin on April 17, in the middle of the campaign for the second round of the presidential elections. confirmed the suppression of two eminent bodies of diplomacy: the ministers plenipotentiary and the advisers in foreign affairs. Until now they were the only high officials with a vocation to occupy ambassadorial positions. The centrist Executive justifies this measure, included in a broader reform of the civil service, by the need for greater mobility in the careers of senior officials. His detractors fear, however, that he favors hand-picked appointments of ambassadors and consuls based on political or personal affinities.

Risk of “disappearance of professional diplomacy & rdquor;

Despite affecting 900 of the 13,700 officials in the Foreign Ministry, the reform has sparked real outrage. The follow-up to the strike is expected to be important. At least ten ambassadors, including Oman, Kuwait or Cyprus, have already announced their willingness to participate in it, along with consuls, senior foreign officials and numerous young officials. Even in recent days, the Twitter hashtag #diplo2metier has proliferated in which they express their reasons for supporting the work stoppage or claim their diplomatic vocation.

“We face the risk of a demise of our professional diplomacy. The trades of the Quai d’Orsay are learned in the long term with the multiplication of experiences, especially abroad and in difficult positions & rdquor ;, he warned in a tribune in Le Monde the group of 500 representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most of them young, that promotes the mobilization together with several unions.

With the reform, the categories of senior officials destined to occupy the posts of ambassadors will disappear and they will become part of the “body of state administrators & rdquor ;. This will bring together all kinds of senior officials (government delegates, finance inspectors, etc.) who will be encouraged to move from one ministry to another and from the private to the public sector.

“It is vital to renounce the reform, since it will profoundly transform the diplomatic corps, from the moment that the best positions will be attributed for non-diplomatic reasons. There is a risk of great politicization & rdquor ;, defended Dominique de Villepin, the well-known former French Foreign Minister for having opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In fact, Macron had already generated controversy in 2018 by wanting to appoint the writer, and his friend, Philippe Besson, as consul in Los Angeles. An appointment finally blocked by the unrest raised in the Quai d’Orsay.

“Bad relationships” between Macron and the ambassadors

Faced with the wave of criticism, the Macronist Executive defends itself by recalling that the prestigious opposition from the East will not be suppressed and that the ambassadors will continue to be appointed by the Foreign Minister. He also sent a detente signal with the appointment of the new minister Catherine Colonnaa diplomat by profession and who has served in recent years as ambassador to London.

Although the controversial reform is the typical neoliberal measure that seeks to deregulate a body of officials, some of its detractors also see in it a rather political purpose. “Obviously, its objective is not to establish a mobility between ministries that already exists today. This shows especially bad relations between the Elysee and the Quai d’Orsay& rdquor ;, explained an ambassador in statements to the digital media part. Macron had already harshly criticized the ambassadors in a speech in August 2019 in which he denounced “the deep state & rdquor ;. With these statements with a Trumpist tone, he targeted the diplomats – traditionally very obedient – who opposed his initiatives in international politics, such as his dialogue with Putin.

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In recent decades, the concentration of French foreign policy in the hands of the president and his advisers has increased, to the detriment of the Quai d’Orsay. With 178 embassies and 88 consulates, France has the third diplomatic network in the world, only behind the United States and China. But lost 53% of its troops in the last three decades. Most of this cutback has taken place since 2010.

This decrease in resources and the feeling of abandonment of the ambassadors occurred at the same time that France’s influence in the world receded. The decline was exemplified by the succession of failures in international politics suffered by Macron, from Mali to Lebanon, passing through Syria or Libya. And now this strike breaks out in the midst of the war in Ukraine and in the final stretch of the French presidency of the European Union. Undoubtedly, an inopportune moment for the centrist leader.