President of the Palace of Versailles since 2011, having served three successive terms, without being entitled to a fourth, Catherine Pgard should have left the ship in October 2022. Even before. Having passed the age of 68, his retirement should have come in March 2021. Instead, it’s still there, floating illegally, in an endless interim of itself.
This Versailles novel is written by Emmanuel Macron, who persists in not replacing the captain, to the point of attempting two dirty tricks. Sold by two fiascos.
In December 2022, the Council of State said no to a draft decree aimed at raising the retirement age of senior civil servants on the grounds that the text, guided by Mme Pgard, was not “of public interest”. At the end of January, the Senate failed a crazy amendment to a bill aimed at this: Versailles hosting an equestrian event of the Olympic Games, Pgard must stay until the end of 2024 so that everything goes as well as possible. Senators of all persuasions found the string so big – the mistress of Versailles is not a specialist in art, heritage, management, gardens, sports or horses – that the amendment, after some juicy exchanges, was withdrawn.
These two events amount to humiliation for the President of the Republic and his protegee, giving rise to a few circumstantial comments in the media: privilege, impunity, privileges, tricks, courtesy, princely act, ubiquitous rattle, crazy story, new Pompadour… From now on, Emmanuel Macron can find a deputy agreeing to play the gun carrier and to present an amendment again before the National Assembly, at the risk of being ridiculed once again. He can drag out the interim until 2024 but the slightest decision of the chatelaine could be challenged in court. And he can give up and finally look for another patron of Versailles. “The decision is not made”let us know the Elysée.
Torn image
The moment is painful for Catherine Pgard, a former political journalist at the Point, on the right but sailing on the left, making discretion an art, which sees its image badly tarnished. To wonder why she does not give up in front of such an ordeal. The post, it is true, is one of the most coveted in the Republic. Letting go of castle life is tough when the next drop point is uncertain.
But why does Macron persist? For three years, a dozen names have circulated to replace Catherine Pégard and the President of the Republic had a legitimate favorite, in the person of Jean d’Haussonville, who has just left the Château de Chambord with a good record.
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