The banners prepared by the organizers announced the color: “professional diplomats on strike”, “Not all the same path, but all the same vocation », « diplo en extinction ». High-ranking executives and quasi-beginners, young people and veterans, the strike at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mobilized a small crowd on Thursday, June 2, on the Esplanade des Invalides, a stone’s throw from the headquarters.
The management of the Quai d’Orsay did not give an estimate of the participation, nor did the unions, but this extremely rare movement – the last major strike dated back to 2003 – sparked an unprecedented mobilization against the overhaul of the ministry in the framework of the reform of the senior civil service initiated by Emmanuel Macron: two bodies at the heart of the diplomatic network are called upon to disappear, in order to encourage their members to join an interministerial pool of senior civil servants, made up, among others, of prefects and inspectors finances.
“In my direction, 95% of the agents are on strike”, observes Philippine, 33, who refuses, like her colleagues, to mention her name, because of her duty of reserve and out of prudence, “we are not interchangeable”. “It’s not corporatism, but the desire to defend a career where experience is acquired over the posts and negotiations”, said this young woman, who arrived in the house barely five years ago. At his side, Nicolas, 43, experienced, before becoming a diplomat, another administration and considers that “The ‘Quai’ is already very open”, to meet one of the presumed objectives of a reform supposed to widen diversity and mobility within the institution.
“It’s a vocation, not a three-year experience”
Both Nicolas and Philippine are part of a body, that of foreign secretaries, maintained at this stage, but both are worried about the impact of the work undertaken on their own careers: “Expatriations are going to be more and more difficult to obtain when it is the heart of our businesssaid Nicholas. We have no certainty of being able to evolve, and we will be in competition with administrators from other departments. »
In the rally, the unease is shared well beyond the circle of the youngest agents mobilized for weeks on the Signal messaging system – the collective of 500 – which pushed the unions to take action. One of the two directors general of the ministry (out of three) to strike, Philippe Errera, in charge of political and security affairs, is there. Within the central administration, almost all the directors have followed the movement, with a good part of their troops. The mobilization was also notable in certain posts abroad, such as in Beijing and Tehran, even if the ambassadors are not more than a dozen to have officially joined the movement. “It’s a vocation, not a three-year experience”, tweeted the number two of the French Embassy in the United States, Aurélie Bonal: “Without the diplomatic corps, it will be much easier for the government to appoint friends at all levels. »
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