The presidential majority seems to have unearthed a legal means of… circumventing the law. The leader of the RDPI senators (with a Renaissance majority), François Patriat, tabled an amendment to the bill on the Olympic Games which, if adopted, would allow Catherine Pégard to remain at the head of the Versailles estate, when she has reached the age limit and should have left her post more than a year ago.
On Tuesday, before the start of the parliamentary debate in the hemicycle, the amendment received a notice from “wisdom” in committee, which leaves a freedom of choice to the senators during the examination of the text in first reading.
The Patriat amendment stipulates that the “persons exercising the functions of president or director of a public establishment on the date of the awarding of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games to Paris and who participate directly in the organization of these games may […] exercise the said functions until December 31, 2024». For the senator from Burgundy, close to Emmanuel Macron, “it is essential to ensure the continuity of the action of the organizations mobilized during the coming period”.
“Continuity of action”
The Versailles estate, which is to host the equestrian events of the 2024 Paris Games, has been piloted for twelve years by the 68-year-old former journalist and ex-adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy. Catherine Pgard was appointed head of the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011.
She has chained three terms at the head of the most famous castle in France, a record with three different Presidents of the Republic. But she should have left her post more than a year ago and has not been kept at the head of the estate on an interim basis for nineteen months.
Article 15 of the JO bill already provides for the possibility of continuing in office until December 31, 2024 for “civil servants holding a higher position leading them to participate directly in the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games“. A provision that could apply to the interministerial delegate to the Games, Michel Cadot, also reached by the age limit.
According to The letter athe amendment tabled in the Senate would have been “remote controlby Matignon, which defends (weakly) François Patriat. “We spoke about it with ministers and Matignon, but Matignon did not call me”he explains in a pirouette.