called the collective, a collective of some 500 agents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains, in a platform to the “world”, his anger at the “brutal abolition of the diplomatic corps”, which motivates a call to the strike on 2 June.
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At the time of the war in Ukraine, in the aftermath of an exceptional pandemic crisis, the agents of the Quai d’Orsay decided to strike on June 2 at the call of the inter -union bringing together the majority of organizations union and a collective of some 500 agents including many young diplomats. This decision will not have been easy to make as it is not in house culture.
It is the expression of anger at the brutal suppression of the diplomatic corps, which strikes not only the bodies of foreign affairs and plenipotentiary ministers but will also have deep repercussions on the future of all staff , whether they are secretaries of foreign affairs and chancellery, attachés and secretaries of information systems and technical and administrative assistants of Chancellery, whether holders or contractual.
Many personalities have alerted to the risks of such a decision which will allow appointments of convenience to the detriment of competence and will result in the destructuring of careers, a loss of expertise and a vocations crisis. We face a risk of disappearance of our professional diplomacy. The trades of the Quai d’Orsay are learned over long time, by the multiplication of experiences, especially abroad and in difficult positions, and the transmission of knowledge and experiences between agents.
A questioning of the ministry
Above all, getting involved at the Quai d’Orsay is a vocation and a life choice, exciting and rich in opportunities of course but also comprising its share of personal and family constraints often underestimated. The agents also rebel in the face of suspicion, which underlies this reform, of a ministry withdrawn in itself. And for good reason, because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by nature turned towards the interministerial coordination of the external action of the State, is already very open to other administrations: in embassies and in services rub shoulders with diplomats, soldiers , police, Bercy agents, members of the ministries of culture, national education, agriculture, ecology, etc.
The ministry also welcomes, under often precarious conditions, talented contract workers who come from very diverse horizons: private sector, NGOs, international organizations. Beyond that, it is the question of human resources given to our diplomatic tool that this strike wants to pose. Already, in 2010, the former ministers Hubert Védrine and Alain Juppé alerted: “Stop weakening the Quai d’Orsay!”
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