Changes at the head of many French embassies are scrutinized closely by diplomats, in the midst of the contested overhaul of the high hierarchy of the Quai d’Orsay. About fifty positions are at stake, of very variable importance.
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The exercise is supposed to be a co -production between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which proposes, and the Elysée, which has. The carousel game planned this summer at the head of numerous French embassies abroad is closely scrutinized by diplomats, in the midst of a disputed overhaul of the high hierarchy of the Quai d’Orsay. Against the background of war in Ukraine, this transfer window is all the more awaited, and uncertain, that it was delayed by the electoral deadlines and the first complicated steps of the new government.
Fifty positions are at stake, of very variable importance. Some have been assigned to drops since the second round of the presidential election: this is the case of the Tehran Embassy, where the ex-director of Jean-Yves Le Drian, Nicolas Roche, expert nuclear questions, has been appointed. This is also the case of Portugal, returned to Hélène Farnaud-Defromont, after she was dryly thanked, barely appointed within the cabinet of the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.
While impatience has risen in recent days, just under thirty other ambassadors have been appointed during the last Council of Ministers, Wednesday, July 20, in the greatest discretion, the list being in principle confidential , pending their approval, in the coming weeks, by the authorities of their host country. The ambassadors in Indonesia, where the director of the United Nations in Paris is appointed, in Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Cuba, Libya, Niger, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Paraguay or Kosovo have notably been chosen.
Among these appointments, only two positions are allocated to career non-diplomats, the State Councilor Claire Legras in Hungary and the Franco-Beninese Jules-Armand Aniambossou, leaving for Ghana. A detail examined closely by diplomacy professionals. “The movement is normal in this first train of ambassadors: diplomats take positions of diplomats, observes a connoisseur.” This may seem obvious, but in the context of the ongoing reform of the ministry, many who are wary of more political appointments, at the discretion of the President of the Republic. “
suspense for the most important embassies
It was enough for a tweet last week, about the alleged arrival of Amélie de Montchalin in Rome, to electrify the atmosphere. The former Minister of the Public Service, defeated in the legislative elections, is all the less popular in the corridors of foreign affairs as she brought the “extinction” of the two historic bodies of the quay – foreign affairs and ministers plenipotentiaries -, a reform dear to Emmanuel Macron, but disputed by professional diplomats. On June 2, a rare movement of strike had mobilized a good part of the executives of the ministry against this project carried out. Author of a critical report on the subject, the senator of Isère André Vallini asked on Tuesday “the suspension” of the reform pending the organization of the Estates General of Diplomacy, claimed by the Homemade Unions .
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