The refusal of the upper chamber of the Parliament signs the second failure of Emmanuel Macron to extend the mandate of Catherine Pégard, the president of the public establishment since 2011.
by Roxana Azimi
Solicited to allow the extension of the mandate of Catherine Pégard, 68, at the head of the public establishment of Versailles, the Senate has shone. Senator François Patriat, after a heated debate, preferred to withdraw the amendment he defended with the support of the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. The democratic test is cruel to Emmanuel Macron and his government, who had concocted this legislative parade to keep the ex-journalist from the point to the position she has held since 2011.
The amendment in question had to find its place in addition to article 15 of the bill on the Olympic Games. He provided that people exercising the functions of president or public establishment director on the date of the allocation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games could remain in post until December 31, 2024. As soon as the Versailles Domaine site must Welcoming the riding events, Catherine Pégard was saved.
“Legislative rider”
This was without counting the indocility of the fifty senators present, uncomfortable in the face of what is agreed to name a “legislative rider”, namely an amendment without direct relation to the text of law to which he is grafted. “It is no longer a bill, it is an equestrian competition,” said the communist Pierre Ouzoulias. Denouncing the “fact of the prince”, the socialist Sylvie Robert recalled that “to return a responsibility of the government to the Parliament is not correct”. Grinking, the environmentalist Daniel Breuiller recalled the state to his promise of an “exemplary republic”.
Philippe Folliot, of the Union Centrist group, found himself well isolated to defend the amendment remote -controlled by Matignon, in the name of “efficiency”. Another centrist, Laurent Lafon, brought the blow of grace, with his authority as president of the Culture Commission, advising to remove the text. François Patriat has resolved there, not without recalling that “Versailles is an extraordinary object that does not go overnight”.
This parliamentary test signs, on the same subject, the second setback of Mr. Macron, who, more than his predecessors, made Versailes the setting of his power and his residence of the weekend, behind the wells protected from the lantern pavilion. Already in December 2022, a draft decree had been submitted to the Council of State. In response, the administration section meant to the government a risk of cancellation for “embezzlement of power”. The advertising given to this theoretically confidential opinion has raised controversy. Why would Catherine Pégard, whose longevity at the head of Versailles is unusual, would enjoy an extension, while her predecessor, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, had not benefited from any derogation? If some salute his balance sheet, especially in matters of patronage, when others put it into perspective, no one has publicly defended the temptation to twist the law without justifying exceptional or incomparable virtues.
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