The École Nationale d’Administration has for decades churned out presidents, ambassadors and industry leaders but on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron said he would abolish what has become a symbol of inequality in his drive for a fairer society, reports Reuters.
“To carry this reform we need to put an end to the ENA,” Macron said as he outlined his response to months of protests in part against elitism in the political establishment.
“This is not about saying the ENA is a bad thing, quite the contrary. This is about ambitious reform, we need to build something that works better.”
The president’s eye-catching move against his own prestigious alma mater will please those who consider the ENA an emblem of the tight-knit club that dominates political and business circles and rile others who see a cynical gesture that fails to address the causes of France’s social imbalances.
“If you keep the same structures, habits are too strong,” Macron said as he sought to calm a five-month street revolt that has derailed his economic reforms and challenged his authority.
The postgraduate school was founded in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to train a postwar administrative elite drawn from across all social classes. With time, however, it earned a reputation as out of touch and catering to privileged students from the upper social echelons and struggled to modernize its image.
Four modern-day presidents and seven prime ministers are Enarques, as the school’s alumni are known. So too are the chief executives of telecoms group Orange, Societe Generale bank and the former boss of insurer AXA.
The flagbearer of Macron’s European election campaign, Nathalie Loiseau, is a past director of the school and the president said France needed to change the way senior civil servants are recruited, trained and their careers are managed.
The growing tendency for Enarques to move back and forth between the public and private sector has only deepened the public perception of a distant, incestuous old boy’s network.