Musical chairs for mandarins

We have just witnessed a "waltz of the bosses", a text-book case of the French governing class taking care of itself and what it deems to be the nation's interest. The episode began with the troubles at Airbus and EADS, the Franco-German parent of the world's biggest civil aircraft maker. It ended with Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, promoting a friend who is his chief of staff into a plum state job.

Many of the cast of de Villepin's musical chairs are, like the Prime Minister, graduates of the Ecole Nationale de l'Administration (ENA), the finishing school for the highest mandarins that was set up by Charles de Gaulle after world war two. Seven of the past 10 prime ministers and two of the past three presidents, including Jacques Chirac studied at ENA, which only turns out 100 graduates a year.

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Under the twin-headed Franco-German structure of EADS, the French state, which holds a 15 percent stake, is not supposed to interfere in management. This did not prevent de Villepin from orchestrating the removal of Noel Forgeard, the co-chief executive. A former civil servant and longstanding Chirac protegé, Forgeard was forced to carry the can for failures at Airbus and for profiting from the sale of stock last March when trouble was brewing.

To replace him, France sent in Louis Gallois, 63, a civil servant,  an ENA classmate of Alain Juppé, the former Prime Minister, who has run the SNCF state railways for the past decade. Gallois was deemed a good fit for the job because he had served in state aerospace in the past. He was replaced at the railways by Anne-Marie Idrac, civil servant and ENA woman, who was head of the RATP, the Paris area public transport monopoly.  The only non-civil servant in the reshuffle was Christian Streiff, 51, a long-serving executive from the Saint Gobain glass conglomerate, who was appointed chief of Airbus. Streiff has no aerospace experience but he is a German speaker and knows the country well, which made him acceptable to France's EADS partner.

The appointment of Gallois to EADS was generally welcomed because he is held to have done a good job at the state railway monopoly. The SNCF's unions were sad to see him go because he had treated its 135,000 state employees well -- though this did not wean them off their addiction to strikes.

The unions were less happy with the other appointments, which they see as "jobs for the boys". Criticism has focused on the way that de Villepin, the most unpopular Prime Minister since polls began in the early 1960s, parachuted Pierre Mongin, 51, into the RATP, which runs the Metro and buses of Paris. It was obvious that de Villepin, who has been a friend of Mongin since they studied in the same ENA year  was securing the future of his chief of staff ahead of the end of the government's term next May. Mongin, an abrasive figure, is known for egging on de Villepin in his disastrous confrontations with students, workers, parliament and others since taking office in May last year. Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister and de Villepin foe, has also clashed with Mongin, whom he calls the Prime Minister's "partner in crime". 

The media offered barely a squeak over the government stitch-up at EADS/Airbus and de Villepin's musical chairs. France has been run for decades by this club of high state servants who give one-another top jobs in government and business. One media exception, Les Echos, a business daily, did, however, lament "this very French tradition of musical chairs in which appointments are inspired more by politics than ability." 

Unsurprisingly, there was little criticism from the Socialist opposition. The party is run by Enarques, as the ENA caste is known, and favours their appointment as captains of industry. François Hollande, the Socialist party leader, and Ségolène Royal, the presidential favourite who is his partner, were both classmates of M de Villepin  in the same year at the ENA.

Before French readers respond with a "so what", I would add that the ENA caste is highly regarded for its brilliance and rigour. Many Enarques have proved that good public administrators can make good chief executives of multinational corporations.  Their qualities are vision, rigour and strategic sense. Their main failing is an aversion to the risks that entrepreneurs thrive on. My target here is not their qualities, just the way that they still operate as a cosy club that controls many of the levers of the state and the economy.         

Comments

[michael robertson]

Whilst the political aspects of this muddle have been well discussed, I suspect there is another side to this as well. The backdrop to this whole affair centres around the delay to the A380. Yet it would have been amazing if a project of this size had proceeded without some sort of setback. I wonder if this has been overdone, partly in order to manipulate the price of EADS shares downwards, so reducing the value of the British Aerospace share disposal, as part of its withdrawal from EADS, announced some months ago. Really, I suspect the French governing class still see Airbus as just Aerospatiale reinvented, to do with as they please. Aerospatiale was the French Company that co-developed the Concorde with British Aerospace, and was known before that as Sud-Aviation, developer of the Caravelle. Both projects, especially the Concorde, were politically driven, from start to finish, though the Caravelle enjoyed a measure of commercial success.

The A380 looks like it will succeed despite the current problems, its aerodynamics and avionics would appear to be in line with expectations, and the wiring problems, mainly arising from the differing customer requirements for in flight services and entertainments, will be sorted out. After all, this plane will be around for 30 years, at least, in a number of configurations. Six months delay is nothing. Just look at the Boeing 747, when it first entered service, it could barely cross the Atlantic, yet now, 36 years later, the 747 has proved to be an enormous success for Boeing.
The only fly in the ointment, for the A380, is that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, whilst not being in direct competition with the A380, as it is much smaller, will enjoy similar seat/mile costs to a fully laden A380, without the enormous unit cost, and infrastructure requirements, of the A380. However, the A380 will be easy to stretch, and the enlarged versions will be unmatched in terms of sheer people moving ability. The present version, is not actually that much bigger in terms of passengers carried, than a 747-400!

This whole thing looks like manipulation in order to reduce the value of the BAE share disposal, and to achieve some of the objectives outlined in this post! Perhaps Noel Forgeard was not seen as sufficiently compliant amongst the ruling elite, and this enabled his removal as well! Whilst he did profit from his own share disposal, it was he, amongst others, who guided Airbus to its enviable position to be able to produce the A380 in the first place. I have, incidentally no connection with either EADS, BAE systems, or Boeing, I hasten to add!

[anna de brux]

Nonsense, Richard Jones! Such simpleton-like comment doesn't wash...

Hardly anything wrong with what I said previously that such comments were to be expected of Les Echos. And you came in on the attack that it was a paranoid comment. What's wrong with my saying c'est de bonne guerre? You don't agree?

I think we all agree that there's bound to be bias in media anywhere overall and it is therefore de bonne guerre to expect a British anti-French slant in opinion columns. If you don't admit that, you've got a problem.

If the standard with which you measure where France is today the same standard you apply when you wrote your comment, you, my dear Richard Jones are in trouble for being truly paranoid. "De bonne guerre" means absolutely what it means: to be expected, so where is the problem?

From your family name, one can easily surmise that you are of Welsh descent so perhaps, it would be a good idea to look in your own backyard (if Wales is still your backyard) instead of in the French backyard. Don't you think this is a far better sensible approach?

ENA, for all its faults, is good for France and perhaps, if Wales had one, Wales would be a knock out and come out the better of the four nations in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

[Barry B]

Anna

For your information, Wales has been dominated by an "elite" for which the colloquialism is "the taffia" which exhibits the same degree of inward looking 'scratch my back' tendency as the ex-members of ENA.

You may be happy for these individuals to enrich one another, I for one, and many other people both in Wales and France are not.

[anna de brux]

Richard Jones,

I honestly abhor posting comments that are derogatory against another nation, people or culture and try to refrain from doing so UNLESS I am forced to or when I feel that the opinions expressed about France, its people, culture and others are gratuitous attacks.

Let's not kid ourselves - many non-French commenters here are capable of strong bias (and that's their prerogative) against the French and I accept that. But It is absurd in the extreme to think that all French must and should take aggressive, biased opinions, prejudices of all sorts about them lying down or should accept them with grace.

I am just like anybody here: proud of his/her country and his/her culture. This does not mean, however, that I don't recognize constructive criticisms. But at the same time, it is only normal NOT to feel "flattered" by so much aggressive "attention" or by the so many negative criticisms here directed solely against France and the French people (the national entity to which I belong.)

We must all understand that when people (who are not French) find fault in everything the French do or say or whatever, there's bound to be a counter reaction against that person or commenter by a French person; we must be honest enough to admit that it's only human for a French person to use a kind of self-defence mechanism and fight back. To do less would be the height of indignity and cowardice.

Again, I do accept c'est de bonne guerre for brickbats to be thrown at France here (let off steam if one must) but it is also de bonne guerre for a French person to throw back those brickbats in self defence as dignity dictates.

[GAG]

Goodness me Anna, you’ll be defending President Chirac next.

I wish there were more people like you contributing to this weblog. It would be a lot more fun !
GAG

[Frank Schnittger]

GAG - I'm afraid I got there ahead of Anna - on the next thread "big white holes" - suggesting that some of Chirac's digital projects may not be quite as harebrained as they seem (to some). We too often dismiss ideas or people by association – if it is Chirac’s idea it can’t be good, or if it is critical of France it must be by some envious person of dubious (Welsh) ancestry, or lineage. Sometimes we dismiss specific ideas because of an ideological pre-disposition – e.g. if it is state directed its got to be some sort of socialism. If we dislike someone’s previous posts we are unlikely to give their next one a very fair reading.

It all depends on whether you look at blogs like this as a bit of international tennis – batting the ball backwards and forwards with little regard to the actual merit of the argument. Cheap shots are best – they really get the other side annoyed. I must confess I too have sometimes indulged in a little innocent baiting – putting forward a provocative argument just for the pleasure of seeing the predictable respondents foam at the mouth as they pounce on the keyboard to refute my execrable heresies.

I think Anna is to be commended for her Joan of Arc like defence of all things French – from hoards of invading cyberthugs from you know where. They wouldn’t come here if no one responded to their provocative pontifications. The sad truth is that probably no one listens to them at home …..

That should get them going.

PS Charles – your average postings per blog are going down. Anything I can do to help stir things up?

[Richard Jones]

Hello Anna,

I've been away for a few days, Greece. I see in the meantime you've posted a couple of notes asking me to do something in my backyard and something about having a good war.
Anyway, a couple of quick clarifications.
Yes, I suppose I am Welsh. My father was and my mother was Argentinian-Welsh, but I was born in Geneva, because my father was working (not as a diplomat) for the newly-ensconced League of Nations. We lived on a piece of land very close to the border with France and this piece of land did indeed become France. It was part of a 'land swop'. Fifty or so souls were invited to take French nationality or leave, the Swiss all left, but those of us having 'irrefutable' passports took the French offer. We left for Argentina soon afterwards.
So you can have a go at Wales all you like. I may get a little tetchy about the Rugby and male voice choirs but not about much else including the new Welsh chamber, neither one thing nor the other and yes to some extent run by 'the Taffia'.
In WWII I was in France when it started and only ended up in the UK in early 1941.
I (had no choice) joined the British Army and stayed there - marrying a Greek lady in the meantime - until the mid-Sixties.
We then all moved to the Franco-Suisse border. We shall be moving to Greece for ever (which for me probably won't be very long) in the next weeks.
I shall be sad to go leaving a France that reminds me so make of the 'sick' UK of the Sixties, which only just managed to save itself in the Seventies. In the Sixties in the UK people sounded a little like you. British must be best (some still do of course) and there's nothing wrong here that can't be fixed, we just need our chaps from the exclusive elite of Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Oxbridge to change some things. We best leave it with them, they all have cross-fired directorships and .....
This is where France is now (perhaps not so deeply entrenched. Unfortunately in this age this situation is more dangerous, more delicate and more destructive not only to France, but because of complex inter-dependent socio-politico-economies to Europe, the EU, many other actors on the world stage.
Nobody in their right minds wants to see France wilt and have their flower replaced by political weeds of the most nefarious kind. That will be bad for us all.
That's why you should not really be saying 'So?' when an appointed prime minister (in probably the smallest, tightest, most exclusive and excluding networks in the so-called 'developed world') 'finagles' a job for another in that network.
France cannot let this happen to itself, but to stop it it must listen (and laugh sometimes) at what it considers slanted (Anglo-Saxon will sometimes be a prefix) criticism.
French creativity and pragmatism can manage it: this current lot never will be able to, and regenerate a solid, reliable,
nation that will be a global asset.
But, you, the people be quick. You have less than a decade!

[Jacob-USA]

That’s just the tip of the ice berg, Mr. Bremner; you only have to look below the surface to see where most of the ice has settled.
It is a beginning, though.

[Richard Jones]

Jacob,

Do tell where has the ice coagulated and what will that coagulation be the beginning of?