The French president’s plan to close ENA, the elite school that churns out civil servants and CEOs, smacks of symbolism. rob1cox of Breakingviews thinks Emmanuel Macron is succumbing to shortcuts:
PARIS - It’s rarely big news when a French bank recruits a new domestic retail chief or a head of strategy. Yet when BNP Paribas and Société Générale filled these positions a year ago, it was all over the French, and even international, press.
There’s nothing quite like ENA outside France. Neither the Ivy League, nor Oxbridge, nor the top schools in Japan have the same pedigree. America’s cadre of Rhodes Scholars can’t match the influence of the 90 or so men and women that ENA turns out annually. Since its establishment under Charles de Gaulle in 1945, it has effectively functioned as the country’s factory for presidents , chief executives , prime ministers and top civil servants.
But now he too looks to be succumbing to the temptation of offering sops rather than real solutions. Getting rid of France’s Delta Force for civil administrators won’t automatically free up top spots in government, finance, business and beyond. Nor is the abolition of the elite school his only nod to symbolism. Last week, after flames engulfed Notre-Dame, Macron vowed to rebuild the grand cathedral in central Paris within five years.
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