(ANSA) - PARIS, MAY 31 - Poisons, protests and strike in the Quai d'Orsay, the French foreign ministry, where diplomats and personnel are called to cross arms on 2 June against the disputed reform of the high public administration wanted by President Emmanuel Macron, which they call "a brutal suppression of the French diplomatic corps".
A very rare fact in the usually discreet and muffled world of the Paris Foreign Ministry, which entered the strike only once in its bicentennial history, in 2003.
In the crosshairs, there is the reform of the high public service made by Macron in April.
Now published in the Official Journal, the reform creates a new body of state officials no longer dependent on a specific public administration but, on the contrary, called to change positions regularly during their careers in the service of the République.
In essence, a distortion that will allow greater flexibility in the appointment of ambassadors that many do not like.
For the diplomats - around 700 directly involved - this translates into the merger, by 2023, of two historical bodies of French diplomacy: ministriple powerhouses (including ambassadors) and advisers for foreign affairs.
Not even the recent appointment of a career diplomat, Catherine Colonna, to head the ministry has managed to placate the spirits.
(HANDLE).
