One in two presidents, four out of ten prime ministers, one in seven ministers: the former students of the National School of Administration (ENA), that Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he wanted to
“remove”
, marked the Fifth Republic of their footprint.
Among the eight presidents, four are enarques: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac, François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron himself.
Read also: Emmanuel Macron announces the replacement of the ENA by a new Public Service Institute
This is also the case for nine of the 23 prime ministers including Jacques Chirac, Laurent Fabius, Michel Rocard, Edouard Balladur, Alain Juppé, Lionel Jospin, Dominique de Villepin, Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex.
Of the 672 ministers and secretaries of state of the Fifth Republic, 98 have done the ENA (14.6%), according to a database maintained by AFP.
Giscard, the pioneer
On January 8, 1959, when the first government of the Fifth Republic was appointed, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Secretary of State for Finance, was, at 32, the only enarque.
In 1974, he will also be the first enarch to be elected president.
His predecessors were born too early to have been able to make the ENA, created after the war in 1945.
Under Pompidou, the era of the enarques
If they are only a handful under the presidency of General De Gaulle (1958-1969), the enarques know their peak under Georges Pompidou.
Between 1969 and 1974, of the 69 ministers of its governments, 23.2% left the ENA.
A proportion which rose to 37% from April 1973 to February 1974, a record unmatched since.
His three successors, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, will also trust the former students of the school, with respectively 16.8%, 18.2% and 20.6% of enarque ministers.
The enarques carved out the lion's share during periods of cohabitation: 32% when Jacques Chirac was the prime minister of François Mitterrand, 29% when Lionel Jospin was that of Jacques Chirac.
More advisers than ministers
Since the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, the enarques are rarer.
If Emmanuel Macron and his two successive prime ministers Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex leave the ENA, they have appointed only seven ministers since 2017, out of 67 (10.4%).
Five of them are currently in government: Ministers Bruno Le Maire (Economy and Finance) and Florence Parly (Armies), Deputy Ministers Emmanuelle Wargon (Housing) and Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Industry), as well as the Secretary of Clement Beaune State (European Affairs).
The enarques keep an important weight in the entourage of the ministers and the president.
At the Élysée, 30% of Emmanuel Macron's cabinet did the ENA.
The Quai d'Orsay, nest of enarques
The ministry which has seen the most enarques (41%) is Foreign Affairs, notably with Hubert Védrine, Dominique de Villepin, Alain Juppé and Laurent Fabius.
Defense and Culture follow (35% each).
The enarques often briefly held this last portfolio, while the two personalities who held the position the longest had not done the ENA: André Malraux, who belonged to another era, and Jack Lang.
The major economic and financial ministries (31%) and the Interior (26%) are not far away.
The Ministries of Education (13%) and Justice (12%) are dead last.
