Public Service Minister Guillaume Kasbarian during a question session with the government at the National Assembly, October 29, 2024 (AFP / Bertrand GUAY)
By congratulating Elon Musk on his appointment as head of a ministry of “governmental efficiency” on Wednesday, the Minister of Public Service Guillaume Kasbarian attracted a volley of greenwood from the left political class and actors public sector denouncing a “provocation” and a “brutal” method.
On the eve of an important meeting of the civil service inter-union which must decide on the contours of a mobilization which could go as far as a “strike” – which two of the main unions support – the minister's exit could complete to aggravate the situation.
In question, a message posted on best practices to combat excessive bureaucracy, reduce paperwork, and rethink public organizations to improve the efficiency of public agents.
The boss of Tesla, Space X and press release from the president-elect.
“We thought that Trumpism in France was limited to the far right. We were wrong. We have G. Kasbarian the French Elon Musk without electricity,” criticized the head of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure on the same social network. , while LFI president of the Finance Committee, Eric Coquerel, questioned Prime Minister Michel Barnier “on this praise in English from a supporter of the total destruction of the State”.
The appointment of Elon Musk, however, found some support on the right, notably that of Valérie Pécresse. “An anti-bureaucratic ax committee, I dreamed of it and @elonmusk is going to do it!” greeted the president of the Île-de-France region.
But this position by the Minister of the Civil Service comes after a week of tensions following announcements of savings for the public service to the tune of 1.2 billion euros which sparked an outcry from the unions.
– “Never seen it” –
Two measures in particular have crystallized anger: the reduction from 100% to 90% of compensation for sick leave for civil servants, and the introduction of three unpaid waiting days, instead of one currently, during these absences – excluding serious pathologies.
At the end of the council of ministers on Wednesday, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon put these comments into perspective and denied any “convergence” between Donald Trump and the French government.
“There is no overinterpretation to be made, my colleague Guillaume has been extremely mobilized for years on the need to simplify and debureaucratize the French administration. He congratulated his counterpart and that ends there,” he said. -she said.
Questioned by AFP, those around him assured that “welcoming the appointment of a counterpart, whose executive was democratically elected, was not (worth) support”.
But among union organizations and agent collectives, the anger is far from abating and the sequence could leave after-effects.
“We have never experienced this, it is incredibly violent,” Mylène Jacquot, general secretary of the UFFA-CFDT, told AFP. “There have already been disagreements, conflicts (with other ministers, editor’s note), but never this level of brutality,” she continued.
Same story with Christian Grolier, general secretary of the UIAFP-FO, whose organization called a strike last Thursday. These declarations “add fuel to the fire”, he told AFP, regretting that the minister could see in MM. Trump and Musk “role models”.
“This is the very example of an absolute casting error,” said François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC. “As a minister, he should confront commonplaces, prejudices”, and defend “the people who are the targets”.
In a press release, the think tank of senior civil servants “Le Sens du service publique” was surprised that Guillaume Kasbarian “could provide support for the character of Elon Musk assuming an extremist and masculinist position”, his co-founder Johan Theuret denouncing a “lack of humility on the part of the minister” and “a provocation”.
