a minister shouldn't say that

Published on November 13, 2024 at 1:19 p.m.updated on November 13, 2024 at 1:29 p.m.

Public Service Minister Guillaume Kasbarian congratulated Elon Musk, charged by Donald Trump with “dismantling the American bureaucracy”. He says he wants to share “good practices” with the American billionaire. A statement that sparks controversy.

A minister of the Republic should not say that. Moreover, at the beginning, we even believed it was fake news. Too big to be true. And then, yes, he had said it. Guillaume Kasbarian, in charge of the Civil Service in Michel Barnier's government, hastened to “congratulate” Elon Musk on X (which the billionaire owns) for his appointment as Minister of Government Effectiveness to Donald Trump. Above all, in his message of congratulations, Kasbarian said he had “can’t wait to share” with Elon Musk “best practices to combat excessive bureaucracy, reduce administrative formalities and rethink public organizations to benefit the efficiency of civil servants”.

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The minister, who must manage the destiny of more than 5 million French civil servants, therefore wants to share the “practical” what does Musk intend to put in place, the richest man in the world, self-confessed libertarian, king of disinformation, who harbors real hatred against the public service in his country?. Because Elon Musk, Donald Trump's other “vice-president”, makes no secret of it, his battle plan is clear: it consists purely and simply of “dismantle government bureaucracy”. A mission that the newly elected American president even goes so far as to compare to the Manhattan Plan, named after the American research program during the Second World War to create the atomic bomb. Yes, that’s what it’s all about, “atomizing” civil servants. Reduce them to powder. So it is this program that Kasbarian wants to draw inspiration from for France?

Who is this minister who is showing such irresponsibility? Almost unknown to the general public, Guillaume Kasbarian, a former consultant converted to Macronism, was elected in 2017. Faithful to the president, he played watchdog during the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Alstom affair which threatened Emmanuel Macron . Then, in 2023, he returned to the government, as deputy minister responsible for Housing. A self-confident liberal, taking himself for a sort of Don Quixote – of which he has an engraving in his office, he likes to play – as “Le Nouvel Obs” wrote after his appointment – ​​the righter of wrongs. But his oppressed people are the owners who face unpaid debts more than the poorly housed. He is the father of the “anti-squat” law which increases sanctions against illegal occupation of housing and shortens eviction deadlines. Minister, he also wanted to reform the SRU law which requires municipalities to build a portion of social housing on their territory. Deliberately provocative, the man, round and mustachioed, had installed a barbecue in the premises of the Assembly in homage to the symbol of virility criticized by Sandrine Rousseau. Kasbarian likes nothing more than throwing big stones into the pond and seeing the effects produced.

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At a time when budgetary constraints are imposing cuts in state finances, is this why Kasbarian was chosen in September by Michel Barnier as Minister of the Civil Service? The minister has already decided to freeze the index point in 2024, and proposed a three-day waiting period for civil servants' sick leave, attracting the wrath of the unions. FO and the CGT call a strike in December. Guillaume Kasbarian started strong. This time, by going so far as to congratulate Elon Musk, was he not too strong? “We thought that Trumpism in France was limited to the far right. We were wrong. We have Guillaume Kasbarian”, reacted Olivier Faure, the boss of the PS. This Wednesday, at the end of the council of ministers, the government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, keen to deflate the emerging controversy, clarified that the orientations advocated by Elon Musk “ are not inspirations for the government”. Michel Barnier, obliged to form a baroque team around him to take into account political alliances, has always claimed to respect “freedom of speech” of his ministers. But freedom does not necessarily mean the right to say or tell anything.