After months of crisis at the head of Sciences Po Paris and a procedure launched in May, the two governing bodies of the prestigious establishment appointed Luis Vassy, a 44-year-old diplomat, as its new director on Friday, September 20.
A former graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and a student at the ENA, a student in Emmanuel Macron’s class at the ENA, Luis Vassy has headed the cabinet of successive foreign ministers since 2022, Catherine Colonna and then Stéphane Séjourné, after having been French ambassador to the Netherlands.
He was acclaimed on Friday by the board of directors of the National Foundation for Political Sciences (FNSP), the body that oversees the school (staff representatives, teacher representatives, student representatives, etc.), receiving 19 votes out of 25 voters, according to a message from Sciences Po sent internally and of which AFP obtained a copy.
According to internal sources, the academic Rostane Medhi, 58, the only other candidate still in the running, obtained three votes.
Contacted, Luis Vassy said: “infinitely honored by the choice” made by the governing bodies and has “I look forward to serving an institution of which France has every reason to be proud”.
In his application project, the 44-year-old Franco-Uruguayan believes that the establishment, which has experienced a tumultuous life for several years, must renovate its image, its project, its governance and its financing, with Europe “in the heart”.
A succession of governance crises
This appointment should put an end to the repeated governance crises, the latest episode of which was the resignation in March of its former director Mathias Vicherat, who was brought to justice with his ex-partner in a case of domestic violence.
Since then, Sciences Po has been headed by the former general director of Pôle emploi Jean Bassères, appointed provisional administrator.
This crisis is not the first for Sciences Po, which has been accumulating setbacks and scandals surrounding its leaders for several years.
Mathias Vicherat thus succeeds Frédéric Mion in November 2021, who was forced to resign for having concealed suspicions of incest targeting Olivier Duhamel, then president of the National Federation of Political Sciences (FNSP), which oversees the school.
Frédéric Mion himself succeeds Richard Descoings, who died accidentally in 2012 in a hotel room in New York.
Pro-Palestinian mobilizations
Sciences Po has also been shaken for months by controversies linked to the mobilizations of pro-Palestinian students.
The occupation of an amphitheater by students in March, which gave rise to accusations of anti-Semitism, sparked controversy and led to a visit to the site by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, a former student of this “elite school.”
The Grande École was then the scene of several mobilizations by pro-Palestinian students in the spring, followed by police interventions. Sciences Po announced measures in early September to “better training” his students on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a subject the future director knows very well.
