French diplomats on strike to oppose reforms of interagency hiring

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - For the first time in 20 years, several career diplomats of the Foreign Ministry will be on a strike on Thursday, to protest against the government’s decision to abolish the diplomatic corps, paving the way for the appointment of non-specialized civil servants to the diplomat's post.

An inter-union grouping along with a collective of some 500 staff members and contract workers, in a statement, said a large number of the ministry's agents in Paris, in the French overseas territories, and diplomatic and consular posts across the world are participating in the strike.

The statement referred to the strike as a “social movement of an unprecedented scale,” as it is extremely rare for the Foreign Ministry staff to launch protests against working conditions.

The last such strike took place two decades ago.

The statement said the current reforms, introduced by the Macron government in 2019, would lead to “massive reductions in human and financial resources, inequalities of treatment for equal functions and the risks weighing on the professionalization of our professions following the abolition of the diplomatic corps.”

“This (diplomacy) profession is built by time and experience. With this reform, we are told that we would all be interchangeable. ... We are professionals, it's a real profession,” Olivier Da Silva, a diplomat and the spokesperson of the CFTC union told Le MediaTV news.

Aurelie Bonal, the deputy ambassador of the French mission in the US, who was partaking in the strike from Washington DC, said she is opposed to the suppression of the diplomatic corps that will allow for interagency careers.

“To simplify: any civil servant can become a diplomat & diplomats can serve in any department,” she said on Twitter. “Without a diplomatic corps, it will be much easier for the government to appoint friends at all levels of diplomatic jobs. ... Our diplomacy needs competence, continuity & expertise, not cronyism,” she added.

Bonal explained that while foreign missions have representation and diversity from other departments of the government and diplomats serve in other departments for experience, they remain diplomats and eventually return to serve the Foreign Ministry. This will not be the case when the new reforms come into force.

Thibault Samson, a political counselor at the French mission in the UN, said he is on strike “in defense of a professional diplomacy with its specific skills.” "I have too much respect for all other professions, trades & crafts to accept the fallacy that anyone can do any job,” he said on Twitter.

The striking diplomats hope the Foreign Ministry launches consultations, and guarantees commitments so that the principles of professional diplomacy are upheld, the statement underlined.