Sarkozy's crusade against the elite

The daily newspaper Corriere della Sera describes France's reform of its presigious administration academy the ENA (École Nationale d'Administration) as an act of revenge by French President Nicolas Sarkozy: "This can be seen either as Sarkozy's revenge on the elite or, from a right-wing point of view, a 'mini '68' - with analogue consequences: on the one hand the abolishment of the 'classement', the final classification of the candidates and the attendant privileges, and on the other the extension of admission rights to a wider section of the population. The goals are ultimately the same: improving the efficiency of managers in public administration. But apart from the socio-political interpretations, this reform represents the revolution of one of the strongholds of the institutional system, conceived in cultural terms by Napoleon and established by De Gaulle in 1945 with the goal of ensuring optimally educated high-level functionaries for the state in the post-war era. ... Sarkozy, who graduated from a normal university and not the ENA, had long since set his sights on the academy, which he regards as an archaic model, unsuitable for meeting the requirements of a modern state and too exclusive regarding social differences."

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