French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that under plans to boost social mobility, one of France’s top colleges, the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, will be shut down.
A degree from the ENA has been the passport to the upper echelons of French politics for generations.
Its graduates include the French President himself and ex-presidents François Hollande and Jacques Chirac.
The Institution has however become the target of populist anger at perceived elitism.
The entrance exams are notoriously tough, and the ENA’s intake is dominated by students from privileged backgrounds.
It admits fewer than 100 students a year, who are fast-tracked into prestigious civil service jobs.
Announcing the school’s closure, he called the changes a “profound revolution in terms of recruitment”, but stressed that he did not want to add to unfair criticism of the institution.
In February, speaking in the western city of Nantes, President Macron said it was time to open up access to top colleges for students from modest backgrounds. He said the aim was that no kid in the republic should say “this is not for me”.
He deplored the current state of social mobility in France, saying it was “worse than 50 years ago”.
His announcement was made in a video conference with several hundred top civil servants but he first suggested closing the ENA in 2019, after months of gilets jaunes (“yellow vest”) street protests, which severely challenged his presidency.
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