PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to scrap the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, training ground for the country's ruling elite, was criticised by school alumni on Friday , while others saw an opportunity to fix a despised symbol of inequality.
But for many alumni, who hold top positions in French political, diplomatic and business circles, the gesture was a populist move that will do little to address inequalities that start at a much earlier age. The growing tendency for Enarques, as the school's graduates are known, to move back and forth between the public and private sectors has deepened the public perception of a distant, back-scratching old boy's network.
"Brilliant kids who live in the suburbs or the countryside are not even aware this education exists, and their parents don't know it either," Florian Philippot, Marine Le Pen's former number two and himself an ENA alumnus said. "It's a school that trains the elite, but it's also a school of conformism and conservatism," he told BFM TV.