This is a prefectural appointment that could make people shudder. On August 31, Gérald Darmanin chose Clément Méric, his chief of staff, to become chief of staff to Bertrand Gaume, who is also prefect of the North, the Hauts-de-France region and the defence zone. Security in the North. This strategic position involves overseeing civil and public security, the representation of the State and the communication of the prefectures in the first department and the fifth most populated region in France.
The “reshuffle” of this close adviser to the resigning Interior Minister comes at a time when the current affairs are at a critical moment, while most political appointments are due to be suspended since the resignation of the Attal government on 16 July. Above all, the attribution of this post of sub-prefect required some legal contortions.
Since the reform of the senior civil service and the abolition of the prefectural body, a decree had in fact reserved this post for category A civil servants or subcontracted workers who had held a position of equivalent responsibility for at least eight years. Conditions that Clément Méric clearly did not meet: this 2016 Sciences Po graduate, who is not a civil servant, was first a project director at the Government Information Service (SIG) from 2018, before joining Gérald Darmanin’s cabinet in 2019, at the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts. He then succeeded Minister Place Beauvau in 2020, first as press and travel advisor and then as head of cabinet from 2022.
An order at the end of August to lower the position
To get around this legal difficulty, Gérald Darmanin issued an order to modify the categorisation of the post on 29 August, two days before the appointment of Clément Méric. With a stroke of a pen, the North leaves the list of twenty major prefectures where the post of Chief of Staff is reserved for “group III”, to join the sixty smaller prefectures, grouped in “group IV, open to more”. Diverse profiles, with more flexible requirements in terms of experience, but with lower remuneration.
“This categorization is arbitrarily defined by the Ministry of the Interior, but it is supposed to reflect the importance of the position.”explains Antony Taillefait, professor of public law at the University of Angers. However, the North is certainly an important prefecture. » “Although perfectly legal, this procedure seems appropriate and may legitimately raise questions”says Gildas Tanguy, professor of political science at Sciences Po Toulouse.
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