“What hysteria!” An exasperated man wanders into the office of the director of Sciences Po, on the first floor of the Hôtel de Mortemart, at 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, in Paris. Disbelief is palpable behind the round glasses of Jean Bassères at the end of April. The interim administrator, who headed France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi) from 2011 to 2023, has been managing the day-to-day operations for a month until the succession at the head of the establishment, scheduled for this autumn. He had no idea that his temporary job would be so arduous. The spring crisis – with its pro-Palestine demonstrations, the call to the police and its torrent of criticism in the media – continues to shake up the school of elites. And now, on April 29, The Figaro headline “Sciences Po bows to Islamist-leftist pressure”, as if management had turned a blind eye to accusations of anti-Semitism… “The next director will need serious crisis management skills,” sighs the 64-year-old Inspector General of Finance, who is already eager to get this over with.
Great first, in Official Journal May 11th, “ability to adapt and manage crises” appears on the list of qualities required in the call for applications. Should we be surprised that torments and scandals seem to have affected Sciences Po for twelve years? In the corridor leading to Jean Bassères’ office, considered the holy of holies, the gallery of portraits of the directors since the IIImy République recalls the curse that seems to have fallen on the last of them. Three enarques, three falls.
We meet the adolescent gaze of Richard Descoings, found dead of a heart attack at the age of 53 in a New York hotel in 2012, after a night with escort boys. He was then caught up in a storm following the inquiry launched by the Court of Auditors into the luxury bonuses distributed during his reign. To his right, the restrained smile of Frédéric Mion, who left in February 2021 for having remained silent since 2018 on the facts of incest and rape of minors acknowledged by Olivier Duhamel, the tempestuous professor of constitutional law at Sciences Po who chaired Le Siècle, an elite club where many of the house’s managers and professors still dine. Finally, the still empty space, reserved for Mathias Vicherat, did not have time to be filled: the last director resigned on March 13, accused with his partner of mutual accusations of domestic violence for which he is referred to criminal justice.
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