The presence of Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve at the departure ceremony for Prefect Adolphe Colrat was anything but casual and trivial. It was about showing the State’s solidarity with its representative who had not experienced easy days, caught between a socialist government and strongly right-leaning local authorities. And when you’re in the middle, every time you do something, you’re criticized.
Adolphe Colrat bid farewell with an impeccable message, in which every carefully weighed word was worthy of a servant of the State. Quite the opposite of the many public expressions of some local elected officials against him, sometimes with exaggerated tones.
The latest, in terms of timing, was the one following the official communication of his appointment to the General Inspectorate of Finances in which Christian Estrosi warmly celebrated no longer having to deal with him in the future.
Everyone has their reasons and opinions, but beyond the lack of institutional respect and elegance, there is no obligation that the Prefect should be the one pedaling while leaving the handlebars to the mayor of the department’s capital city.
It’s all well and good if, in other cases, it works like that, but one must not confuse an isolated case with the rule.
In his address, Prefect Colrat avoided any controversy and simply recalled some basic principles as can be read below:
“These values (editor’s note: those of the State and the Republic) are not abstractions, or rhetorical formulas. They embody in the women and men who have chosen one of the many facets of serving the State and who share the essential: the demand for impartiality, neutrality, fairness, and unity, the respect for the rule of law, the exclusive passion for serving the public interest and for serving others, particularly regarding the protection of our fellow citizens and the preservation of their freedoms, the consideration for the people and the numerous partners with whom we cooperate, foremost among them the elected representatives of the Republic, whom I salute with respect and esteem.“
