Didier-Roland Tabuteau was appointed Wednesday January 5, 2022 in the Council of Ministers at the head of the Council of State, the highest French administrative court, where he must succeed Bruno Lasserre.
Supporter of “great social security”
Didier-Roland Tabuteau, until then president of the social section of the institution, is also responsible for the Health chair of the Paris Institute of Political Studies and co-director of the Law and Health Institute.
This 63-year-old senior official had also headed the cabinet of Bernard Kouchner at the Ministry of Health and had been deputy director of the cabinet of the Ministry of Social Affairs with the Socialists Claude Évin and Martine Aubry in the 1990s and 2000s.
Supporter of a “Great social security”, as recently developed by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, Didier-Roland Tabuteau was the first director of the Medicines Agency, in office between 1993 and 1997, created after the contaminated blood scandal.
His appointment at the head of the Council of State – despite the official but misleading title of “vice-president” – puts an end to a suspense within the hushed institution of the Place du Palais-Royal in Paris.
“The Council of State has turned into a beehive”
Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron went there to thank the current holder of the office, Bruno Lasserre, won by the age limit, without the name of a successor being imposed.
However, this bicentennial house, which has an original dual role of both advising the government on the texts of laws before their examination, and of supreme administrative jurisdiction, has gained as much in importance as in visibility over the past two years and the Covid crisis.
“The Council of State has turned into a beehive”, Bruno Lasserre testified to AFP, citing the “200 texts on Covid” of the government which were the subject of an opinion in 2020, “ of which 112 were examined in less than five days ”.
We also had to face “The inflation of referrals”, these emergency appeals filed by the hundreds by citizens, associations or professional organizations contesting the management of the pandemic, and who “Have changed the political and media outlook on our decisions”, according to the outgoing vice-president.
Sometimes accused of culpable endogamy with the executive power – the State Councilors, often from the late Ena, swarm in the ministries – the institution however distinguished itself in 2021 by inflicting two snub to the government, with the suspension part of the reform of unemployment insurance, then the fine of 10 million euros for not having fought sufficiently against air pollution in several areas in France.
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