New Prefect of the Grand Est: from Seine-Saint-Denis to Strasbourg, who is Jacques Witkowski?

That’s it: Strasbourg has a new prefect. Ten days after Josiane Chevalier’s duties ended on September 30our city is seeing the arrival of a new high ranking officer. A big change after more than 4 and a half years under the leadership of one and the same person. A change that this time is combined with the male.

To take over from Josiane Chevalier, Emmanuel Macron, Michel Barnier and Bruno Retailleau have chosen to appoint Jacques Witkowksi, 61 years old and chief executive of Seine-Saint-Denis.. Appointed after the Council of Ministers on 10 October, His resignation order appeared in the Official Gazette on October 11. The opportunity to take a closer look at the career of the man who will become a key figure in the life of Strasbourg.

First experience of Alsace in 2003

Born in 1963, Jacques Witkowski has FOURTEEN in law and graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1986. After 10 years in the gendarmerie in Martinique and Vendée, he rubbed shoulders with the political world for the first time by becoming military commander of the Hôtel de Matignonin the office of Prime Minister Alain Juppé.

He then began a prefectural career, becoming deputy and director of the chief executive cabinet of Cotes-d’Armor in 1998, before becoming director of the chief executive cabinet of La Réunion in 2000. The position of chief executive of the Grand Est Department is not his first job in Alsace, as he was deputy chief of Sélestat-Erstein in 2003..

A gendarmerie officer who became a senior officer

After various positions throughout France, His prefectural career began in 2013, when he was named chief executive of Mayotte. He also found himself a tenant and director of the cabinet of Georges Pau-Langevin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 2014, under François Hollande. He returned to mainland France in 2016, when he became chief executive of La Manche.

Just a month before Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017, he became Director General of civil security and emergency management at the main administration of the Ministry of the Interior. Under the first mandate of the President of the Republic, he was named chief executive of Hérault in 2019.. Two years later, the Council of Ministers appointed him as chief executive of Seine-Saint-Denis, where he remained for more than three years, until today. In 11 years, this is the 5th prefect position for the gendarmerie officer who became a senior civil servant..

Josiane Chevalier’s page is now officially turned, with the arrival of Jacques Witkowski as the new chief executive of the Bas-Rhin and Grand Est Region. Questions will inevitably arise: what is the relationship with communities in the future, and in particular Strasbourg? Will he be as political in his role as commander-in-chief as his predecessor? The first response elements soon, with hot issues such as the organization of the Christmas market coming up very quickly.