“I haven’t forgotten Nancy and Lorraine. Patrick Gérard is a State Councilor and even deputy president of the administration section. Born in Nancy, he had a prestigious career as a senior civil servant, Legion of Honor, National Order of Merit, Academic Palms… But all the same, Nancy, the Flo, the Place Stan, left him with a more than pleasant taste: ” It belongs to my past”. And he returns there willingly, to see his parents.
“My father is from the Vosges, from Saint-Dié,” he confides. “In my ancestors, I have a great-grandfather, an architect from the Ecole de Nancy, Paul Charbonnier. Not just anyone Paul Charbonnier: one of the founders of the movement, author, among other things, of the Maison du Peuple, rue Drouin in Nancy. His other great-grandfather, a Ponts-et-Chaussées engineer, is also famous: “Robert Vadot was responsible for channeling the Moselle”. He is also the author of the inclined plane of Saint-Louis-Arzwiller.
After Saint-Léon for primary school and Poincaré high school, Patrick Gérard immediately turned to law and Sciences Po in Nancy. And also to politics. In 1974 “I was in Nancy, it was the year Giscard was elected. I joined the movement of young Giscardians”. He will be its president in the 1980s. He was also elected regional councilor of Île-de-France and mayor of Vincennes. “I contributed to the renovation of the castle with a formidable team. But he will no longer run for office: “Political life is less interesting than forty years ago. People are more difficult with their representatives”. A brilliant student, he continued his studies in Paris where he found Denis Lévy, former mayor of Bouxières-aux-Dames, professor of constitutional law. “He was my thesis supervisor on the law of presidential elections in the USA,” he adds. Lecturer, associate professor of public law, university professor, he teaches at the University of Orléans, at the CNAM… Law is Patrick Gérard’s passion, as is “student training. My father was a lawyer and a magistrate, I am more in the law of the State. I have always retained lessons. I like to teach a lot, especially public law”.
Patrick Gérard also exercises his talents first as an adviser to the cabinet of François Bayrou, then Minister of Education. He was then appointed rector of the Orléans-Tours Academy at the age of 36. The second youngest in France. He will also be rector of the academies of Bordeaux and Paris. In addition to the cabinet of François Bayrou, he holds the position of director of school education under a François Fillon Minister of Education, and that of director of cabinet of Rachida Dati, Keeper of the Seals. An experience that fascinated her: “We see how we make a public policy” and to note that “any reform is difficult to carry out”. Patrick Gerard spent four years at the head of the prestigious ENA. He was its last director. “I tried to do things”: equal opportunity classes, internship in SMEs… “The senior civil service is admired around the world. It’s lucky that bright young people want to serve the state. France is a country where the State is a driving force. It’s good to train people who will be useful to others. And then there is the Council of State, of which he has been a member for a long time. “He is the heir to the king’s council reaffirmed by Napoleon. One of the pillars of the rule of law”. It examines “the texts of local authorities, public contracts…” and ensures that “the administration respects the rights of citizens. It’s very interesting “. Patrick Gérard is also the author of books including “State Administration”, intended for law students, of Sciences Po who pass the competitions but wanted “understandable by all”. He is currently working on a dictionary of the Constitution for the 65th anniversary of the text. But Lorraine is never far away, Patrick Gérard is national corresponding associate member of the Stanislas Academy at Nancy…
