Its rare escapades the reserves for the Opera

Discrete until the erasure, the man is loath to talk about him and was surprised or pretended to be surprised that we want to publish his portrait in a newspaper. At the age of fifty-seven, the new Secretary-General of the Quai d'Orsay is not one of the most respected actors of the French diplomatic scene. Recently elevated to the dignity of France Ambassador Marshal reserved for very rare "happy few" stick , Pierre Sellal won its stripes on the battlefield Brussels, in the permanent representation of the France so often, he surveyed the corridors since his release from the ENA in 1977 (promotion André Malraux). When he became the boss, in May 2002, the former Director of cabinet of Hubert Védrine in the Quai d'Orsay has already made two passages by the "RP": the first from 1981 to 1984 as a simple Advisor, and the second from 1992 to 1997 as number two. And he has already had two French presidencies of the Union, in 1984 and 1995. The third, in the second half of 2008, will enable him to give the full extent of his talents as a conductor. A leader who perfectly mastered the community partition and has transposed in the art of politics, a particularly useful form of "absolute ear": "I have rarely seen a diplomat capable of understanding as soon I want", said to Nicolas Sarkozy. The undeniable success recorded by the French Presidency of 2008 owe much to the activism of the hyper-président, certainly; but also to the formidable sense of organization and negotiation of the then his missi dominici in Brussels.

"Loyalty of the employee.

Born in Mulhouse a Blackfoot engineer of Mines and a lorraine mother father, Sellal young has discovered Paris when he joined the ENA. It will bind a solid friendship with Olivier Schrameck, the future Director of the cabinet of Lionel Jospin at Matignon from 1997 to 2002, age in which he led that Hubert Vedrine. Taking five years on this eminently ejection seat, and then seven years as "rp", is also in itself a small feat. This remarkable ability to longevity sometimes forced it to make the large gap, for example developing contradictory arguments on the Turkey on behalf of Chirac and Sarkozy: "I claim the loyalty of the employee," defending. And then, is it not that there is only the fools who do not agree However Pierre Sellal is certainly not a. It is even quite the contrary.

Intelligent, cunning, affable although sometimes sarcastic, this "hyper-techno" is also, and perhaps above all, a huge bosseur. The time of its collaboration with Vedrine, his working days began at 8: 15 pm ends at 11: 45 he was established as a rule never to leave his Office after midnight. The "RP", from 2002 to 2007, the pace was little less sustained, let alone six months of Presidency who were literally "straight". This is hardly left him leisure for strolling in the streets of Brussels or the Marsh, district where he has a loft with two not the Museum Picasso and which reminds a little his years blessed in the Farnese Palace, when he was stationed at the France Embassy in Rome in the early 1990. Its rare escapades, the reserves for the Opera. The currency in Brussels, it was not uncommon to see happen at the beginning of the second Act. Late in the evening, when he could finally enjoy the pleasure of leaving the baton to others.