Association of the Prefectoral Corps and Senior Officials of the Ministry of the Interior

The Association du corps préfectoral et des hauts fonctionnaires du ministère de l'Intérieur (ACPHFMI) is the principal French professional circle defending the moral and professional interests of the senior administration of the Ministry of the Interior. It traces its origins to the Association de prévoyance et d'assistance de l'administration préfectorale, founded in December 1907 and recognized as being of public utility in 1915. Dissolved under the Vichy regime in October 1940, it was reconstituted on 31 October 1945 and adopted its current name. The association is based in Paris and operates throughout France through a regional network. Its stated vocation is to "defend the moral and professional interests of its members and of the corps to which they belong" and to develop a genuine network of mutual aid and solidarity among its adherents. It also devotes a significant part of its activity to studies and events that allow it to contribute to major debates on the role of the State and the missions of its representatives. The association counts 725 members across seven categories: prefets, sub-prefets, inspectors general of administration, civil administrators and senior officials of the central administration, members seconded outside the Ministry of the Interior, and former members of the Ministry of the Interior from various corps. Widows and widowers of members have associate-member status. The ACPHFMI is headed by a president; as of the official website, M. Pierre-André Durand, prefet of the Occitanie region and prefet of Haute-Garonne, serves as president. The association maintains a relationship of great deference with the Minister of the Interior, traditionally not taking initiatives without the minister's favorable opinion, implicit or explicit. It functions as a body for study, consultation, information and dialogue, and has historically contributed to major legislative and regulatory texts concerning the prefectoral corps, including the law of 8 March 1948 on deconcentration and prefectoral powers, the decree of 19 June 1950 establishing the special status of the prefectoral corps, and the constitutional inscription of the prefet in Article 72 of the 1958 Constitution. It also maintains a presence on social networks including Facebook and LinkedIn.

The ACPHFMI is the heir to the Association de prévoyance et d'assistance de l'administration préfectorale, founded in December 1907 and recognized as being of public utility in 1915. The association was created under the impetus of the prefet and magistrate at the Cour des comptes René Allain-Targé. Among the members of its founding bureau were influential figures such as Justin de Selves, who succeeded Eugène Poubelle in 1896 at the head of the powerful prefecture of the Seine department and remained there until 1911; Louis Lépine, the mediatized prefect of police of Paris from 1899 to 1913, who contributed to the modernization of the French police; and Georges Clemenceau, then head of government and Minister of the Interior, who became honorary president from the association's creation. In 1914, the association gathered around 600 officials, mostly governors or government representatives in the territory, with just under a hundred prefets and more than two hundred sub-prefets among its members. It also opened itself, as honorary members, to ministers and parliamentarians, such as Aristide Briand and Louis Barthou. Gradually, the association became a body for study, consultation, information, consultation and even dialogue, playing a preponderant role in the institutionalization of an esprit de corps. With the Second World War and the capitulation of France in June 1940, this space of freedom was not to the taste of the Vichy regime, which dissolved the association in October 1940. The association then counted around 1,000 members. The association was reconstituted on 31 October 1945 and promoted the figure of Jean Moulin, archetype of the resistant and martyr prefet. The resistant prefet and camp survivor Émile Bollaert was triumphantly elected president of the association. This was a way, after the Liberation, to minimize the role played by part of the prefectoral corps with the Vichy regime. In the aftermath of the war, prefectoral personnel underwent a regeneration: veterans of the Third Republic now had to deal with the first graduates of the École nationale d'administration (ENA), the so-called énarques. In 1946, the association appeared in some respects to be tinged with syndicalism: it envisaged conducting its action on professional questions in liaison with the CGT and CFTC unions of the Ministry of the Interior. But from 1947, this idea was abandoned: union organization was incompatible with the very essence of the prefectoral corps. The association organized itself to make the voice of prefets heard and to relay their point of view to decision-making spheres. It emerged from the association's debates that the prefectoral corps constituted a homogeneous body. Its members, whatever their origin, were closely related by the identity of the tasks and responsibilities incumbent upon them. The prefectoral corps brought together officials serving both a political will, that of the government, and the permanence of the republican State. Following the principle of deconcentration, the order that a prefet takes and signs in his own name was akin to a decision taken by a minister. The association therefore set itself the primary object of defending the "professional, moral and material interests of its members". It quickly counted more than 1,000 members. The ACPHFMI, in many respects, contributed to the bill of 8 March 1948 on deconcentration and prefectoral powers, which marked a turning point for the recognition of the role of prefets as representatives of the State in the departments; to the decree of 19 June 1950 instituting the special status of the prefectoral corps, which affirmed the role of prefets as delegates of the government, responsible for the general direction of State services in the departments, the representation of national interests and the administrative control of territorial collectivities; and to the constitutional inscription of the prefet (Article 72 of the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic of 1958). The association maintains with the Minister of the Interior a relationship of very great deference. The association does not take initiatives without the favorable opinion, implicit or explicit, of the minister. This dependence does not prevent a certain liveliness of tone in general assembly, and the solemn presentation of grievances is often marked by great frankness and great tenacity. The cohesion of the association is even sometimes undermined by tensions: between the prefectoral corps (prefets and sub-prefets) and civil administrators (not having prefet or sub-prefet status); between prefets and sub-prefets; between officials dismissed at the Liberation (the Pierre-Henry affair) and those who had been resistants or came from the ENA. With the arrival of the left in power in 1981, the prefet of Paris, Lucien Lanier, close to the right, resigned from his functions. Although the presidency of the association was elective, at the time it traditionally went to the prefet of Paris.

• 1981

  With the left coming to power, the prefet of Paris Lucien Lanier resigned; the presidency traditionally went to the prefet of Paris.

• 1958

  Contributed to the constitutional inscription of the prefet in Article 72 of the Fifth Republic Constitution.

• 1950

  Contributed to the decree of 19 June 1950 instituting the special status of the prefectoral corps.

• 1948

  Contributed to the law of 8 March 1948 on deconcentration and prefectoral powers.

• 1946

  Association considered conducting professional action in liaison with CGT and CFTC unions, an idea abandoned in 1947.

• 1945

  Association reconstituted on 31 October; Émile Bollaert elected president.

• 1940

  Association dissolved by the Vichy regime in October; it then counted around 1,000 members.

• 1915

  Association recognized as being of public utility.

• 1914

  Association gathered around 600 officials, including just under 100 prefets and more than 200 sub-prefets.

• 1907

  Association de prévoyance et d'assistance de l'administration préfectorale founded in December.

Professional association and think tank for the prefectoral corps and senior officials of the French Ministry of the Interior.

1. 1ACPHFMI – Association du corps préfectoralacphfmi.fr
2. 2Wikidata: Association du corps préfectoral et des hauts fonctionnaires du ministère de l'Intérieurwikidata.org
3. 3Wikipédia: ACPHFMIfr.wikipedia.org