AS GOVERNMENTS across Europe pore over their accounts in search of cutbacks to contain their growing deficits, France’s state expenditure watchdog believes it has found a service ripe for reform: bodyguards for VIPs.
According to a leaked provisional report, the Court of Auditors believes France has been granting close protection security officers to too many people at untenable cost to the taxpayer.
All cabinet members and junior ministers are entitled to police bodyguards while in office and for some time afterwards, while former presidents and their spouses, prime ministers and interior ministers enjoy the privilege for life. Each guard costs the state €71,879 annually.
In practice, the provision of bodyguards is much wider, however, and the court believes too many of the 800 officers attached to the Protection Service for Major Personalities (SPHP) are assigned to expensive “comfort missions” that cannot be justified on security grounds.
Pointing to a number of exceptional cases, the court notes two candidates for the French presidency in the 2007 election – Ségolène Royal and François Bayrou – are still accompanied by full-time bodyguards. Le Figaroreported the SPHP tried last year to withdraw the protection from both politicians – as well as from Laurence Parisot, the head of employers' federation Medef – but was advised it should be retained.
Police unions say young recruits are shunning the SPHP because of the monotony of a job that often requires them to act as valets and all-round assistants. "You have to change airline tickets and know how to find alcohol in Saudi Arabia," a guard told Le Parisien.
One Arab prince reportedly demanded that he be driven only in new cars during a recent visit to France.
A rule change introduced last year means police bodyguards are no longer supposed to accompany their subjects when they travel abroad, but the court found that the rule is often ignored. Ms Royal and former justice minister Rachida Dati brought their guards to the United States and Morocco, respectively, while overseas travel for a guard attached to former prime minister Dominique de Villepin cost the state €94,000 in 2008. Ms Royal yesterday insisted her protection was justified, pointing out that her home had been ransacked twice since 2007.
The issue of police protection for public figures emerged earlier this year when interior minister Brice Hortefeux suddenly withdrew a driver and security officer assigned to Ms Dati, who is now an MEP.
Ms Dati had held onto her guards after leaving the government last year, and their removal was widely interpreted as a sign that president Nicolas Sarkozy’s erstwhile confidante had fallen further out of favour at the Elysée Palace.
A spokesman for the interior ministry said steps were already being taken to reduce the provision of bodyguards.