Presidential 2027: Sarah Knafo calls for the abolition of the Ministry of Sports

A new cut. In her book The Heist of the Century (Éditions Fayard), released last September, the Reconquête MEP, Sarah Knafo, proposes 140 billion savings and 800,000 cuts to civil servant positions. Among her latest proposals, the nationalist calls for the abolition of the Ministry of Sports. “France does not need to have a ministry on all subjects to continue to excel,” she defends this Monday on BFMTV/RMC.

The former candidate in the municipal elections in Paris, who received 10.4% of the vote, quips: “You want there to be a ministry of baguettes? In everything we are strong in, will we have to create ministries?” “It’s having a driver, an administration, people who are paid to accompany him. It is not the Minister of Sports who scores the goals for the French team,” further argues the European elected official who is on the rise with the liberals. The politician defends the role of municipalities, responsible for “allocating subsidies”, “for a century”.

“France does not need to have a ministry on all subjects”

To support her argument, the thirty-year-old relies on the United States, which does not have a sports ministry, and which nevertheless remains “a great sporting nation”. “France does not need to have a ministry on all subjects to continue to excel,” she assures.

France has not always had a sports ministry. It was in 1936, under the Popular Front, that Léon Blum entrusted Léo Lagrange with the Undersecretariat of State for Sports and the Organization of Leisure, initially attached to Public Health. But it was not until 1966 that Sports became a full-fledged ministry, with François Missoffe at its head. Even after 1966, Sports did not systematically constitute an autonomous ministry: they, depending on the government, came under a full ministry, a state secretariat or a broader portfolio.