Like the conservatives Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing before him, François Hollande, the current Socialist president, went to ENA. So did three members of the current Cabinet – two of them, beginning with his former partner Ségolène Royal, from Hollande's own class of 1978-1980, the Promotion Voltaire (each ENA class chooses its name, supposedly an inspiration). Hollande, in fact, has appointed at key jobs in his administration over three dozen of his Voltaire classmates. French banks are regulated by a Voltaire énarque. State investment is overseen by another. What used to be known to a small group of Kremlinologist-like experts on the workings of the French state has become a popular insult, wielded by unionised striking train drivers and unemployed Front National-voting steelworkers alike. It's not something a French presidential hopeful, about to take part in the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Liberty in London, wants to be associated with.