#Don Sahlin

[astronoglow]

Jim Henson and Frank Oz experimenting with prototypes, a sponge Muppet and from the land of gorch, king ploobis 1975.

[jimhenson-themuppetmaster]

Don Sahlin (pronounced "Sa-lean") (June 19, 1928 - February 19, 1978) was Jim Henson's main designer and puppet builder in the 1960s and '70s, and a key influence on the overall aesthetic of the Muppets. In 1962, Henson contacted Sahlin to build a dog character he had sketched for use in commercials, Rowlf. Don Sahlin soon became Henson's primary designer and builder, beginning with commercials and early projects such as Tales of the Tinkerdee. He also provided special effects for Time Piece, and assisted on stop-motion projects, such as the animated ham used in the second Wilson's Meats Meeting Film (in which Sahlin has a cameo). In The Muppets on Puppets, Henson introduced Sahlin to the viewers as "doing some of our backstage effects and working some of the puppets" in the 1968 special. In a story-telling skit, he alternated between puppeteering Rowlf's right hand and operating effects like an "explosion". Don Sahlin went on to create and build Muppets for Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, The Muppet Movie, amongst many others. Don Sahlin also helped Jim Henson with two of his stop-motion Sesame Street films, "The King of Eight" and "The Queen of Six". In a Closeup Magazine interview from 1976, Don Sahlin said "Jim Henson supervised the filming, but he gave me all the freedom in the world to do what I wanted.

Sahlin is the designer credited among Henson staff as the creator of Ernie and Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and other classic Sesame Street characters. He is "the inventor" of the Muppet look, from a design point of view. As discussed in the book Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles, many of the Muppets began as Henson's rough sketches, which Sahlin then built and modified as needed. This often included special mechanisms or effects; for the La Choy Dragon commercials, this meant "devising a system for this early full-body character to actually breathe fire."

Sahlin was known to refer to himself as the "guardian of the essence" of the Muppets. Beyond building specific characters, Sahlin contributed two significant concepts to the Muppet aesthetic, "the Magic Triangle" and "the Henson stitch." The former was a simple but effective approach to positioning eyes, creating a triangle in relation to the nose and mouth. Jim Henson explained the importance of eye placement: "It would be the last thing [Sahlin] would do, and he always wanted me there, to make sure it was right for both of us -- making sure the eyes had a point of focus, because without that you had no character." The stitch is a specific method of sewing cloth as tightly as possible so the seams would be "nearly invisible," thus aiding the illusion of stylized "reality" when characters were filmed in close-up. This technique, dubbed the "Henson stitch" by Sahlin, does not in fact create a truly invisible seam, but worked sufficiently for television purposes (hiding, for example, the seam down the middle of Kermit the Frog's snout).

[synthsays]

GUSYAAWAQJSJWJKWHEHDJ

I did it !!!!

I apologize for not being able to do it in two days, but I've finished the original show for the second time :D Fraggle Rock is the best and I highly recommend it! It has such a good message and a ton of great songs!!

To @jaguar-ink I'll try and find the comics online or something, thanks for the recommendation!!

And thanks to everyone who liked/reblogged my original post!!

The show Fraggle Rock was dedicated to Don Sahlin, Rest In Peace

Signed,

Synth Says :D

[fraberry-stroobcake]

this is actually one of my favourite videos on this platform, finally i found it again to put on this blog!

jim henson, frank oz & don sahlin showing off how to make various characters with a “whatnot/anything” muppet, 1969

[shadowofmoths]

on desktop i dont have emojis does this count :3c :3c :3c :3c :3c :3c

IT COUNTS ilysm <33 ok um:

jim henson tried to get frank oz to play big bird . but frank had had to do a kind of disastrous full-body muppet for a commercial once and for the rest of his career would refuse to do full body muppets

dr teeths original name was leon "doctor" eltonjohn dontshoot (the pianist) which makes me laugh every time

frank oz is incredibly funny as a muppet performer but was like, so intense and strict when not performing that his coworkers would try to stay out of his way

don sahlin, who worked in the muppet workshop and is credited with solidifying the classic muppet look, would rig up tiny explosives in his coworker's desks and set them off when they were in the middle of something, which inspired the muppet crazy harry who just blows shit up

jim was never precious about the muppets themselves, he would take them off his hand and then just throw them to the side and his kids grew up playing with old discarded muppets. one time caroll spinney (who played big bird and oscar) saw him toss ernie aside and gently scooped ernie up and told him jim didn't mean it. i happen to be on caroll's side here those are my FRIENDS treat them GENTLY.

i just learned this today and it made me laugh until i was crying . frank oz talking abt how miss piggy loves kermit said, adn i quote, "She loves the frog--my God, how she covets that little green body!--but the frog doesn't love her." like, who TALKS LIKE THAT. its hysterical god its my favorite part of this jim henson bio so far its absolutely hysterical to me. she covets that little green body....

[popculturebuffet]

Monthly Muppet Madness: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (Comission for Emma Fici)

Happy holidays all you happy muppets and welcome back to monthly muppets, my monthly look at all things muppet related. It's christmas time again and for this year it's something near and dear to my heart we haven't covered yet and when I asked my co-pilot emma to do this one her response was a resounding "Wait we hadn't done this one yet?" Friends grab your washtubs, your glam rock glasses and your christmas branches, it's time for the Tail of Emmet Otter's Jugbband Christmas.

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas is a 1977 special done for the CBC and aired on HBO the next year here in the states. The special came about because.. the CBC asked?

I did my due dillegence but coudln't find anything on why the CBC comissioned this special. I mean you don't need much justification to ask Jim Henson do to a heartwarming holiday special. Because muppets is how this feature got started, it's a very good reason for doing something. I just expected more than that from a special this high quality and well loved. I DID find more on how this got maid though thanks to this wonderful oral history.

So we can dig right in.

At the time this show was greenlit most of the crew worked in London, leaving the Henson Workshop to Don Sahlin, a longtime builder for the crew who created the Rowlf the Dog Puppet and did most of the puppetry and set design for this film, so props to him. So to make Don's Muppet's come alive, Jim enlisted a small but powerhouse crew: himself, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, David Gohelz, Richard Hunt and Charlie Ozeker, basically a whos who of muppet stars likely because they could do it fast, do it well and could do it big.

See something I never knew about Emmet Otter is that it's a vital step in the evolution of the muppets: it was the first one Jim did on a full set, building a whole ass river for characters to move down for the boating segments, a full on world. IT was the first without humans, something I didn't even scan as the story works fine as is. And it premired techniques not using a raised stage, something vital for the muppet movie. It was a brilliant way to test new techniques too: since the story's small scale, it made it easy to tech this sort of thing out. It could be difficult with beams in the way of their heads, but the results paid off with a special that looks seamless but clearly took a lot of tech wizardry Another all important addition to the Muppets was

Yes Paul Williams, music icon and muppet god. Williams had guested on the muppet show, but going into it was already a fan of Jim's work from Ed Sullivan and Seasame Street, with the latter being a reliable source of entertainment for a traveling musician it turns out: no matter where you were you could guarantee something pretty neat as almost everywhere carried it.

With WIlliams becoming fast friends with the muppet crew, Jim naturally asked him to do this special.. though Williams suspects he had ulterior motives.. granted this being jim henson those motives were entirely still pure and good because Jim Henson was our own personal jesus and I miss him dearly. Anyway quoth williams from the SYFY article

" I think what he was actually doing was giving it a test ride to see how we worked together. Because what was major on his plate at that time was The Muppet Movie coming up. It was a huge gamble, and I think one of the things he was wondering is if I would be the right guy for The Muppet Movie. "

I entirely buy it, as while Jims likely didn't doubt williams was good: At this point in his career he'd written three #1 hits for the carpenters including "We've Only Just Begun" andthe classic "Old Fashioned Love Song" for Three Dog Night, which jim personally loved. On top of that he'd already done the music for Phantom of the Paradise, a horror rock opera whose soundtrack i've listened into infinity and whose review also got pushed back to next year as my schedule continues to spiral just a tad.

Point is Williams was proven and likely had the job.. Jim was just nervous. The Muppet Movie was a big gamble and something he'd wanted since he started doing puppetry, the cumulation of his life's work. He HAD to double check. It's also likely why he took the big swings technically HERE: it was a smaller project he could do it on to see if the even bigger, riskier ideas of the muppet movie could be pulled off. He was testing everyone.. including himself. He's Jim henson: he's nothing if not fair. He had to see if he could pull it off on this scale, that he really had it. I get that impulse in creating something: that you have something you want to do and WORRY you can't do it so you test yourself or , in the worst cases, simply say your not capable and never make it. Thankfully jim wasn't that kind of guy and could easily past his own task.

And sountrack wise, he hired Paul Williams, so Williams passed the test with flying colors and became a mainstay for the muppets, soundtracking both the muppet movie and last year's christmas review, A Muppet Christmas Carol, which now lives rent free in my head. Passing it wasn't effortless, but Williams rose to the occasion, to quoth the man again.

"It's funny because I've never had songs write themselves as quickly as these songs wrote themselves. And some of the titles are [from] the book. With Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, you have this remarkable tale that has such depth. I think it's written in such a way that the titles, and the story, led me to what we would now call Americana, and it's not what I did. I think probably as close as I got to that style is one of the songs that Jim mentioned when we met. He said "I just loved you from the time I heard "Old Fashioned Love Song." And though "Old Fashioned Love Song" was really kind of rinky-dink, old-fashioned, there was something about that song and the simplicity of my melody that he lit up around it. 

So, I went to the script [for inspiration], and I think that the script is a wonderful fairy tale with a great spiritual lesson in it. Ma Otter and Emmet take a chance, and they basically destroy their means of earning a living with the washtub and hocking the toolkit. As brave and as wonderful as they are, and as much as we're rooting for them, the fact is that they are outperformed by a hard rock group, The Riverbottom Nightmare Band. But from that, there's that wonderful opportunity to write two songs that, put together, make one song, but also have a message like "Our World" and "Brothers." It was a marvelous opportunity for a songwriter. "

So with a genius musical soundtrack, marvelous new puppetry and a lot of heart.. how does the special stack up now a days? Join me under the cut and i'll tell ya.

Our World:

The story of Emmet Otter is simple, but effective: Emmet and his mother Ma Otter, puppeted by Frank Oz and played by stage actress Marilyn Sokol, and her son Emmet, played by Jerry Nelson make not even enough to really get by doing odd jobs on the river, Ma doing the wash for various people and Emmet doing odd jobs. As we see on the scene of both jobs, the two get stiffed with Mrs. Fox faking a singe mark to try and get a refund and an old lady offering Emmet and his friends 50 cents to repaint her fence neglecting to metnion her fence is also half dead. The two barely get buy and while Emmet looks forward to Christmas, Ma is less jolly about it: they can't afford much to eat let alone presents. It's a well done message: sometimes Christmas isn't something EVERYONE can afford and some struggle to just live, let alone provide gifts.

Not helping is the passing of Pa Otter, sir not apperaing in this film, who wasted money on Snake Oil, but no one wanted to oil a snake. The two seeing possible presents for each other at a music store, a piano for ma and a pearl trim guitar for Emmet, the two are talked into entering a music contest by their respective friends, emmet's variety of jug band buds whose names I don't remember and aren't really important and Hetty, ma's only friend. The catch is to even have a chance of winning.. they'd need to hock something from the other person, a weird, sad, all too probable take on Gift of the Magi: Emmet needs to turn his mom's washtub into a bass, the greatest instrument and Ma Otter needs a dress. Why Emmet's friends can't find an old washtub or use one of THEIR mother's washtubs and why Ma specifically needs a fancy dressy to compete..

So our heroes decide to take after pa and take a chance on something big, with enough left over to replace the thing they just.. outright stole to give their family member something better. MAYBE.

This could easily be more messed up, I mean their stealing to give each other presents.. but it's their desperate situation that makes this premise work: The two are barely getting jobs as is, and simply wanted their loved one to have a good christmas. It's better to gamble on a dream that may not come true, than to simply sit in abject misery, and the gamble still makes sense as neither knows abotu the other and thus isn't risking all their money. I bet both ma and emmet would do their hardest to make up the extra income. It's all worth it for what they assume will be a happy christmas. After all..

The two are geninely talented too: Emmet's band performs the in-universe standard Bar-B-Que , a fun and lively number we'll unpack later, and when someone else performs it and they don't want to be accused of copying at the talent contest, the main trope talent contests have but one that works here, the two make something up on the fly, Brothers. Likewise Mom blows THEM out of the water with the touching and thoughtful Our World.

Problem is... their good.. but they simply aren't as good as the best people there. And the best people there are

A bunch of punks seen earlier in the special causing havok every so often with really neat designs, including a fish that was .. tricky to puppet. David Goetz was entirely in black box gear to appear invisible.. and sitting on top of a forklift. so if someone move it.. his arm would've snapped off. You needed to know this because Muppet Performers go damn hard, but probably shouldn't of been at that level of risk.

I'll get into WHY this performance is so damn great later, but I like this plot point as not only is their consequence to hte gamble the otters look.. despite being huge jerks.. the river bottom band.. is talented. They won their win legitly: Their musically talented, have a nice theatricality and the stinger to it is that they likely didn't spend MUCH more: Only Chuck, their leader has a special outfit for the concert, and at most they fancied up their guitars.. or stole them. Did anyone check paul williams? Is Paul okay? I think they might've mugged Paul Williams.

It's a hard truth: you can be really great for what you have.. but if someone can outspend you while also having just as much talent, or simply has more people to pool resoruces and mug paul williams. I mean their just four beavers and a middle aged beaver, they can't mug paul williams. He's paul williams. It takes at LEAST a snake and some weird fish to beat paul williams. Everyone knows that. The River Bottom Nightmare Band (Technically the nightmare but I prefer the longer name), are just.. good. It's a trope i've only seen so often, most recently with Glitz and Glam's number Klown Bitch from helluva boss, but it's one i like: it's easy to have the jerk antagonist in a picture win or come damn close simply because they bought their way to victory, bribed or whatever and are untalented.. it's a harder truth that sometimes, assholes be talented. And sexy as both the twins and the river bottom nightmare band show.

At any rate our heroes loose, and loose big, having nothing left but each other.. though I also like that there's no recrimination, no blame.. they both get what they did, that their kinda screwed.. but it wasn't done out of greed.. but out of love for one another. If they can't hold onto that, what DO they have left? So they combine their two songs into one beautiful melody of togetherness, a sweet song trying to welcome all.

Naturally though they still get a happy ending as a bullfrog what been in this story on and off, including being a contest judget, who runs the local inn hears their duet and offers them to be his house band. So our heroes win.. simply by being good people, and said risk paid off as he already saw they could perform profesionally. They never go hungry again.

Also Kermit was here. Yeah Kermit opens and closes the show and apparently in previous versions narrated it. It'd be nothing more than just a neat cameo.. if it wasn't also the reason this special was in limbo for a decade, with only one early dvd release. The reason is understandable: Kermit got bought by disney, Emmet Otter belongs to the jim Henson company, so it was a rights issue kerfuffle, with some versions removing kermit to still at least air the special. Eventually shit was worked out and as of last year you can stream the special on peacock and at the time of this article can also stream it on Amazon Prime, which I used. No adds and such.

Paul Williams Baby:

I really could end it there: Pauls work on The Muppet Movie, Muppet Christmas Carol and Phantom of the Paradise all speaks for itself, Emmet Otter is no exception. But it's not my job to let work speak for itself, so here we go.

The special opens with The Bathing Suit Your Grandma Otter Wore, a goofy song about one of the Otter family's grandma. While the jokes are mostly "Gee Grandma Otter sure was fat wasn't she" it dosen't come off as fat shaming, more some playful joking... or alternatively.

But either way it's meant with a goofy tone and comes off like the sort of joke Grandma Otter herself told, more a fond rememberance by sharing her humor. Or it was just the 70's and this was still okay, but I just.. can't detect any malice from this. Trust me i've seen out and out fat shaming jokes plenty. This.. just isn't it. THIS is fat shaming.

The one bathing suit your grandma otter wore is just goofy. It's too goofy to get really mad at. Like the actual goofy. He may destroy yoru house but only someone without a soul or donald duck who has suffered enough at his hands to get an exemption can truly get mad at goofy.

Where The River Meets the Sea.. wasn't in the original version of this review because i'm stupid, but is now. i'ts a beauitful song I feel deeply ashamed having missed and was williams taking a song MENTIONED in the book and expanding it.

There Ain't No Hole in the washtub is the thing I remembered most after catching this special on Cartoon Network once as a kid outside of one number we'll get to towards the end. A fast paced, fun country number with some really nice pattering from Nelson and Sokol. IT's just pure country fun.

Bar-b-que: another fun fast paced country number. And look I won't lie these first three songs are pretty simple but it dosen't make them any less fun and I get what Henson and Williams were going for: a sort of theme park version of the country, but without getting offensive. Hence a quick country song about a mess of barbeque is just.. fun, wholesome and really makes me want some ribs. Soon... soon.

Our World is a genuinely sweet song by Ma Otter, with a good message about being welcoming to all and not letting hate in. Sokol sings the hell out of it and i'ts why the first few songs sorta. It's a touching calll for peace and unity.. which given in the years sense this special we've gotten so much war on christmas nonsense and calls to stop letting everyone into the holidays, is a really nice thing to here

The Jugbands song, Brothers is also really nice. it has a fast tempo like Ain't No Hole and Barbeque, but takes it up a peg, while having a really ncie message about found family comparing themselves to "long lost brothers"... a sentiment certainly shared by most of the henson crew.

River Bottom Nightmare Band. Oh baby this song. It stands out in part because it's diffrent from the folk stylings of the rest of the tracks, being a glam rock number which Williams was already skilled at thanks to phantom of the paradise. He takes it up a notch here, just having the rive rbottom nightmare band be card carying villians talking about how they don't brush their teeth so their toothaches make them mean and grass dosen't grow whereever they standddddd

It's the standout track on an already stellar lineup.

The final track though comes close and is a work of musical genius: Williams had to build Our World and Brothers to function well on their own.. and PERFECTLY together. While Mash Ups aren't exactly uncommon nowadays, it's not Williams tweaking with two unrelated songs.. he built TWO diffrent songs, complete and still damn good and made it so they interlocked perfectly. That my friends takes talents and what makes this my second favorite track of the special: a heartfelt song of unity, warmth and peace to close out a special that's kind wholesome and wonderful.

Our WOrld:

So yeah.. Emmet Otter's is great. Even beyond the heartwarming and sadly still all too relevant story that manages to sneak in an aseop about poverty, it's a heartwarming tale tha thas a lot of technical mastery packed into a simple, moving tale. It also has sexy glamorck bear monsters who apparently pissed off the mayhem, so it has that. It's a wonderful, well done, simple special that touches the heart. It's worth a watch if you haven't seen it.

Now before we go , something I haven't done in a while as I haven't been covering as many films muppet wise: i'ts time to bring back ye old letterboxd ranking list!

As you can see Emmett Otter shot right up there to #3 and it's well done technical work and warm soundtrack earn it that place. It was a joy to see this again and to cover it and I hope if you haven't seen the special you will and if you have you enjoyed this look at it. Thanks for reading.

Next Time: We can finally do one of these with confidence as next time we go to a land down under to visit australian human and muppet do Sammy J and Randy as they stake out on Bin Night.

[muppet-facts]

Muppet Fact #103

Originally, in The Muppets Valentine Show, Crazy Harry was called Crazy Donald. But his name was changed to Crazy Harry in his second appearance in the other pilot episode, The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.

The name Crazy Donald was meant to be a reference to puppet builder Don Sahlin, who loved to rig explosions at other's desks.

Sources:

The Muppets Valentine Show. January 30, 1974.

The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. March 19, 1975.

MuppetFest Memories: Day Two. MuppetFest. Dave Goelz.

[missholson]

Frank Oz (the right hand), Jim Henson (the left hand & the head) and Don Sahlin play around with a two-person puppet, in the form of The Southern Colonel, which transforms into various characters.

Tim Steele: The Muppets On Puppets (1968)

[weirdlandtv]

How Ernie and Bert were made. Snaps from the workshop showing Don Sahlin at work, 1969.

On his table Jim Henson’s original sketch, which I’ve posted before HERE.

[themuppetmasterencyclopedia]

Reindeer

PERFORMER various

DEBUT 1965

DESIGN Jim Henson 

Don Sahlin Builder

[astronoglow]

An Awesome rare photo of Jim Henson with his first three main Muppet Builder’s on the set of Sesame Street in a Sunday News Magazine Article from May 31, 1970: Don Sahlin (Next to Jim) Kermit Love (Back) and Caroly Wilcox.

[jimhenson-themuppetmaster]

Photographs of Jim Henson and his main muppet building crew: Faz Fazakas, John Lovelady, Don Sahlin, Caroly Wilcox, Bonnie Erickson at the Muppet studios in New York 1972 photos by Tom Caffrey

[jkottke]

Jim Henson Demonstrates How to Make Your Own Puppets

In this charming video from 1969, right before Sesame Street premiered on PBS, Jim Henson spends about 15 minutes showing how to make simple puppets out of materials you might have handy at home: cardboard, plastic cups, fabric, wooden spoons, potatoes, etc. Joining him was the designer of the Muppets, Don Sahlin.

He is "the inventor" of the Muppet look, from a design point of view. As discussed in the book Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles, many of the Muppets began as Henson's rough sketches, which Sahlin then built and modified as needed... Sahlin was known to refer to himself as the "guardian of the essence" of the Muppets.

Henson's Kermit-y voice is super soothing. What a great find by the indispensable Kid Should See This.

[doctorbluesmanreturns]

For their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles actually sent a recording because they were afraid of not being a success in America. They were portrayed on the show by four specially created Muppets and puppeteered by Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, and Don Sahlin. After their appearance was a huge success and people were clamoring to see them live, the Beatles secretly came over and acted as if they’d always been here.

[shadowofmoths]

🦇🧵👁 for Muppet asks

🦇: did you know some of count von count's bats have names that he's given them? here are the recorded names: Beauregard, Lyuba, Yasha, Bruce, Cynthia, Grischa, Matilda, Mischa, Sandor, Winnie Mae, Louisville, Slugger, Luba, Sascha, Tattiana, Louis, and Persephone! he also has a cat, a wolf, and an octopus. 🧵: muppet builder don sahlin, who was essentially responsible for creating the look of muppets as we know them, invented a technique thats referred to as the henson stitch, (tbh very unfair to mr sahlin that its not named after him....) which joins fabric together in a way that it appears invisible on camera. like, did you know kermit has a seam running through the middle of his nose? probably not! because don was incredibly good at his job. 👁: heres another count von count fact sorry i just lov ehim so much. despite looking like one and acting like one and his experience of arithmomania (having to count things) as in old vampire lore, count von count is never said to be a vampire. the 2001 muppet guide in fact specifically states the count is NOT a vampire, and muppets official info have never referred to him as one.

[renaultespace]

Spin-off : mais pourquoi est-il si méchant ?

A ce moment-là de l'histoire, vous vous dîtes possiblement que je suis un emmerdeur de service. Et je vous répondrais que l'on ne décide pas vraiment de la personne qu'on est ou qu'on devient. Alors, qu’est-ce qui explique mon caractère et mon entêtement ? Peut-��tre l’éducation de ma mère et une éducation un peu catholique avec des notions fortes de morale et cette idée récurrente d’être jugé en permanence par une autorité divine. Puis mon prof de philo en Terminale. M. Dehoze, si vous me lisez, sachez que votre enseignement n’a pas été vain. J’ai découvert notamment les impératifs catégoriques de Kant. Faire de ses choix, actions et décisions des lois universelles notamment. Et donc considérer que si tout le monde dénonce les injustices qui leurs sont visibles… et bien il n’y en aura plus aucune qui pourra être commise en toute impunité. Et puis l’idée que si l’on a un don, il est un devoir de l’exploiter. Alors moi, modestement, je n’ai pas de dons. Mais le contrôle de l’argent public est mon travail. Et sur le petit millier de français (700 ?) qui résident en Croatie, surtout si on enlève les retraités et les Erasmus, il n’y a personne d’autres que moi qui connaît aussi bien les règles de gestion de l’argent public. C’est pas que je m’érige une statue, mais il ne faudrait pas avoir de fausse modestie : je fais, pour le compte d’autorités de contrôles et de divers services de l’Etat et de Régions, les contrôles les plus poussés qui existent (les contrôles d’opérations ou contrôles CICC) sur les fonds les plus contrôlés (en l’occurrence les fonds structurels européens). Donc, si je suis les impératifs catégoriques de Kant, je suis le mieux placé présentement en Croatie pour voir ou sentir la présente arnaque et pour la dénoncer. Et donc si je ne le fais pas, je ne peux pas espérer que quelqu’un d’autre le fasse à ma place.

Ensuite, il en va des premiers amours comme des premières administrations. La première administration où j’ai travaillé (même si ce n’était qu’un stage), c’était la Commission européenne et c’était précisément dans un service « Audit et contrôle ». Et pour une première expérience dans l’administration, c’est très particulier. Je ne défends pas la Commission européenne et notamment ses orientations politiques mais simplement, en terme de rigueur budgétaire et de professionnalisme, c’est le mieux qu'on ait inventé. Les institutions de l’Union européenne ont pris la rigueur des pays scandinaves. Et si vous ne connaissez pas la rigueur des pays scandinaves sur la gestion budgétaire et la transparence, je vous invite à taper « Mona Sahlin Affaire Toblérone » sur Google. Les Suédois ne rigolent pas sur la gestion de l’argent public. Et d’ailleurs, avant cela, j’avais fait mon Erasmus précisément en Suède.

Après la Commission européenne, Kant et ma mère – ce qui vous donne déjà un certain sens de la rigueur – je suis rentré au Ministère de l’Intérieur dans un service qu’on appelle le SGAR. Il ne faut pas voir l’administration comme un bloc monolithique. Il y a des administrations différentes et des cultures très différentes. La différence entre la territoriale et l’Etat et même la différence de mentalité entre les ministères est au moins aussi grande que la différence de mentalité entre une PME et D��cathlon ou Bouygues. Les fonctionnaires n’ont pas tous le même moule, les mêmes réflexes, la même culture. Et au SGAR c’est militaire et on ne rigole pas avec les règles, notamment budgétaires. Pour le Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, très honnêtement, je ne sais pas. Mais la distance avec Paris joue. Mes contrôles sur l’argent public m’ont mille fois démontré que plus on est loin géographiquement de Paris et plus on applique les règles de manière aléatoire. Et puis peut-être que les Affaires Etrangères c’est historiquement beaucoup d’affaires discrètes et donc une transparence moindre. Peut-être.

Ce que j’ai vu au SGAR aussi, c’est qu’un SGAR (qui est un sous-Préfet et le numéro 2 de l’Etat dans les régions, après le Préfet) n’est pas intouchable. En Normandie, mon SGAR s’appelait Hugues Malecki et vous verrez qu’il a fini sa carrière administrative par la case prison. Puis quand je suis arrivé dans les Hauts-de-France (je suis un peu le chat noir des administrations voyez-vous), je ne pourrais pas citer son nom car il a été jugé par le Ministère de l’Intérieur et pas par la justice classique, mais mon SGAR de l’époque fût envoyé, après descente de l’inspection, en une semaine de Lille à Lorient. Passé de sous-Préfet d’une des plus grandes région à sous-Préfet de sous-préfecture du Morbihan. Le tout avec une semaine pour faire sa valise et sans préavis. Comme déclassement, c’est violent.

Bref, j’ai appris que tout aussi haut qu’étaient les gens, tout aussi prestigieux qu’étaient leurs postes, tout aussi charismatiques et sûr d’eux qu’ils pouvaient être, ils n’étaient pas à l’abris d’une descente de la police ou de l’inspection un lundi à 6 heures du matin, puis de la prison ou d’un déclassement, de la justice du Ministère de la Justice ou de la justice de leur propre ministère. Les fautes se payent et personne n’est à l’abris.

Il y a des procédures et une justice pour que le travail des fonctionnaires, qui sont dans une très grande majorité exceptionnels et qui font tenir au quotidien l'Etat et la loi, ne soit pas décridibilisé par une minorité peu soucieuse du bien commun et du respect des règles. Et comme je le disais : on a les fonctionnaires et les représentants qu'on mérite.