A wave of suicides shakes the general directorate of public finances

The shock dates back to January 10th. That Friday morning, a very violent surprise awaited the first agents arriving at the public finance center in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). They discovered one of their colleagues, a young inspector, hanged in the reception hall. After leaving the premises the day before, he returned and killed himself in the very place where he worked. He was not yet 30 years old. The civil servants were all the more affected by this shock because both of his parents were also public finance agents.

This is the beginning of an impressive series of events. Since January ¹ , twelve people working for the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP) have committed suicide across France, and eight others have attempted to do so, according to the tally compiled by this department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Twenty tragedies in six months. "These are tragedies that traumatize our entire team, and worrying figures ," admits the director, Amélie Verdier. "I don't want to minimize them in any way."

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