Refiler la patate chaude

Literally: To pass on the hot potato

Example: “Chaque service refile la patate chaude au suivant, et personne ne répond au client.” — Every department passes the buck to the next, and nobody answers the customer.

English equivalent: To pass the buck

Origin: A potato boiled whole holds its heat for a remarkably long time — the volume of water in it — so anyone who picks one up wants it out of their hands immediately, and hands it to the person next to them rather than throwing it on the floor. The metaphor came from the Americas along with the vegetable. By the middle of the 19th century American English had hot potato for a question so contested or so delicate that touching it was a risk, and that grew out of the older to drop like a hot potato, meaning to abandon something or someone at speed. The change French made is the whole point of the expression: English DROPS it, which is what anyone holding something scalding actually does, while French passes it on to somebody else.