The President of the Republic during his recent visit to the Lot (illustration) – LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP
Emmanuel Macron “has decided to launch the States General of justice”, announced this Saturday the Elysee, while the judicial institution is strongly criticized by elected politicians and police unions. The president also wants “the Minister of Justice to report each year to Parliament on the government’s criminal policy,” said the Elysee in a press release.
The announcement was made Friday evening during an interview at their request with Chantal Arens, the first president of the Court of Cassation, and François Molins, the attorney general of the Court of Cassation. The latter, one of the highest French magistrates, rebelled at the end of April in an interview with World against the trial in “laxity” made according to him to justice, in the face of the controversy aroused by the decision to declare criminally irresponsible the murderer of the Jewish sexagenarian Sarah Halimi.
Separation of powers
In front of the two magistrates, Emmanuel Macron “during this peaceful and constructive exchange, recalled his deep attachment to the principle of the separation of powers and to the principle of the independence of the judicial authority of which he is the guarantor”, according to the Elysee Palace .
On May 19, tens of thousands of police officers had also demonstrated in front of the National Assembly, in the presence in particular of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and many elected LR and RN, but also elected left, such for example that the mayor PS of Paris Anne Hidalgo, or the MEP EELV Yannick Jadot. Criticism of justice was among the main slogans of the police unions on this occasion. It was taken over by the National Rally and many voices among Republicans.
On May 25, before the National Assembly, Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti called for “not opposing justice and the police”, while the security concern is, according to polls, among the main concerns of the French.
Favorable reception from the unions, but …
These States General “were not a request” from the main magistrates’ unions, who on the other hand “have been asking the President of the Republic for several months to position himself so that the separation of powers is respected”, reacted to Katia Dubreuil, president. of the Syndicat de la magistrature.
“Why not, but we have to see the modalities and that there is a real will to listen”, she also commented, estimating that “it is four years that the professionals of justice are not at all heard ”. Lawyers, magistrates and clerks had notably fought strongly, including in the street, the justice reform promulgated in March 2019. “What justice needs”, insists Ms. Dubreuil, “is to stop the incessant reforms, and means ”.
The National Bar Council, which brings together 70,000 French lawyers, reacts “favorably” to the launch of the Estates General, which “became necessary in the context of accusations of lax justice and in a context of accumulation of reforms”, according to its president Jérôme Gavaudan.
“What we do not want, and we will be very vigilant on this point, is that it could become a place of political or electoral fight” with the approach of the presidential election of 2022, he continued. .
Emmanuel Baudin, secretary general of FO-Pénitentiaire, sees the presidential announcement as “rather a good thing. But we are waiting to see what will be put in it ”. And to add: “It should not be that the magistrates, there is a real subject on the prison. “FO-Pénitentiaire had written on May 12 to Emmanuel Macron, following the virulent remarks towards justice made by police officers gathered in front of the National Assembly, asking him” to record the opening of the general state of the prison administration under the responsibility of the Keeper of the Seals ”.