After shouting their suffering in a tribune at the World which had the effect of an explosion, magistrates and clerks called for a strike, Wednesday, December 15, and to gather everywhere in France alongside lawyers, in order to demand means “Worthy” for justice.
This “General mobilization for justice”, at the call of seventeen organizations, was massively followed, the malaise seeming to have won over all the actors of the judicial institution. Several hundred people in robes, magistrates, clerks and lawyers – 650 according to the police headquarters – gathered from noon in front of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. “Sick justice”, “Justice at the end of its rope”, “Judicial misery, lies of the ministry”, “ And where are they, and where are the recruitments? “, could we read on some signs.
Meetings before courts of appeal and tribunals
Rallies were held at midday in front of most courts of appeal and some courts. The two main magistrates’ unions had filed strike notices – ” a first “ for the Union Syndicale des Magistrates (USM), the majority – and called with the representatives of the clerks and lawyers to “Massive referrals” hearings. Céline Parisot, president of the USM, announced that a delegation of the intersyndicale would be received at 7 p.m. by the minister responsible for public accounts, Olivier Dussopt.
In Nantes, the deputy public prosecutor Yvon Ollivier, denounced a policy of“Slaughter”. “We are working faster and faster, but behind the files there are people who need to be judged correctly. “
This rare movement of anger brought together several hundred professionals in Bordeaux, around 400 in Marseille, 300 in Lyon, between 230 and 400 in Strasbourg, 200 in Rennes, a hundred in Nice, Besançon, Grenoble and Chambéry, a few dozen also in Orléans. , Dijon or Bastia. “For years, we have been in pain. We’re working exponential hours, we can’t take it anymore. Yesterday evening, a colleague stayed at the palace until 2:30 am and this morning he was at his post at 8:30 am ”, said Céline, clerk at the Nice children’s court.
In Strasbourg, “There are 74 vacant registry staff positions, out of 270, it is more than a quarter”, assured another clerk, Caroline Barthel. In Lille, a minute of silence was observed in tribute to Charlotte, a magistrate who had put an end to these days at the end of August, a drama at the origin of the column published in The world. This mobilization thus occurs three weeks after its publication. She proclaimed: “We no longer want a justice which does not listen, which reasons only in figures, which times and records everything. “
Written by nine young magistrates, this cry of alarm denounces the suffering at work and the loss of meaning. The text was as dazzling as it was unprecedented: in three weeks, the platform had been signed by 7,550 professionals, including 5,476 magistrates (out of 9,000) and 1,583 civil servants.
A large number of jurisdictions joined in, voting at the end of their compulsory general meetings in December on motions calling for additional resources, some announcing, moreover, the end of hearings after 9 p.m.
“A bloodless justice”
The challenge even won the Court of Cassation: the magistrates of the highest jurisdiction of the judicial order have, in a rare position, denounced Monday “A bloodless justice, which is no longer able to fully exercise its mission in the interest of litigants”.
The observation made in the gallery is also shared by the judicial hierarchy: in a joint statement, the presidents of the four conferences which represent the heads of the courts of appeal (first presidents and attorneys general) and of the courts (presidents and prosecutors), alert on a “Situation become untenable”.
Natacha Aubeneau, national secretary of USM, argues:
“For years we have been denouncing suffering at work, justice rendered in degraded mode. We have come to a breaking point. “
“We feel a fairly unprecedented unanimity. A whole body that shares the same observation, it’s been a very long time since we’ve seen this ”, adds Katia Dubreuil, president of the Syndicat de la magistrature, classified on the left.
The Minister of Justice promises to maintain “the efforts”
The Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, who had struck many magistrates and clerks by asserting that justice had been ” fixed “ thanks to a budget “Historical”, tried Monday to calm the slingshot, came crashing into the States General of Justice launched in mid-October by the government.
During a press conference, given at the Chancellery, the minister defended his record, putting it into perspective, with supporting figures, with the “Abandonment of past decades”, and promised to maintain ” the efforts “. He announced in particular the increase in the number of places in the competitive examination of the National School of Magistrates, to allow the arrival of 380 judicial auditors in the courts from 2023, as well as the perpetuation of some 1,400 positions created in the local justice framework.
In 2017, justice was in a “State of destitution”, of “Homelessness”, added Eric Dupond-Moretti on Wednesday morning on France Inter. Regarding the work overload of justice personnel, the Keeper of the Seals added that“A third of stocks is due to lack of resources”, the rest has problems “Division of labor”, “Management”.
In a message sent Tuesday to all magistrates and judicial officials, the minister said he had “Heard the discomfort” and the “Legitimate expectations” expressed, assuring that it was “Determined to sustainably improve [les] working conditions and the functioning of justice ”.