The Senate took up a sensitive debate on Thursday on the alternating residence of children, adopting a text which strengthens the joint responsibility of separated parents, without however forcing judges to opt as a priority for this custody regime.
“Best interests of the child”, domestic violence, role of the father… The bill from centrist senator Elisabeth Doineau raised many questions in the chamber of the upper house.
The elected official’s text was based on an observation: the very low proportion in France of separation cases where the regime of alternating residence of the child is decided by family affairs judges.
Strengthen the responsibilities of both parents
Faced with what she described as “persistent inequality between the two parents”, the senator from Mayenne wanted to reform the prerogatives of judges to make this mode of custody a “legal presumption”.
The proposal was received with great caution by the Senate, as was a similar text which revealed numerous divisions in the National Assembly in 2017, without ever succeeding.
The senators endeavored to reduce its scope, resulting in a very measured version, ultimately consensual and voted by 279 votes to 35.
The text adopted – and now transmitted to the National Assembly – thus simply reinforces the responsibilities of both parents, thus encouraging them to “regularly maintain” personal relationships with the child and no longer just to “maintain” their relationship. existence.
“Taking into consideration” by the judge
On joint custody, the system only provides for “taking into consideration” by the judge of this reinforced responsibility. “The child’s interests cannot be assumed, they can be observed. It would be contrary to the interests of the child to systematize alternating residence,” said rapporteur Marie Mercier (Les Républicains group).
The Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti went along with the debates, urging the Senate to take “the path of caution”.
“Imposing alternating residence can in certain cases prove counterproductive or even dangerous,” he explained, affirming that the rate of alternating residence was already “sharply increasing”, from 17% in 2012 to 29% today according to him.
The issue of domestic violence worried several speakers, with the communist and environmentalist groups ending up opposing the text.
The former socialist Minister of Families Laurence Rossignol said in particular that she “wishes the text to stop there”. “This is essentially a demand from fathers who believe they have been mistreated by the justice system,” she warned.