" I do not have a technocratic knowledge of justice, I know it humanly, intimately, carnally ." This strong phrase from the new Keeper of the Seals, Éric Dupond-Moretti, late Tuesday morning alone gives the color of the transfer of power, undoubtedly the most striking emotional sequence of this reshuffle.
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On the one hand, Nicole Belloubet, fragile as a whole lavender, surprised by her own tears, who modestly turns around to hide them during the symbolic presentation of the seals. On the other, a man who seems all the same impressed by the places and the task that awaits him, his body slightly tilted like an unconscious deference. Immediately, the former lawyer, reputed ogre of the courts and slayer of magistrates, answers without detour to Céline Parisot, the president of the Union trade union of magistrates (USM), for whom the appointment of this new Minister of Justice n is no less than " a declaration of war ". "It is not the ministry of war but that of liberties" , answered Éric Dupond-Moretti. And to add:"I met great magistrates before whom I had the honor to plead, human, independent, greedy of adversarial." An introductory sentence like a hand extended to this profession, still dumbfounded by his appointment and marked by some of his verbal outrages.
"Keep the best"
For the next fifteen months, the new tenant in Place Vendôme, who says "wanting to keep the best and change the worst" of the justice system, has set an ambitious roadmap. Not quite the one, moreover, that he proposed to continue, in his farewell speech, his predecessor, Nicole Belloubet. Because, at the center of the concerns of those who claim to come from "criminal society rather than civil society" , there is the will to reform the procedure. Rediscovering his style and his oratorical art, the new Keeper of the Seals intends "to restore the presumption of innocence and the secrecy of the investigation because justice does not go to the street, on social networks or in the media" .
He also claims to want to reform "the preliminary investigations so that they remain so and are not eternal" . To this end, directly from the steps of his ministry, he calls the Directorate of Criminal Affairs and Pardons (DACG), urging him to "make proposals" to him . Also at the heart of his project: the overhaul of the 1958 ordinance which governs the profession of magistrates. On this subject, he says little. If not, of course, he intends to assert the independence of the judiciary and finally complete this reform of the prosecution, which failed at least three Keepers of the Seals and two Presidents of the Republic.
The new Keeper of the Seals also mentioned the penitentiary condition, that of the "prisoners", as he says, but also "the staff" which he assured of his "unwavering support"No one knows how big this overhaul will be. And if it will also lead to an overhaul of the powers of the Superior Council of the Magistrature, the appointment of magistrates and the concept of responsibility to which Éric Dupond-Moretti has shown himself so often attached in his former life. Recalling that, in the ranking of bad students of justice sentenced for their unfair trials, France is in twelfth place out of 47, the new Keeper of the Seals also mentioned the penitentiary condition, that of "prisoners" , as he says, but also "personal" that he assures of his " unwavering support ". Unlike the magistrates, part of the penitentiary, starting with the UFAP-Unsa-penitentiaire, sees in his “breathtaking” appointment “a hope of modernizing the penitentiary, of having a substantive debate on the meaning of the sentence and of prison, says Wilfried Fonck. Like us, he is a man of the field and of orality, so we will be able to speak concretely ”.
But the minister also wanted to give pledges to the victims, announcing that he wanted "to bring together, from next week, all of the attorneys general so that, from now on, each can be heard," he insisted, saying that Place Vendôme would be above all the ministry of anti-racism and human rights.