We saw him in a black dress storming in the courtrooms, chronicling the politico-judicial world on the radios, treading the boards of the Madeleine theater… But if there is indeed a role that no one imagined seeing him take on, it is that of Minister of Justice. "Pfffff", Eric Dupond-Moretti wrote to us by SMS about rumors of his entry into government on Monday afternoon.
At 59, the brilliant and dreaded lawyer will therefore have the delicate task of conducting the government's criminal policy. But also to represent the actors of the legal world, including these magistrates whom he often conspired in the courts of assizes as on television, reproaching them for their supposed uniformity and all power. "It is necessary to set up a system of responsibility of the judges, who pass through the cracks, whatever happens", he demanded again on June 26 in an interview with the Parisian.
Big mouth, provocative, the penalist went so far as to demand the outright suppression of the National School of Magistrates (ENM)! Before backtracking by going to an invitation to debate within the Bordeaux establishment. The sign that "Acquittator" - he obtained 145 acquittals - also knows how to show roundness?
PODCAST. Eric Dupond-Moretti, number one lawyer
Eric Dupond-Moretti will in any case have to demonstrate dialogue with this body of 8000 civil servants as the announcement of his appointment caused a blast. "We are in shock. I can't react right away, ”laments a magistrate. Some would even have wept when they heard the news ... "We are devastated. He took the person who hates us the most. It's mind-blowing, ”laments a parquet floorer. "A declaration of war", also denounced the Union Syndicale des magistrats (USM), majority.
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As for the magistrates' union (SM), however classified on the left, we prefer to put things in perspective. “We are certainly surprised by this choice given the words he may have had on the judiciary. We heard the term barbouzard recently, says Lucille Rouet, national secretary of the SM. But at the same time, it is a legal professional who knows the judiciary, not a politician. We expect him to advance freedoms and show courage. "
The mandate of the new Keeper of the Seals, who therefore follows in the footsteps of Robert Badinter, a former lawyer who became Keeper of the Seals, will be short: 18 months. But there is no shortage of files: reform of the 1945 criminal order relating to juvenile delinquents, prison overcrowding, monitoring of outgoing terrorist prisoners, etc.
But also that, oh so burning, methods of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF). "We switched to the Republic of judges", denounced Eric Dupond-Moretti about the controversial surveillance carried out by these specialized magistrates on lawyers, including himself, in the Bismuth-Sarkozy case. Funny situation: the penalist filed a complaint as a victim ... and will receive in September the report of the General Inspectorate of Justice on the PNF investigations on his office of Keeper of the Seals.
"Eric will ask to be removed from the bar"
“We wonder about possible conflicts of interest. As Keeper of the Seals, he will be the head of the General Inspectorate of Justice, that's not nothing, ”observes Lucille Rouet from SM. Especially since Eric Dupond-Moretti defended many suspects and victims in very sensitive court cases, some of which touch the political world. He notably represented police officers who filed a complaint against Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the stormy search case, or Georges Tron, former Secretary of State, or Jérôme Cahuzac, former Minister of Budget. Place Vendôme, the lawyer must be responsible for the independence of the judiciary and be careful not to intervene in individual cases.
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“Eric will ask to be removed from the bar, given the incompatibility of exercise with these new functions. The omission is not a resignation, ”explains his partner, Me Antoine Vey. This administrative decision will prohibit him from pleading or stating his title of lawyer. His powerful cabinet, with 10 employees, will continue to operate without him.
The lawyers unanimously welcome the entry of one of their lawyers to Justice. "For thirty years, he has been fighting for justice through individual cases, now he will do them collectively", supports Me Vey. "For me it is the sign of a new era concerning the approach to justice", also welcomes Me Frank Berton, Lille criminal lawyer and friend of 30 years of EDM. “A man who knows perfectly well the functioning of justice arrives at the Chancellery to practice it every day. I am sure that it will quickly add fuel to the wheels, ”rejoices the penalist and former president of the bar, Gilles-Jean Portejoie, welcoming“ excellent news ”for the lawyers.
Merah, Kerviel, Benzema, Karabatic…
The appointment of this accomplished criminal lawyer should pacify relations between magistrates and lawyers, whose deterioration was noticeable during the challenge to the pension reform. The new Minister of Justice pleads for a new school which would train both lawyers and magistrates, an Anglo-Saxon system. He also called for a separation between independent prosecutors, prosecution representatives and judges from the bench.
On the other hand, Eric Dupond-Moretti should not reform the statute of the parquet floorers, claimed for long years in the magistrature. "The prosecutor must remain under the control of the political power, because it is the government which fixes the penal policy", confided to us the penalist at the end of June. It is however this link of subordination which is at the heart of the critics in the affair of the financial parquet, its chief having denounced the requests for feedback in sensitive cases. Information that can go back to the government…
Having taken the oath in 1984, Eric Dupond-Moretti, from a modest background and companion in the city of the Canadian singer Elisabelle Boulay, acquired his reputation as an Acquittator. For twenty years, he almost lived in his car, running from hotel to hotel, defending the "people of few", the gypsies, the miserable, the "poor guys" who had slipped. In 2020, he can count in his list of clients: the baker of Outreau, Abdelkader Merah, the brother of the terrorist Mohamed Merah, the footballer Karim Benzema or the handballer Nikolas Karabatic, the trader Jérôme Kerviel…
"It's nice to see a lawyer of modest origins become Keeper of the Seals," says a former faculty member in Lille. He had his outspokenness in his first year of law, he has a high idea of justice. Hopefully he will be convincing when it comes to negotiating the budget that justice has needed for 20 years. "
Bio express
April 24, 1961: birth in Maubeuge (North).
1976: execution of Christian Ranucci, who will arouse his vocation.
1984: sworn in and registered with the Lille bar (Nord).
2004: acquires Roselyne Godard in the first Outreau trial.
2012: celebrates its 100th acquittal, after obtaining the first in 1987.
2013: refuses the Legion of Honor.
2020: joins the defense team of Julian Assange.
