Faced with environmentalists, he had to be held to account. Invited this Saturday to the Summer Days of the EELV party in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis), the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti answered a host of questions - sometimes controversial - asked in a few minutes by Julien Bayou and Sandra Regol, national party secretaries. Without really convincing the audience, the famous lawyer however played the game without losing foot and made commitments.
"I don't like extremists"
First controversy: the one launched a few days ago about a preface signed by the minister before his arrival in government. This, which supported a text by the president of French hunters, Willy Schraen, castigated the "ayatollahs of ecology", ensuring that the vision of hunters was sometimes too extreme in the camp of environmental defenders.
“This word, I know what it means. I was inspired by one of the tutelary figures of ecology, Noël Mamère, who said that he was not a green ayatollah, that he practiced hunting in moderation ”, defended the minister, repeating repeatedly that he did not like extremists of all stripes, and calling for nuance. "The hunter is not just an alcoholic and macho beauf assassin," he further assured.
"I am against the slime hunt"
Before discussing this controversy himself, Éric Dupond-Moretti was initially questioned about glue hunting, the method of which is strongly contested by environmentalists, while it is still current in France - and that it is however illegal, according to European law. Glue hunting, which allows birds to be caught via sticks coated with glue, was the subject of a lively discussion between Julien Bayou, Sandra Regol and the Minister, himself fond of falconry.
Personally, "I am against glue hunting," said Eric Dupond-Moretti, without condemning those who practice it. “We cannot anathematize those who practice it either. They are old people, old people ”, he declared, calling on his interlocutors not to deny the history of the country, even if“ that does not mean that things should not change ”.
And to argue: “I was raised in the countryside, you have to understand that you can have an apprehension of ecology depending on where you grew up. Hunting is also a story and a democratic conquest. "
Commitments for women's rights
Welcomed by a series of placards criticizing his outings deemed anti-feminist (as on the #MeToo movement), Eric Dupond-Moretti also wanted to justify himself on his commitment against violence against women. "I repeat, it seems essential to me, that when it comes to the MeToo movement, it had freed up the voice of women, and that in this, it was something positive", he recalled. His appointment to the government had also been controversial because of his critical comments about the movement born on the Internet.
"I also have that the Web could not be the receptacle of these complaints, and that justice had to intervene", continued the minister. Criticized for the lack of results from the Grenelle on domestic violence, Eric Dupond-Moretti guaranteed the imminent implementation of the anti-rapprochement bracelet ("We are awaiting an opinion from the Council of State in early September. As soon as it happens, I put it on on the way. ”), the great danger telephone, or the extent of monitoring practices for victims and their alleged attackers. “I want to go find whatever hasn't been implemented and do it,” he promised.