A month after the conclusions of the Beauvau of security, presented from the police academy of Roubaix (North), Emmanuel Macron attacks the other sovereign side, that of justice.
On Monday, the Head of State will travel to Poitiers (Vienne) to launch the highly anticipated - and delicate - Estates General of Justice.
Five months of consultations to come with all the actors concerned in the institution, but also prison staff, internal security forces and of course… citizens.
With one objective: to come up with very concrete proposals before the end of the five-year term to restore the bond of trust that has been severely damaged in recent years between the French and the judicial authorities.
A challenge, while a recent CSA survey still revealed that 68% of them consider justice "too lax".
And a highly flammable subject, especially six months before the presidential election.
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It's urgent. On June 4, while they were received in the golden salon of the Élysée, François Molins, attorney general of the Court of Cassation, and Chantal Arens, first president of this same Court, the two highest magistrates of France, fired the alarm signal to the President of the Republic "in the face of systematic challenges to justice" and called for the establishment of States General to restore this confidence. In the background at the time, the cassation judgment of the Sarah Halimi case which had confirmed the criminal irresponsibility of the murderer of this woman of Jewish faith killed four years earlier in Paris. A decision that led to a wave of indignation and demonstrations by several thousand people. At the same time,a more lenient decision also fell in the case of the police officers burned in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), with eight defendants in particular acquitted on appeal, which had provoked a historic demonstration of the police before the National Assembly.
Consultation until the end of November
“We need a peaceful debate, and without the slightest censorship, to bring out very concrete proposals.
Everyone will be able to give their opinion ", argues the entourage of Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice, who hopes" to get out of the vision by the news item of justice ".
“Everything will be put on the table,” promises the Elysee.
"A powerful and dangerous engine for extremes", will begin this Monday via a digital platform. Round tables will also be organized throughout the territory and open to all. Then comes the work of analysis of the proposals, then of synthesis. It was the senior official Jean-Marc Sauvé, former vice-president of the Council of State, who recently distinguished himself for having led the commission of inquiry into sexual abuse in the Church, who was appointed to lead operations and present the conclusions at the end of February. "An independent personality, a servant of the State, whose quality of work is recognized by all", insists the Elysee, while not ignoring that the political context is also likely to fuel the debates. Especially on the right and on the far right,where the subject is often a pretext to accuse the president of not being up to the task on security and justice issues.
"A powerful and dangerous engine for extremes"
“He doesn't need to show he's safe.
It has the strength of its record, "replied a ministerial adviser, highlighting a few figures: an increase in the justice budget of 33% since 2017, another 8% for fiscal year 2022, and above all 650 magistrate positions created," then that, under Nicolas Sarkozy, 120 positions were abolished and, under François Hollande, only 27 created ”, we recall, echoing the famous sentence of Jean-Jacques Urvoas, the former Minister of Justice, when he had spoke in 2016 of a justice "in a state of homelessness".
“The first phase was a phase of redress for justice.
With the Estates General, we are attacking that of modernization, ”trumpets a colleague.
Emmanuel Macron knows that the stakes are high, convinced that the weakened link between the French and the judicial institution is "also a powerful and dangerous engine for the extremes", supports one of his relatives.
It remains to be seen whether the proposals formulated will serve as a basis for his future presidential program?
“We are in a transpartisan work, we swear.
He will perhaps dig into it, as will be able to draw all the candidates for the election.
"