The two main magistrates' unions, invited Thursday to bilateral meetings with the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupond-Moretti following the Estates General of Justice, will not go there, we learned on Tuesday July 19 from these organizations.
Asked by AFP, the Union of Magistrates (USM, majority) and the Syndicate of the Judiciary (SM, ranked on the left) said that they had each declined "
by mail
" the invitations of the Minister of Justice , with whom the dialogue has been broken for two years.
Eric Dupond-Moretti indicted
These bilateral meetings are organized within the framework of consultations launched by Éric Dupond-Moretti with all the actors of the judicial world on the follow-up to be given to the conclusions of the report of the Estates General of Justice, submitted on July 8 to Emmanuel Macron.
The USM and the SM, which between them gather nearly 92% of the votes in professional elections in the judiciary, are at the origin of the complaint against Éric Dupond-Moretti before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for unlawful taking of interest.
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The Minister of Justice, suspected of having taken advantage of his position to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had had trouble when he was a lawyer, has been under investigation since July 2021 and is now under threat from a court case.
The USM and the SM had also ceased all discussions with the cabinet of Éric Dupond-Moretti.
However, in mid-June they met the minister's new chief of staff, Jean-Denis Combrexelle.
Some unions declined the offer
“
We told him that we were not opposed to going back to discuss with the minister, but that we needed gestures of openness on two issues, that of salary negotiations and an announcement on hiring.
We had no answers to these questions
, ”explained Aurélien Martini, from the USM office.
"
With the Keeper of the Seals, discussion is impossible today
," he continued.
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The Syndicate of the Judiciary is "
obviously available to meet the cabinet, to talk about reforms, but with the Keeper of the Seals, at present, with the indictment before the CJR, there is no room for a bilateral meeting,
" said Nils Monsarrat, member of the organisation's board.
"
Some (unions), for their own reasons, did not want to come to the July consultation
", commented the entourage of the Keeper of the Seals.
The latter "
strongly regrets it
", but "
his door will always be open
", adds the same source.