Move along, nothing to see.
And especially not a resignation.
Emmanuel Macron had come to talk about Ukraine and energy after his EU meeting in Prague on Friday, but national news quickly took the place.
The head of state considered "completely legitimate" the maintenance of his right-hand man Alexis Kohler as secretary general of the Elysée despite his indictment for illegal taking of interest, which he described as a simple "decision of procedure”.
"He therefore has my full confidence," said the head of state to the press in Prague after a European summit.
Before doing the same for his Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti.
When he was a candidate for a first five-year term in 2017, Emmanuel Macron had clearly stated that, "in principle", a minister should "leave the government" in the event of an indictment.
But this "principle" has not always been applied strictly, and it is today strongly criticized by the oppositions for the maintenance of Alexis Kohler and Éric Dupond-Moretti.
Asked about a reversal of doctrine, President Macron seemed to explain that these were exceptions to the rule.
"As for my secretary general, it will not have escaped you that he is not a minister", he replied not without a touch of irony, considering that this doctrine therefore did not apply. in his file.
A "completely legitimate" decision judges Macron
"As for a man who, for several years, has spent his nights and his days serving the State with a devotion and integrity to which I can testify", "I consider that the decision I am making" to to keep in his post "is completely legitimate", he further commented.
He argued that justice was taking its course "in complete independence".
“It is not procedural decisions” that should influence the choice of “my collaborators”, he insisted.
As for the Keeper of the Seals, his future trial results from a “referral from the judicial unions on a case which involved magistrates in a procedure where he had left when he was a lawyer”.
“And so it does not affect anything, obviously, what he did as a minister in his activity or subjects which, if I may say, are moral”, pleaded the President of the Republic.
Read alsoEric Dupond-Moretti will he really appoint his possible accuser to the Court of Justice of the Republic?
Let us remember all the same on this point that if the Minister of Justice is referred to the CJR, it is precisely because he must respond to serious and concordant indications on a possible illegal taking of interest related to his ministerial functions.
To sum up, justice seeks to know in particular if Éric Dupond-Moretti would not have taken advantage of his position to order an administrative investigation against three magistrates of the PNF who had had his fadettes peeled while he was still a lawyer.
"I consider that it has nothing to do with existing case law or the commitments that I was able to make given the very nature of the case", insisted Emmanuel Macron.
