Like all Ministers of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti has the title, with medieval overtones, of Keeper of the Seals.
In his office on Place Vendôme sits an imposing sealing press.
It's been over fifteen years since anyone touched it.
Its function is to authenticate major texts, such as the Constitution and its modifications.
An ancestral tradition.
The machine looks like a monumental screw.
It is used to affix the yellow wax seal of the French Republic – the one in force dates from 1848 – at the bottom of the document to be marked, and to attach a tricolor silk ribbon to it.
After the historic vote in the Senate on the guaranteed freedom of women to be able to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy, Éric Dupond-Moretti approached the press to seal.
He checked to see if it was running well, if the mechanisms weren't seized up over time.
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