The reframing of magistrates by the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti is “likely to undermine” the separation of powers, deplored this Wednesday April 10 in a press release the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM).
The CSM, a body constitutionally responsible for protecting the independence of justice, received on Tuesday the heads of the Marseille court, who had been reprimanded in mid-March by the minister after their remarks before the senatorial commission of inquiry on the fight against drug trafficking.
On the sidelines of the trip to Marseille with the Head of State Emmanuel Macron on March 19 to launch the “place net XXL” anti-drug operations, Marseille magistrates told the Figaro having taken private “a blow” from the minister, furious at comments made during their hearings before the senatorial committee. According to the minister, the magistrates there made remarks borrowed from “defeatism” and playing “into the hands of the RN”, saying in particular before the commission that they feared being “losing the war against the traffickers in Marseille”.
An “attack on freedom of expression” and “the separation of powers”
“Following criticisms expressed”, it is written in the CSM press release in which Eric Dupond-Moretti is not named, “the Superior Council of the Judiciary recalls that the magistrates, like all the people heard under oath by a parliamentary commission of inquiry, are required to ‘tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ and consequently have an obligation of sincerity”. “Reproaching them for comments made in this context is likely to undermine both their freedom of expression and the separation of powers,” continues the CSM in this rare call to order.
“The CSM intends to demonstrate its full support to all judicial actors engaged in the fight against drug trafficking, whose effectiveness requires that magistrates carry out their activity with complete serenity, without their authority and credibility being affected,” also affirms the press release.
Eric Dupond-Moretti’s reframing had moved the judiciary, and even the rapporteur of the parliamentary commission of inquiry, senator LR Etienne Blanc, who questioned the minister on the subject during questions to the government at the end of March. “I fully accept it,” retorted the Minister of Justice during this heated exchange in the Senate. The magistrates “are free in their speech”, “but the minister is also free in his expression […] I take nothing back from the comments I made,” he declared.