The deputies examine a bill from the macronist group aimed at tightening the justice of minors from this Wednesday, February 12. Gabriel Attal intends to defend measures already unraveled and which divide into his camp.
The presidential camp has decided to bring the subject of the justice of minors, and especially its hardening, before the National Assembly. This Wednesday, February 12, a bill brought by the group together for the Republic (EPR), chaired by Gabriel Attal, must be examined by the deputies. The objective of the macronist group is clear: “restoring the authority of justice towards delinquent minors and their parents”. If the text arrives in the hemicycle today, the ideas he defends are not new. Gabriel Attal had already defended them when he was Prime Minister: they then had to be an answer to what some in the presidential camp, but especially on the right, called “enteauvage” of youth, especially after the riots at the start From the summer of 2023 after the death of Nahel in Nanterre.
Several measures having to empower delinquent children, but also their parents, according to Gabriel Attal defended at the time were included in the bill to make justice more restrictive with regard to minors. There are above all three proposals that matter to the presidential camp:
- The creation of an immediate appearance procedure for minors over the age of 16: the measure is supposed to accelerate legal proceedings by allowing the judgment of a delinquent minor at the end of his police custody. It would put an end to the period of 10 days to 3 three provided between decision -making concerning the prosecution against a delinquent minor and his bare before the judge.
- Derogations from the rules of attenuation of sentences for minors of more than sixteen, or the end of “the excuse of minority”: the measure aims to make this rule an exception. While today a minor over 13 years old has an attenuation of sentence when condemned, with the bill this measure would remain valid only for minors under the age of 16. For the others, in particular those perpetrators of serious or recurrent facts, the attenuations of sentence would be granted exceptionally and by reasoned decision of the judge.
- The establishment of a single -law civil liability of parents for the damage caused by their minor children: the measure would allow parents to be condemned in addition to delinquent minors by associating them with the penalty by the payment of a fine or a prison sentence.
Problem: these three flagship measures were deleted by the left elected officials during the examination of the text in law committee in November 2024. The deputy EPR and rapporteur of the text, Jean Terlier, however filed amendments to restore these measures with a view to examining the bill to the National Assembly. All the stake of the deputies of Gabriel Attal will be to restore its essence to the bill and reintroducing these measures which divide the hemicycle, but also the presidential camp.
Measures too hard for the left, not enough for the right
The bill for EPR deputies has received the support of François Bayrou’s government in recent weeks, especially after various facts involving delinquent minors such as the death of Elias, a teenager killed in Paris by individuals aged 16 and 17. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, even believes that the text “goes in the right direction”, but that he could go further. He notably indicated that he wanted to return to the period between the guilt examination hearing and the pronouncement hearing of the sanction provided for minor offenders on February 12 on France Inter : “Nothing in our fundamental rights says that we have to make a caesura between the moment you say ‘you are guilty’ and the moment of the sanction”. He also supports the pronunciation of heavier penalties and the end of “the minority excuse” rather than educational measures: “We must assume short prison sentences, one or two weeks, from the first serious crime. ‘Is it that is educational “. The right and the extreme right are modeled on this position judging the text necessary, but still insufficient.
Opposite, all left -wing forces rise against the bill, as they did in the law committee. Mathematically the text can be adopted, but only with the support of the extreme right and if the majority of the elected macronists are blocking behind it. However, the bill on justice of minors divides the presidential camp: “In the majority, there is not an overflowing enthusiasm,” said an LR deputy to AFP. Some denounce an incomplete text like the elected Ludovic Mendes for whom measures are missing to “protect” minors: “It is not complete […] and only treats part of the problem. I told the president that potentially he would not count on me. “Others regret a text” badly put together “and still others the judge too right -handed.