The National Assembly gave this Friday, November 23, the green light to the government to reform by order the founding text of juvenile justice.

This Friday, the National Assembly voted to authorize the government to reform by order the founding text of juvenile justice, despite protests oppositions denouncing a divestiture of Parliament.

The last minute amendment authorizing the government to make an order was adopted by 33 votes to 18 and 1 abstention, after three and a half hours of debate.

"I heard the worries"

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet surprised the Assembly on Wednesday by announcing her willingness to ask Parliament for an authorization to reform the 1945 ordinance, including the judicial reform project under consideration. Opposition deputies immediately denounced a "divestment" of national representation and professionals a "coup" .

On Friday, in a stormy climate, the minister tried to defuse the criticism by proposing to parliamentarians a form of co-production of the ordinance and explaining that she wanted to maintain the fundamentals of the 1945 text. "I heard the concerns and misunderstandings of opposition on the choice of the method " , assured the custody of the Seals.

Minister proposes "co-production" with parliamentarians

"I do not want to change the age of the penal majority" (reduction of criminal responsibility between 16 and 18 years), "I do not want to go back on the double vocation of the juvenile judge " (juvenile judge in danger and judge of the juvenile delinquents), nor on "the pre-eminence of educational measures" , she said, as a message to reassure professionals.

And "I propose an original method that will allow us to move forward by working with the elected representatives of the national representation , " added the minister suggesting "the creation of a contact group or a delegation" , composed of deputies and of Senators, "during the preparation phase of the order" .

The minister, calling for "cooperation work" , finally proposed "to allow Parliament enough time to amend the order once it has been filed" .

"A text out of step"

The minister justified the use of the order by the need not to "postpone once more" the reform of a text "become difficult to use for legal professionals" and "out of step with the evolution of crime minors " .

But the oppositions marked their hostility to the method - with the exception of the UDI-Agir favorable to the work of cooperation - and condemned the reform in the urgency of such an important text.

"Is the schedule so charged that the boat has to be loaded to the point where it sinks and that it embarks with it the rights of the opposition? " , Launched Philippe Gosselin (LR).

"I want there to be a debate but there will not be one, it will be confined. It is already confined, " regretted the Umbilitus Ugo Bernalicis while the socialist Cécile Untermaier refused to " register in a speech where it is absolutely necessary to legislate " on this text.

"Move the mountain"

"These are the foundations of the order of 1945 that you attack, and if the method is new, I prefer the separation of powers and adversarial debate , " said Elsa Faucillon (PCF).

"You are too fine a lawyer not to understand what it means to be a " force passer , " said Gilbert Collard (RN), for whom " if people take to the streets, it is because the Assembly no longer plays its role " of democratic forum " .

"If this innovative method makes it possible to move this mountain, why not" , however, approved the president of the group UDI-Agir Jean-Christophe Lagarde.

195,450 acts committed by minors in 2017

Modified forty times, the ordinance of February 2, 1945 on "juvenile delinquency" has become over time a yarn difficult to read, no government has managed to reform deeply. The overall number of offenses committed by minors (195,450 in 2017) has fallen by 9.6% since 2010, but crimes and misdemeanors have increased by 9.7% over the same period. The number of juveniles incarcerated reached in 2018 its highest figure since 2003, with 811 prisoners.