• In the midst of the controversy over "police violence", Emmanuel Macron announced on December 8 the launch of a "Beauvau de la sécurité" in order to "improve the conditions of exercise" of the police and "consolidate" their links with the French.

  • A week after a police demonstration in front of the National Assembly, which turned to the lax trial of justice, the consultation focused this Thursday on relations with the judicial authority.

  • Figures in hand, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, defended the record of justice before the unions.

Some predicted that the Keeper of the Seals would have a bad time.

But at the end of the "Beauvau de la sécurité" round table devoted to relations between law enforcement and justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti assures him: he was "delighted to discuss" with the representatives. gendarmes and police gathered this Thursday at the Ministry of the Interior.

A "fascinating work meeting" of nearly 4 hours, organized in a tense context, a week after the demonstration of the police unions who intended to denounce the "leniency of justice".

In the cozy lounges of Place Beauvau, he immediately wants to say what he thinks of this gathering.

“There are behaviors that I did not like,” he says.

“This scene where we see justice sweeping a crime scene, it is unworthy.

The expression which consists in saying that it is a "coup de comm '", it is unworthy.

Things that have been said are unbearable to me.

"

"If we dezinge the institutions, we dezinge the Republic"

This morning, he is ready to discuss all subjects, even those which "annoy".

But the former penalist warns: "If we dezinge the institutions of the Republic, we dezinge the Republic!"

And it is, he says, an "impassable red line".

Unlike his counterpart from the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, Eric Dupont-Moretti does not take tweezers to address the police unions.

“Freedom of association is not total.

It is important, we must take into account the demands, but not to the detriment of the Republic.

"He believes that Gérald Darmanin" did well "to go and support his police officers, but he left at the" right time ".

He also denounces on several occasions the “one-upmanship” of the police unions, which he tried to bring “to a certain form of nuance”.

"Everything cannot be settled by jail"

Faced with the Minister of Justice, the police unions recall their main demands. "The essential subject is the execution of sentences", explains Olivier Varlet, secretary general of the Unsa police, assuring that many delinquents "do not go to prison". Supporting figures, Eric Dupond-Moretti, who wants to "defend the judiciary", recalls that delinquency is not increasing in France, even if it is "more violent".

On the other hand, there is “more repression today than in the past. "" The figures are clear, clear and precise ": 132,000 prison sentences were pronounced in 2019, against 120,000 in 2015. The incarceration rate in France, of 105 per 100,000 inhabitants," is higher than in Italy or in Germany ”. France is also one of the European countries which resort the most to pre-trial detention. "Is this the supposed laxity?" "In terms of the execution of sentences, France is" one of the best performing countries ".

But, he emphasizes, "not everything can be settled by jail." People in prison must “come out less dangerous, less worse, better”. We must therefore "find a balance so that confinement is not criminogenic". Eric Dupond-Moretti recalls the measures already announced by the government and, for some, voted by Parliament: extension to 30 years of the security measure for lifers for a crime on a police officer or a gendarme, limitation of certain reductions in sentence and end of reminders of the law. But the police unions believe that it is necessary to go further and demand the establishment of an "automatic arrest warrant" targeting people convicted of having attacked the police. "Impossible, it's unconstitutional," slices the Keeper of the Seals.“Justice would no longer be independent. "

Simplification of criminal proceedings

Another request from the trade unions: to simplify the criminal procedure which is "a real factory to discourage investigators", says Olivier Boisteaux, secretary general of the Independent Union of Police Commissioners. The unions are notably asking for the withdrawal of a measure, adopted during the first reading of the so-called “confidence in justice” bill, which authorizes the presence of the lawyer during searches. “Another new right for authors,” regrets Grégory Joron, secretary general of SGP police-FO Unit. The Minister of Justice announces his intention to "exclude" this possibility in cases of "organized crime, organized crime, drugs and terrorism", adding that this measure "is not intended to hinder investigation ". "It serves the rights of the defense,it is not against you, it is a complementarity. "

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  • Police

  • security

  • Justice

  • Society

  • Justice Ministry

  • Eric Dupond-Moretti

  • Interior ministry