Paris (AFP)

He is one of the most famous lawyers in France, known for his outspokenness but also his virulence towards the magistrates: Eric Dupond-Moretti, the tenor of the bar nicknamed "acquittator", was appointed Monday Minister of Justice , the surprise appointment of the new government.

Known for "his big mouth," this 59-year-old political novice became Keeper of the Seals six months after a historic strike by lawyers against pension reform.

This son of a cleaning lady is the source of more than 120 acquittals, which earned him the nickname "acquittator", and his name has appeared in many major trials in recent years.

In 2017, it was his defense of the brother of Mohamed Merah, the author of bloody attacks in the southwest of France in 2012, Abdelkader, who had unleashed passions. "This is the most difficult trial of my career. I took it in the face, I was insulted. It was said that I was the shame of the profession, we threatened my children". But it was "an honor for me" to defend it, he said.

He also explained that he was not there for morals but for the law and affirmed that he could have defended "the Hitler man" if he had asked him to, but "provided that he did not justify the Nazi ideology" .

In the courtroom he strikes back at his opponents. He used his intimidating physical presence to put pressure on certain prosecution witnesses.

This media lawyer, so far still classified on the left and in a relationship with the popular Canadian singer Isabelle Boulay, had launched into the theater in 2019 and was to provide a morning column on Europe 1 radio at the start of the school year.

- Declaration of war -

If the appointment of Eric Dupond-Moretti was well received by lawyers, it did, however, have the effect of a shock among magistrates. "To name a personality so divisive and who despises magistrates to this point is a declaration of war on the judiciary," Céline Parisot, president of the USM, the majority union among magistrates, told AFP.

At the end of June, the lawyer was carried away, with his usual verve against the national financial parquet (PNF), which pared his detailed telephone bills, like those of several other lawyers, in an investigation related to former President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012). "Barbed methods," he thundered.

And if you were Keeper of the Seals, what would you do ?, he was then questioned on the LCI channel. "First we have to separate the seat from the prosecution" - the judges of the prosecutors. "For me, it is imperative. I do the housework in this in a very very very clear way," replied the tenor. And to continue: "I make a system of responsibility of the judges, because the judges are not responsible for what they do today. They are the only ones in our society not to be responsible".

Since Robert Badinter, Minister of Justice from 1981 to 1986, under the chairmanship of the Socialist François Mitterrand, "no judicial lawyer had been appointed Keeper of the Seals," noted Estellia Araez, president of the Syndicat des Avocats de France (SAF , left). "It is a good omen that a colleague who has always defended freedoms (...) and who participated in the fight against pension reform is appointed Keeper of the Seals," she added.

© 2020 AFP