Alexandre Chauveau / Photo credits: Ludovic MARIN / AFP
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11:43 a.m., March 21, 2024
On the sidelines of the President of the Republic’s visit to Marseille on Tuesday, Éric Dupond-Moretti spoke with the city’s magistrates. The Minister of Justice had, in his own words, “an explanation of the text” with those interviewed at the beginning of the month in the Senate by a commission of inquiry into drug trafficking.
Is the war against drug traffickers lost? In Marseille, the magistrates of the Marseille city are convinced of this and told the Senate at the beginning of the month. A point of view that does not go down at all with the government which has just launched the “XXL clean space” operation. During his visit to the field at the start of the week, the Minister of Justice engaged in a short, tense explanation of the text with the magistrates.
“I don’t like defeatist speeches”
This intervention questions the magistrates on the principle of the separation of powers. Tuesday in Marseille, Éric Dupond-Moretti rants in front of the magistrates: “I don’t like speeches of defeatism”, annoys the Minister of Justice, who criticizes them for having presented too gloomy a picture of the fight against trafficking drug.
The finding drawn up before the Senate commission of inquiry on March 6 was, it is true, final, but the remarks were made under oath. “To use a somewhat trivial term, it was a step up. On the part of the executive, it is obviously contrary to the principle of the separation of powers. I find that the magistrates were courageous, they said the truth, and since then, I can tell you, that we have a crowd of magistrates who tell us ‘what was said in this commission of inquiry is the truth, and take it as such'”, affirms Etienne Blanc, president of the commission of inquiry.
The increase in the budget of the Ministry of Justice is not convincing
Faced with accusations of lack of resources, Éric Dupond-Moretti recalls the record increase of 60% in the ministry’s budget since 2017. An increase which goes in the right direction according to several magistrates, but which according to them is not enough to make up the deficit strategy in the fight against drug trafficking.