The first president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici expressed concern on Monday about “attacks tinged with illiberalism” against independent institutions, pillars of democracy such as his own or the Constitutional Council, which the recent immigration law has exposed to pressure. intense.
“The independent authorities and the Supreme Courts are not burdens or obstacles that should be removed,” he insisted during the solemn hearing of the Court of Auditors, which was attended by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
“They are, on the contrary, guarantors of the rule of law and pillars of our democracy. If we lose this compass, this plumb line of institutions, then we run all the risks,” continued Mr. Moscovici, four days after the Constitutional Council censored large parts of the government’s immigration law. .
The decision of the Sages, already under pressure when deciding on pension reform in spring 2023, has attracted widespread criticism from the right and the far rightthe president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez even seeing it as a “legal coup”.
“A certain confusion among some between law and politics”
A few days before the decision of the Constitutional Council, the right had already attacked another independent institution, by criticizing the Court of Auditors for having delayed the publication of a report on the policy to combat illegal immigration. Initially scheduled for mid-December, during the full examination by Parliament of the draft law on immigration, the publication of the report finally took place on January 4.
Faced with criticism that he considers “totally unfounded”, Pierre Moscovici claimed in mid-January the independence of the Court, particularly in the scheduling of its investigations and their publication. On Monday, he reiterated that “the Court of Auditors stood ready to support the government and Parliament. »
“We will do it without alarmism, that is not our taste; without complacency, this is not our task; and without ever giving in to certain attacks tinged with illiberalism, which thrive on the soil of simplifications, invectives, false news,” he explained. At the beginning of January, the president of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius had already regretted “a certain confusion among some between law and politics”.
“In an advanced democratic regime like ours, we can always modify the state of the law but, to do this, we must always ensure that we respect the rule of law,” he added during the Council’s greetings to President Emmanuel Macron.