He wants to dot the “i”. The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, defended Monday, December 13 the human and budgetary toll of justice under the five-year term of Macron. Almost three weeks after a forum of magistrates and clerks shouting suffering at work and loss of meaning in their missions, the Minister of Justice called a press conference at the Chancellery in order to remit, according to him “some clocks per hour”, in particular on the question of means.
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In what he called“exercise of truth”, relying on graphs and numerous figures, the minister first tackled “the renouncements and abandons of the past decades”, and again touted a budget “historical” for justice since his arrival in the ministry.
In 2022, the budget will be 8.9 billion euros compared to 6.8 billion euros in 2017, i.e. “an increase of more than 30% over this five-year term”, recalled Eric Dupond-Moretti. The budget for judicial services, for the functioning of the courts in particular, has increased by 18% in five years, the ministry said.
In terms of staff, the ministry is advancing an increase in the number of magistrates of 8.85% between September 2017 and September 2021. Some 870 clerks have also been recruited in five years. The vacancy rate among registry officials is currently nearly 6%, against 1.39% in the judiciary.
Presidents of courts of appeal and public prosecutors will be questioned “from this week“to ascertain their needs for magistrates, said the Minister of Justice. He also announced the sustainability of “1,414 three-year contracts”, recruitments carried out within the framework of local justice.
“Much has been done” in terms of IT and office automation, to provide the courts with optical fiber in particular, added Eric Dupond-Moretti, boasting of having “repaired a number of things urgently (…) because there was an absolute urgency”. Corn “the evils of justice cannot be reduced to the sole question of the means”, rebuked the minister.
According to a diagnosis carried out by the General Inspectorate of Justice, which calculated the impact of the staffing problem on the status of cases not yet tried in the courts, “insufficient means” is responsible for 31.8% of “stocks” in first instance and 10% of “stocks” on appeal.