the “square net XXL” operation in Marseille rekindles tensions between the Minister of Justice and the magistrates

From Marseille where the government announced on Tuesday the “XXL net square” operation to fight against drug trafficking, Éric Dupond-Moretti refocused the Marseille magistrates who had denounced the drug trafficking which is plaguing the Marseille city.

While relations between the magistrates and their supervisory minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, seemed to be warming up, the anti-drug operation in Marseille, named by the authorities “XXL net square”, seems to cause renewed tensions. The main magistrates’ union, the USM, is stepping up to the plate, regretting and even denouncing what some call, at best, “development”and others “blower” of the Minister of Justice, this week, facing the Marseille magistrates.

The Minister of Justice had little taste for the comments of various magistrates, including those from Marseillais, before the Senate commission of inquiry into drug trafficking on March 5. “It is the State which finds itself in a vulnerable situation in the face of traffickers who have considerable strike force. […] It is essential to implement a Marshall plan“, for example confided Olivier Leurent, president of the Marseille judicial court. . “I fear we are losing the war against traffickers.”added its vice-president Isabelle Couderc, while Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone described a “Mexicanization of the situation with assassinations or assassination attempts at Baumettes prison in recent days”. He added: “We would need very high security prisons as exist in certain countries, otherwise as it stands, we are a little outdated.”

The minister’s speech was poorly received by the magistrates

Present in Marseille on Tuesday alongside the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, as part of the operation called “Place net XXL”, the Minister of Justice carried out a reframing as a preamble to his 1h20 exchange with Marseille magistrates. His anger was “visible” according to some witnesses. “Through your comments you played into the hands of the extreme right”Eric Dupond-Moretti told them, or even “What am I going to say to the French? That we increased your resources by 60%, for nothing?”

The Minister of Justice is entitled to address this to the prosecutors under his authority. But it is not the same with a president of the court who is independent and of whom he is not superior. The moment was therefore not well received by some of the magistrates in the room and, beyond, by part of the profession. The Union of Magistrates reacted by publishing a press release entitled “Statement of a judicial reality is neither a prohibition nor an earthquake”. It is recalled that the Marseille magistrates before the senators of the commission of inquiry into drug trafficking “were under oath and therefore could not alter or diminish the reality of their findings as practitioners”.

Magistrates defend their freedom of speech

Contacted by franceinfo, the vice-president of the USM, the main union of magistrates, Cécile Mamelin described the astonishment that this speech by Éric Dupond-Moretti created. “The message delivered in short was ‘your speech is not free’ and one may wonder what right a minister has to muzzle the speech of magistrates who, if they are subject to a duty of confidentiality, are not. less free in their comments in public debate”. She adds : “We are communicating a concrete reality experienced by colleagues with difficulty on the ground. Under no circumstances should we align ourselves with the political communication of one Minister of Justice or another”.

“Even if we can welcome an increase in the overall resources of Justice, we are in France, and we still have the right to say that efforts remain to be made in the fight against drug trafficking.”

Cécile Mamelin, vice-president of the USM

at franceinfo

On the side of the chancellery, it is explained that the Minister of Justice was in his role as guarantor of the proper functioning of justice and that he just wanted to warn against the dangers of a certain defeatism. His speech was unifying, according to those around him, and was also intended to remind us that never before have so many budgetary efforts been made for justice, particularly in Marseille, one of the best-resourced jurisdictions in France. The ministry recalls that between 2017 and 2024, the Marseille court welcomed 54 magistrates and 84 additional clerks.