three sequences to remember from a documentary dedicated to Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti

The documentary directed by Alexandre Darmon and Matthieu Mares-Savelli is broadcast on France 5 on Sunday at 9:05 p.m.

On July 6, 2020, Eric Dupond-Moretti was appointed head of the Ministry of Justice by Emmanuel Macron. The most media lawyer in France had previously declared that he “would never accept something like that”. Reappointed to his post, Thursday January 11, by Gabriel Attal, the new Prime Minister, the criminal lawyer is the central subject of the documentary The Minister who should not have been, broadcast Sunday evening on France 5. The two directors, Alexandre Darmon and Matthieu Mares-Savelli, followed Eric Dupond-Moretti closely for three years, from his first steps within the government until his trial in 2023.

The former tenor of the bar is the first minister of the Fifth Republic in office to have been tried by the Court of Justice of the Republic. Known for his brilliant coups, his sanguine temperament and his spectacular acquittals, the king of the courtrooms is also a beginner in politics, determined to fundamentally reform the institution and put a new mark on the chancellery. Here are three extracts from the intimate documentary dedicated to him.

In search of electoral legitimacy during the 2021 regional elections: “It’s not bad to rub shoulders with a campaign”

Opponent of the National Rally (RN), Eric Dupond-Moretti decides to campaign for the regional elections in Hauts-de-France, in June 2021. A delicate exercise for this native of the North, while the presidential majority is not credited only 10% in this region, which Marine Le Pen has made her chosen territory for fifteen years. At the time, the president of the RN refused the proposal for a debate put forward by the Minister of Justice.

“I think it’s not bad, all the same, when you come from civil society, to go and rub shoulders with an electoral campaign, confesses Eric Dupond-Moretti. There is a form of search for legitimacy.” As he walks the streets of the town of Péronne (Somme), the minister is questioned by Damien Rieu, the National Rally candidate for the regional elections. A heated exchange then breaks out between the two men on the terrace of a café.

While the director shows these images to the Minister of Justice and asks him if they are painful to him, the minister admits: “Yes, because I should have moved on. It’s not because you’re in politics and you’re involved that you’re dehumanized. In humanity, there are pretty things and things a little less pretty. I shouldn’t have gotten upset.”

Falsely relaxed before his indictment for illegal taking of interests in 2023: “Me, I have a swimming pool”

Eric Dupond-Moretti is suspected, in 2021, of having taken advantage of his position as Keeper of the Seals to settle scores in cases in which he had been involved as a lawyer. The minister had ordered administrative investigations into several magistrates, with whom iHe had had trouble in his previous professional life. Followed by the cameras of the two directors on July 16, 2021, a few hours before knowing whether or not he will be indicted, he jokes with his chief of staff, Véronique Malbec, in his office at the chancellery. “I have a swimming pool (…) To make you laugh, before I leave, I’m going to adopt an old habit, which is to read my horoscope. ‘Success, what courage! We won’t be able to don’t stop. Don’t overdo it.”.

Shortly after, the ax fell: the indictment of the minister was confirmed. “It’s not easy to live with. But you have to pretend not to be too affected,” confides Eric Dupond-Moretti. At the end of his week-long trial, the Minister of Justice was finally acquitted on November 29, 2023.

Filled with regret after his arm of honor in the Assembly in 2023: “I’m not proud of that”

The indictment of Eric Dupond-Moretti weakens him in the face of his opponents, mainly in the National Assembly. At this time, the minister was working on the preparation of a bill, which was particularly close to his heart: the presumption of innocence. In March 2023, a particularly heated session took place in the hemicycle during a debate on the ineligibility of elected officials convicted of domestic violence. While Olivier Marleix, the president of the Les Républicains group in the Assembly, ironically evokes the various indictments in Emmanuel Macron’s entourage, particularly targeting the minister, the Minister of Justice repeatedly performs an arm ‘honor.

He confides, in the documentary, his regrets. “I’m not proud of that, but truly, I said: ‘You treated the presumption of innocence with a gesture,’ which I’m not going to repeat here, which has been overinterpreted. That’s it, it bothers me to having done it, but the presumption of innocence, I am very attached to it.” The controversy forces the minister to apologize publicly and to explain himself to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. “It was I who called her (…) And that’s quite normal, since there was a political uproar around all of this.”

The documentary The Minister who should not have been, directed by Alexandre Darmon and Matthieu Mares-Savelli, is broadcast on Sunday January 14 at 9:05 p.m. on France 5 and on the france.tv platform.